The FEI says its has conducted a full risk assessment of the rapidly-evolving coronavirus situation in line with the recommendations of the relevant health authorities in order to evaluate whether the health and safety of delegates at the Sports Forum, which had been due to take place in Swiss city Lausanne on April 6 and 7, can be assured.

"The FEI Sports Forum involves a gathering of multiple persons travelling from all over the globe and, while delegates may be healthy on departure from their country of origin, they are at risk of in-transmit contamination," a statement from the world governing body reads.

"Additionally, if there were to be a confirmed case of the virus during the Sports Forum, there is insufficient infrastructure and resources to quarantine all participants.

"As a result of this assessment, it is absolutely clear that there are too many risks associated with hosting the Sports Forum this year and, regrettably, the FEI has had to make the decision to cancel the in-person event and host the time-sensitive sessions online.

"Maintaining the full consultation process is important to us, so we will organise an online FEI Anti-Doping Rules session, including an update on the new WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Code and on the proposed changes to the Equine Anti-Doping Rules."

The FEI says the full session on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will also be hosted online, with detailed updates on final venue preparations and logistics, horse transportation, and optimising performance in challenging climatic conditions for both horses and humans.

Other important topics that were initially included in the Sports Forum - events requirements and standards, coaching and the status of grooms - are set to be addressed at a later stage.

There have now been more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus since the outbreak originated in Chinese city Wuhan, and numerous sporting events have either been postponed or cancelled.

More than 3,300 people have died and more than 80 countries and territories are impacted, but the overwhelming majority of cases are in China.

Last week, WADA cancelled its upcoming Annual Symposium in Lausanne after Switzerland banned gatherings of more than 1,000 people because of the coronavirus outbreak.

WADA confirmed the annual event, due to be held at the SwissTech Convention Center on March 17 and 18, would not take place and will not be rescheduled.