biosecurity | Horse Racing Free Tips

Keeping Clients Safe: Impact Of COVID-19 On Equine Vets And Farriers

Though equestrian competitions were halted and many boarding barns were shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic, equine veterinary and farrier care have been considered essential services, allowed to carry on throughout lockdown. However, it has been a challenge to continually provide care for client horses while keeping customers and caregivers safe.

In order to continue to work, vets and farriers were mandated to establish protocols that followed state and local distancing, quarantine and decontamination guidelines. During lockdown, many equine clinics were able to continue to see emergency cases, but were unable to perform elective surgeries for multiple weeks.

When lockdown lifted, most clinics still didn't return to “normal”; many are unable to allow clients into waiting rooms or pharmacies, so workers meet their clients in parking lots to either take the horse from the owner or to deliver medications.

Many farriers are now unwilling to have clients or trainers hold horses while they are being shod, electing instead to have their assistants hold or to place the horse in crossties. Between clients, all tools are disinfected. Even when stay-at-home orders are lifted, may vets and farriers will keep their biosecurity practices in place to keep staff and clients safe.

Though the pandemic has changed the way equine professionals must interact with their clients, requiring much more interaction from a distance or via phone or text, equine professionals still strive to give their two- and four-legged clients the best of care.

Multi-pronged Approach To Insect Control Helps Minimize VS Risk

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is a painful viral disease that causes lesions on the lips, tongue, muzzle, ears, udder, sheath or coronary bands of horses and other livestock. Though most horses recover from the virus on their own, some horses need supportive care to recover.

VS is endemic in southern Mexico and occasionally travels toward the United States. In 2019, 1,144 premises were affected in eight states: Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Thus far in 2020, premises in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas have been affected by the disease.

VS can be spread in two ways: through insect vectors and through direct contact with infected animals. To prevent either mode of transmission, increased biosecurity measures should be put in place. This includes implementing strategies to prevent contact of infected animals and contaminated items like feed troughs, tack and equipment.

Using fly spray, fly predators and other methods to control black flies and biting midges, which are known to carry the disease, is important to protect equines from VS. Biting midges love wet areas, so removing wet leaves and mud around troughs or ponds will help minimize potential habitat.

Though most insect activity occurs in warmer months, midges can be more cold-tolerant and spread the disease even in cooler months. It is not known if other insects can transmit the disease, so it's important to control insects on multiple levels, including premise, barn and animal level. This may include keeping horses inside at dusk and dawn or using fans to keep air moving; maintaining well-draining footing around water sources, mowing vegetation and reducing the use of bright lights at night, which attract insects.

Applying insecticides and repellents to animals that are outside is important, but they must be applied repeatedly to be effective. Fly masks, sheets and leg wraps can also be helpful, but must cover where VS lesions occur.

Top Worldwide Equine Welfare Concerns Include Biosecurity And Delayed Euthanasia

There are 80 equine welfare issues considered serious throughout different facets of the horse world, making it extremely difficult to get a handle on which are top priority. In an effort to determine which issues faced the most horses, researchers in the UK created two lists: one that included issues that affect the entire horse population; and one that included issues that cause suffering for individual horses, reports The Horse.

The research team, which included Drs. Fiona Rioja-Lang, Melanie Connor, Heather Bacon and Cathy Dwyer, asked 19 equine welfare experts what they felt were the UK's main equine welfare issues. Respondents provided 84 issues, which were then discussed in a two-day meeting to prioritize the list of issues.

The conference attendees determined that the most prevalent issues facing the equine population as a whole included lack of biosecurity and disease surveillance. The next most-concerning issues included delayed euthanasia; lack of owner understanding of equine welfare; the horse's frustration, fear and stress from their jobs; and obesity.

Delayed euthanasia was also deemed to cause the most suffering to individual hoses. Other concerns for individual horses included lack of owner recognition of pain behavior; internal parasites; obesity; and diets being fed that are unsuitable for equines.

These concerns highlight the need for owner education—many owners would be surprised to learn how many issues relate to them and not veterinary care. Other group welfare concerns that involve equine owners include unstable social groups, indiscriminate breeding and ill-fitting tack. Individual equine welfare concerns included overwork, overweight riders and the inability for horses to have normal social interactions with how they are managed.

Horse In PA Diagnosed With EHM

A 22-year-old Trakehner gelding that lived in Allegheny County, PA, was diagnosed with the neurologic form of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) on June 17 and euthanized, reported the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. A veterinarian was called after the horse showed signs of incoordination, abnormal urination and lying down without being able to rise. It is unclear if he had been vaccinated for the disease. An additional 39 horses boarded with the affected horse have been placed under official quarantine, reports The Horse.

EHV is highly contagious; it can cause respiratory issues and abortion in pregnant mares; it can also develop into the neurologic form of the disease, called equine herpesvirus myeloencephalitis (EHM). A horse that has the virus may have a fever, nasal discharge or cough; he may be uninterested in food or be depressed. Pregnant mares may show no symptoms of the virus before they abort, typically later in their pregnancies.

EHV-1 is spread through direct horse-to-horse contact as well as through contact with objects that have been contaminated by the virus, which includes human hands, equipment, tack, buckets, trailers and other such surfaces. The virus can be viable for between seven and 30 days in the environment.

Biosecurity measures such as limiting shared equipment and disinfection of tools and equipment that encounter an infected horse can prevent the spread of EHV. There is an EHV-1 vaccine that may reduce viral shedding of the disease, but it is not protective against the neurologic form.