Although Victoria remained EI-free throughout the crisis, those in Victoria were 1.57 times more likely to experience high psychological distress that those in the other uninfected States. There are probably a number of reasons for this effect: Victoria has a very extensive horse industry and is geographical closer to the infected States and diseaseaffected areas of NSW and Qld; there is also a high level of business interaction and physical movement of horses between Victoria and NSW and Qld; hence the level of proximal threat and the degree of disruption caused by disease control measures was probably experienced more widely in Victoria and may explain some of this effect. It should also be noted that although the remaining States were similarly uninfected, the overall prevalence of high psychological distress in horse owners from these States was still far higher than in the general population; those uninfected were not unaffected.