ALL of today's horse racing in Britain has been cancelled over an equine flu outbreak, just five weeks before Cheltenham.

The BHA cancelled all four meetings on Thursday following three confirmed cases in horses who had been vaccinated.

It is the first time the disease has forced the abandonment of a race meeting in Britain since 1981, although the Foot and Mouth crisis hit Cheltenham in 2001.

Eight-time champion jockey Peter Scudamore, partner to Lucinda Russell, who had runners at Ayr, added: “It’s extremely worrying.

“I’ve never known anything like this in all my time in racing.”

In 2007, an equine flu outbreak in Australia took six months to lock down and devastated the racing industry with over 200 meetings affected.

Action at Chelmsford, Doncaster, Ffos Las and Huntingdon was all called off, with a decision likely to be made about tomorrow's schedule this evening.

This week's 'Super Saturday' at Newbury - which was set to include last year's Gold Cup winner Native River - could be cancelled.

Cheltenham is due to take place on March 12, with the Grand National on April 6, and talkSPORT’s racing correspondent Lee McKenzie admits a cancellation is a possibility.

Speaking on Thursday’s Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast, he said: “Luckily the Cheltenham Festival is still five weeks away, so there is a bit of time to get something into the place and, who knows, it may blow over rather quickly.

“But at the moment you have to say that there is a possibility that could be the case.

“I remember back in 2001 when there was an incident of foot and mouth and the horse racing with severely affected by that and that did indeed end up with the postponement of the Cheltenham Festival. This is something different, though.

Equine flu fact file
Equine influenza, sometimes referred to as equine flu or horse flu, is a highly contagious respiratory infection.An infected horse will show clinical signs similar to those of human flu and will be infectious for about a week.Tens of thousands of horses can be affected by one outbreak.Although rarely fatal, it can have a huge impact on competition and breeding due to restriction of horse movements.Source: Animal Health Trust.

“Horses in one yard were discovered to have equine flu, they are vaccinated against this but the real problem is that they ran in races yesterday in two meetings – Ayr and Ludlow – and that means it could have spread to other horses and therefore into other yards, and just think how rapidly that could go through the horse population.

“It does mean that all the horses in their stable and also any horse that was at either of those two racecourses yesterday who have gone back to their own stables, you’re already starting to see a potentially rapid escalating problem.”

Because equine llu is so infectious, all precautions must be taken to stop the disease spreading.

The three horses that tested positive for the flu on Wednesday came from a yard that had runners at Ludlow and Ayr, putting more horses at risk. It is believed to be the yard of Donald McCain Jr, son of Red Rum's trainer Ginger.

McCain had two runners yesterday: Raise A Spark, who was fourth at Ayr, and Dry Lightening, who was pulled up at Ludlow.

Trainer Gordon Elliott had five runners at Ayr yesterday.

He told the Racing Post: "We didn't take them back to the yard. They are in isolation in a yard 10 or 15 miles away from our own that has no racehorses in it.

"The authorities have to take every precaution, which is understandable. We've been told it's a million-to one chance that it will impact our runners, but we're not going to take any chances. We'll leave them in quarantine as long as we have to.

"If the three horses from the affected yard that were racing on Wednesday test negative, well then it will be a big sigh of relief for everyone.

"If they come back positive, well then anyone else who brought horses back to their yard, more so English trainers as they might not have got the notification on time, then it's a concern."

Unlike the case in Australia, the horses had been vaccinated but the virus that causes the flu can mutate and make the precaution ineffective.

Latest BHA update on equine flu outbreak

"We will endeavour to issue regular information but we are still in the early stages of assessing the scale and severity of the outbreak."We are working quickly to identify the extent of the infection and will have more information when further test results are returned today. The results from those tests will not be known until this evening."Following these results being known a call will be convened to discuss the implications and a decision will then be made as to the impact on racing in the coming days."We are aware that people want to know the situation as regards racing tomorrow and this weekend and we will seek to provide more clarity as soon as we are able."It is likely that any definitive decisions on whether racing can take place tomorrow will be taken later this evening."

Brant Dunshea, the BHA's chief regulatory officer, told Sky Sports Racing: "It's highly contagious and an infected horse can shed virus on to a human on their skin, clothing or equipment and it can be transmitted that way but it doesn't affect humans.

"We're still trying to understand what particular strain of equine influenza this is. The fact it has appeared in a vaccinated population does cause us some concern so we're working quickly to understand what's happening. It's not a racing issue it's a horse health issue."
The disease can affect the upper and lower respiratory tract of horses and is similar to human flu.

It can be transmitted between species but does not affect people.

Once the virus has been inhaled it can cause a very sore throat and nasty cough.

It is not usually fatal for horses, although foals are at risk of death if they are infected.