These are precautionary measures to contain the spread of strangles, the highly infectious equine disease in the Malayan Racing Association (MRA) circuit.

Early this month, a 14-year-old broodmare at the National Stud Farm died from strangles, which is caused by the Streptococcus Equi bacteria.

The Perak State Veterinary Services Department immediately placed the farm under quarantine on June 6 after the discovery of the disease which causes upper respiratory problems in a horse. Subsequently six horses at the farm tested positive to the disease which do not affect humans.

With the quarantine in place, visitors were barred from entering the area and workers working closely with the horses were required to be disinfected every time they leave the paddocks.

As a result of the discovery of the disease, horses are now only allowed to move within the Penang, Perak and Selangor Turf Clubs.

And horses leaving for an outstation meetings are permitted only to be transported via the Malayan Racing Association (MRA) official float.

Spelling at all the MRA approved spelling stations in Malaysia has been temporarily banned. Horses which are still in the spelling stations will have to remain there until the ban is lifted.

It is understood that immediately after the currently Piala Emas Sultan Selangor Meeting, the Department of Veterinary Services will be conducting tests on all horses based at Penang, Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur.

Blood samples and mucous of all these horses will be sent to the Veterinary Research Institute in Ipoh.

"We’ve screened all the horses in the isolation boxes here in Kuala Lumpur and the results were negative. Next week, we’ll screen all the remaining horses and send the swabs up north to Ipoh," said Selangor Turf Club Senior Veterinary Surgeon Dr Shri Kanth.

In Singapore, the Singapore Turf Club tested all the horses based at Kranji in batches to ensure they are free from the highly infectious equine disease and as an added precaution, has restricted the movement of horses in and out of the club.

Six horses trained by Tan Hor Khoon were withdrawn from last Friday’s meeting after CHARDONAY returned positive to strangles although the mare did not show any symptoms of the disease.

The four-year-old Australian mare was one of Tan’s recent "import" from Malaysia. It is understood that a second horse, also from Malaysia, has been tested positive to strangles a few days after the first case.

This latest restriction order comes five years after the Primary Production Department of Singapore’s ban on all horses from Malaysia to the island republic following the outbreak of the deadly Japanese Encephalitis in Malaysia in 1999.

Consequently, racing in Singapore and Malaysia went "separate ways" with Singapore staging meetings for Singapore based horses only.

Cross-border movement of horses is allowed subject to strict quarantine conditions.