VETERINARY: SANCTIONS FOR NON-COMPLIANCE WITH EHV-1 RELATED REQUIREMENTS IN MAINLAND EUROPE

To maintain a necessary level of biosecurity and to complement the introduction of the mandatory use of the FEI HorseApp, the FEI Board approved the application of specific sanctions.

In particular, the sanctions will be applied with regards to non-compliance of:

EHV-By-Law 5
Mandatory rectal temperature checks of all horses twice daily at events, with the readings posted on a chart outside each horse’s box.

Note: The requirement to have the readings posted on a chart outside the horse’s box during the event will be replaced on 1 October 2021 with a requirement to have the temperature recorded via the FEI HorseApp. 

EHV-By-Law 10
Horse Health Status Self-declaration by Athlete/Groom including horse rectal temperatures for the 10 days before arrival to the event. (as of  1 August 2021 the Horse Health Status Self-declaration and the temperature recording must be recorded on the FEI HorseApp by the Athlete/Groom or another person responsible).

The sanctions, to be implemented as of 1 October 2021, can be found on the EHV-1 hub and will be proposed as permanent measures in the 2022 FEI Veterinary Regulations that will be put forward for approval at the FEI General Assembly 2021.
The FEI will contact all the concerned and relevant stakeholder groups in the coming days and we recommend all National Federations to share this information with their community.

Sanctions for non-compliance with EHV-1 By-Laws

The proposed sanctions apply per Horse and will be issued by FEI Headquarters following an automated process put in place by the FEI IT Department. The fine (where applicable) will be issued to the Person Responsible. Sanctions are not appealable. If the Ground Jury fails to eliminate a Horse when elimination is the applicable sanction (set out below), the FEI Headquarters shall be entitled to retroactively disqualify the relevant Horse.

The FEI may also, in accordance with EHV By-Law 1, impose EHV related requirements & restrictions against Athletes, Horses, FEI Officials, OCs at any time, even if an FEI Event is over.

For the purpose of establishing multiple violations of the requirements set out in the EHV-1 By-Laws, the period to take into consideration shall be 12 months from the first offence. For the avoidance of doubt, multiple violations at an Event will have the consequences set out in the relevant By-Law but, for the purpose of calculating multiple violations within a 12 month period, violations will be counted on a “Per Horse, Per Event” basis. For example, for a horse that already has one violation, if the PR fails twice to take the horse’s temperature and register it on the HorseApp at an Event and also fails to complete the Horse health status declaration form (as per By-Law 10.2), the appropriate sanction would be a fine of CHF200 (as per By-Law 5.2). However, these violations would count as 1 (general) violation for the purpose of calculating multiple violations within the 12 month period.

Horses blocked in the FEI Database will be unblocked after the Athlete/Groom has registered 10 consecutive days of twice taken rectal temperatures in the HorseApp.

For more details on EHV-1 and the measures put in place by the FEI, please visit the FEI EHV-1 hub.

FEI Press Release