Horses at Race Course not infected with glanders: govt to HC

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The AAP government has told the Delhi High Court that all horses stabled at the Delhi Race Club here are free of the fatal glanders disease, but said no equine event can be held in the national capital as a notification barring such activity is in force.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher on February 21 had asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to test serum samples of all the 422 horses stabled at the Delhi Race Club to find out if any of them were suffering from glanders.

The court had also said that no horse races would be held at the club till further orders.

Pursuant to the direction, the Delhi government filed affidavits, through standing counsel Ramesh Singh, in the court stating that all serum samples have tested negative for the equine disease, which has no cure or a vaccine.

The government also told the court that no equine event or gathering can be allowed in the national capital as there is a January 15 notification in force which prohibits movement of horses to and from Delhi for three months.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on April 4.

The affidavits were filed in a petition moved by the Delhi Race Horses Owners' Association challenging the Delhi government's February 13 communication to the race club to postpone or cancel the North India Derby horse race scheduled for February 27 as the national capital has been declared as a controlled area.

The association had earlier told the court that all the 422 horses at the club have already been tested by an accredited lab and declared free of glanders, an infection by bacterium burkholderia mallei caused by ingestion of contaminated feed or water.

Its symptoms include formation of nodular lesions in lungs and ulcers in respiratory tract with acute cases resulting in coughing, fever, and septicaemia.