Equine travellers to the Olympic Games in Hong Kong 2008: a review of worldwide challenges to equine health, with particular reference to vector-borne diseases.

The past 10-20 years have seen exponential growth in the volume of trade in horses and equine germplasm; and the extent of global horse movements has increased significantly in the last 4 years. In preparing for the transport of elite Olympic horses to Hong Kong in 2008, it will be very important to be as fully informed as possible of the disease situation in both the exporting and importing country, import and re-entry requirements, as well as having a vaccination strategy to protect against particular diseases. In this context the review describes the equine vector-borne disease situation in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America and provides estimates of the number of horse movements between these countries, as well as information on import requirements and vaccination strategies.