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No Horses To Race In Birdsville

It's bad enough to worry about chickens with the flu, but now horses are coming down with sniffles? That's the problem facing Australia right now with a highly contagious bout of equine flu doing the rounds.

And while the horse flu isn't dangerous for humans, it does put a dent in a few tourist attractions, and this week it's the famous outback Birdsville Races. Held annually in outback Queensland for the last 125 years, officials have just announced that this year's races have to be canceled because the risk of equine flu spreading is too high.

Despite that, they're still predicting that 6,000 tourists will head to Birdsville for the related festivities. There are numerous sideshows, concerts, races and an auction to keep visitors amused, although we're not sure we'd truly enjoy a horse race festival in the middle of nowhere with, you know, no horses.

Related Stories:
· Birdsville Races Cancelled [news.com.au]
· Don't Play With Chickens in Bali [Jaunted]

[Photo: bdonald]