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New App Allows For Real-Time Equine Temperature Monitoring, Location Dissemination And Data Sharing

Merck Animal Health has announced its strategic partnership with Irish-based technology company EquiTrace Ltd., creators of the EquiTrace™ platform. Through the EquiTrace smartphone app, the entire horse care team can securely update and access each horse's GPS location and medical record in one convenient location. The app also works in conjunction with Merck Animal Health's Bio-Thermo® microchips, allowing horse care professionals to instantly read, graph and monitor a horse's temperature.

“This partnership is a natural extension of our commitment to delivering innovative infectious disease management solutions to support improved horse care,” said Ron McDaniel, Director of U.S. Equine Sales, Merck Animal Health. “By enabling convenient digital temperature monitoring, we're able to make life easier for busy veterinary and farm teams while providing them with tools to help efficiently identify illness and monitor disease outbreaks.”

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EquiTrace, which can be used with individual horses or at large barns, is compatible with any microchip but must be coupled with a Bio-Thermo microchip to access the temperature-sensing functionality. Bio-Thermo microchips measure a horse's temperature within one-tenth of a degree[1] and provide access to a horse's identification. Both the EquiTrace app and Bio-Thermo microchips work with the Global Pocket Reader Plus™ and the HomeAgain® UWSR+ microchip readers, and the EquiTrace app is available for iPhones or Androids. In addition, the Bio-Thermo microchip is compliant with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standards 11784 and 1178 and meets requirements of both the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF).

“We are excited to partner with Merck Animal Health to bring EquiTrace to the U.S.; the technology streamlines health recordkeeping, a task that has traditionally been hard to maintain in busy barns,” says EquiTrace founder Kevin Corley, BVM&S, PhD, DACVIM, DACVECC, MRCVS. “The combination of Bio-Thermo microchips with our software enables rapid identification of temperature fluctuations in a horse at the stroke of a microchip scanner. This is essential to managing infectious diseases, such as equine herpesvirus, influenza and strangles. As an internal medicine specialist, I'm delighted to contribute to a novel temperature monitoring system that's effective without stressing the horse or the barn team.”

EquiTrace data is encrypted, and each barn's data is private. The EquiTrace account owner authorizes others to access data securely through the app. All EquiTrace functions are available with no internet connection for easy access at the barn or on the road. New data is synced when the app is opened with internet connection. To download EquiTrace, visit the App Store or Google Play.

‘He Took Us On The Ride of A Lifetime’: Zulu Alpha Arrives At Old Friends

Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement farm in Georgetown, KY, welcomed new retiree multiple graded stakes winner Zulu Alpha on Monday.

Owner Michael Hui and trainer Mike Maker announced the retirement of the 8-year-old son of Street Cry this weekend, after the gelding was scratched from the Sept. 11 running of the Grade 2 Calumet Turf Cup Stakes at Kentucky Downs.

A successful claim by Hui in 2018, Zulu Alpha captured the 2019 Calumet Turf Cup for his new connections by 3 1/4 lengths and went on to win seven graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Grade 2 Elkhorn Stakes at Keeneland, both in 2020.

Zulu Alpha retires with 12 wins from 37 starts, for earnings of $2,269,084.

“Zulu came to us via the claim box, initially placed with John Oritz, then transferred to Mike Maker for a winter campaign in south Florida. The rest is history,” said owner Hui. “He took us on the ride of a lifetime and reached a level of success we could only dream of. Seven graded wins later, he now will call Old Friends home. Thank you Mike Maker and team, thank you Old friends, and Thank you Zulu Alpha, we are forever in your debt.”

“We are very excited to have Zulu Alpha with us,” said Old Friends President Michael Blowen. “We are grateful to Michael Hui for allowing us to care for this great horse, and we know that he will be a fan favorite.”

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Vets Should Be Taught Resiliency In School, Study Shows

The well-being of veterinarians has been brought to the forefront lately as practicing vets leave the profession in large numbers, citing mental health as one of their top concerns. Veterinarians and vet students have been reported to be at an increased risk of burnout, depression, and suicide when compared to other occupations. Vets say the main difficulties they face include long hours, heavy workloads, job demands, lack of work-life balance, challenging clients and unattainable client expectations, among other issues.

Dr. Marta Brscis and her research team report that younger and female veterinarians are at greater risk of job dissatisfaction, mental health issues, and suicidal thoughts. The scientists used text mining and topic modelling analysis on 211 scientific papers and abstracts that have studied the issues facing vet students between 1985 and 2019. They report that their approach can be used to comprehend in-depth phenomena involving vets and vet students.

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The team said their work uncovered several changes that should be considered in the admission process, while students are in vet school and after graduation to reduce well-being risks. These include including coursework that includes psychology models to prepare students to deal with animal death and pet owner grief, as well as information on how to handle moral stressors and ethical dilemmas. Learning to work in a team, how to communicate effectively and how to promote a work-life balance are also important action items.

The scientists also suggest investigating student's level of empathy with animals before admission to vet school and perhaps prolonging their training, though vet school involves an already-difficult curriculum. Continuing education training might involve updating working veterinarians on different ways to look at their mental health.

Read the study here.

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New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show Raises $150,000

After an uncertain, challenging and virtual 2020, the New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show, Presented by Iris Smith Stables, LLC, returned to an in-person competition and raised a record-breaking $150,000 in sponsorships. All proceeds from the event will go directly to support New Vocations' efforts to rehab, retrain and rehome retiring racehorses.

The 18th annual show—held for the first time at Highfields Event Center, in Aiken, SC, Sept. 3-5—was an exciting and successful return to live events for New Vocations after a quiet past 18 months due to COVID-19. The competition brought together nearly 100 Thoroughbreds from 10 different states to compete in a variety of disciplines including dressage, hunter, jumper, Western and pleasure classes.

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“We were thrilled that we were able to far surpass our goal of raising $100,000 through the support of our generous long-term and new sponsors,” said Anna Ford, New Vocations Thoroughbred Program Director. “The new venue meant that we were able to put on a more intimate event, which allowed exhibitors extra opportunities to connect and share their love for Thoroughbreds. It was so rewarding to look across four competition arenas full of horses knowing that while they have rich racing bloodlines and histories, they now have new skills, new careers, and new purposes.”

Show highlights included:

Winner of the War Horse W/T/C was Bail Bondsman, shown by Karen Morgan. Bail Bondsman, a 2009 Kentucky-bred gelding by Bellamy Road, raced 44 times and earned $106,499
Winner of the Open Hunter Derby was Blame it on Texas, shown by Elisabeth Demars. Blame it on Texas, a 2012 Kentucky-bred gelding by Blame, raced 12 times and earned $12,788
Winner of the Open Jumper Stake was Ballerino, shown by Susan Sisco. Ballerino, a 2008 Florida-bred gelding by Lido Place (CHI), raced 15 times and earned $38,709
Winner of the Dressage High Score was Big Iron, shown by junior rider Mayela Salazar. Big Iron, a 2015 son of Caleb's Posse, raced 29 times and earned $65,281

At the show's inaugural exhibitor party, New Vocations also handed out several special awards recognizing:

The Thoroughbred that earned the most money racing: Two Notch Road, $536,193
The most recently raced Thoroughbred: Jammin Jamie, 6/28/2021
The Thoroughbred with the most starts: Mind Magic, 58 starts
The youngest Thoroughbred competing: Jammin Jamie, 2/20/2018
The oldest Thoroughbred competing: Bold Estela, 3/22/1994
The Thoroughbred sold for the highest auction price: Ditka, $500,000

The groups that traveled the farthest to compete: horses and riders from Sugar Creek Equinapy, in Harrisonville, MO, and North Country Horses, in Gansevoort, NY, hauled 974 miles and 956 miles, respectively.

“We were so glad to, once again, be able to celebrate the Thoroughbred with a weekend full of competition, fun and horses,” Ford said. “We're excited to get started on plans for what we hope can be an even better 2022 event.”