Ban lifted after 13 years; horses can be directly exported again from South Africa

After an outbreak of the dreaded African horse sickness in 2011, all direct exports of horses from Cape Town to the European Union (EU) were banned. Since then, the South African Equine Health and Protocol (SAEHP) and the South African government have been working tirelessly to lift this ban. Since the ban was announced, it has been a challenging and difficult process to export horses to Europe again. Horses had to undergo month-long quarantine periods of two to four months, which restricted their exercise and movement, before they could embark on the final leg to their final destination. Mauritius became the logical and most economical route where horses had to stay for 90 days before continuing the journey to Europe. A long-awaited audit Adrian Todd, managing director of the SAEHP, says that although it was a long and difficult process, they never lost hope. The outbreak of COVID also complicated the process of finding a suitable date on which the EU could conduct its audit of ...