A report from the Merial - Performance Horse CPD and Raceday at Gowran Park

Becky James BSc, MSc - Haygain

Published in European Trainer - October - December 2017, issue 59

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Vets from all over Ireland congregated at Gowran Park racecourse in July for a continuing professional development event on the Performance Horse. The event, organised by European Trainer Magazine and Merial Animal Health, was the second in a series of veterinary CPD events for 2017 and featured a panel of expert speakers. The event was co-sponsored by Haygain and Connolly’s RED MILLS. 

Managing Inflammatory Airway Disease – Dr Emmanuelle Van Erck-Westergren

The first speaker Dr Van Erck-Westergren was due to fly in from Brussels on the morning of the event, so when her flight was cancelled at the last minute there was a moment of concern for the organisers but they arranged to bring her into the room via a video link so all was not lost!

Using her experience in practice at the Equine Sports Medicine Practice in Belgium, Dr Van Erck explained the importance of vets helping clients to manage the environment of the horses to prevent and manage Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD). She described managing the horse’s environment to reduce exposure to noxious inhalable particles and improve hygiene and ventilation in the stable as the cornerstone to the success of treating IAD.

Important considerations for the environment include building design, bedding, stable activities and most critically, the forage, as this is in the horse’s breathing zone. Dr Van Erck explained that hay remains an important source of forage for horses but it is also a major source of dust and contaminants. Soaking hay is a cheap way of reducing airborne dust but it promotes bacterial proliferation and leaches out the nutritional value so well-made haylage or preferably steamed hay should only be fed to horses with IAD.

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Coverage of the Merial Raceday - York 2017

First published in European Trainer issue 58 - July - September 2017

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Over 40 vets from around the UK attended the continuing professional development event titled ‘How to optimise the respiratory effects on performance’ at York Racecourse this May. The event, organised by European Trainer Magazine and Merial Animal Health, featured a panel of expert speakers and was co-sponsored by Connolly’s RED MILLS and Haygain. Louise Jones BSc, MSc attended the seminar and reports on the key messages as follows.

Functional Significance of Upper Airway Obstructions - Dr Kate Allen

Dr Kate Allen, from Langford Vets, commenced proceedings, explaining that whilst upper airway obstruction (UAO) is second to lameness as the most common cause of poor performance, it is difficult to quantify its significance on athletic performance.  

UAO is caused by a narrowing of the airways, often as a result of the collapse of the varying upper airway structures. However, Dr Allen emphasised that it is a complex condition and in almost half of the cases involves the concurrent collapse of multiple structures.

Horses suffering from UAO initially attempt to maintain airflow by increasing inspiration time and decreasing respiratory frequency. However, if this is unsuccessful then the amount of oxygen available for the muscles to work effectively will be reduced, resulting in impaired performance. The degree to which athletic performance is affected, especially in the elite horse, will obviously depend on several factors, including....

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Merial performance horse seminar - Newbury & Newmarket 2016

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This article appeared in - European Trainer, Issue 55, October to December 2016

The UK’s first Equine Flu Awareness Month (EFAM) set for April

The UK’s first Equine Flu Awareness Month (EFAM) is being launched in April with the aim of raising awareness, understanding and virus surveillance of this highly contagious evolving disease, say the organisers.  

The Animal Health Trust (AHT) and Merial Animal Health have joined forces to create the initiative. The AHT’s head of epidemiology and disease surveillance, Dr Richard Newton, believes that the campaign is a significant step in the battle against equine flu: “The creation of Equine Flu Awareness Month is an important step forward for the equine industry. 

“There have been 52 recorded outbreaks of equine influenza in the last two years, and whilst this may sound considerable, we believe it’s actually just the tip of the iceberg,” he says. 

“An equine influenza surveillance scheme at the AHT provides ongoing free sampling to all practices registered to the service, funded by The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB).

“We are fortunate that the HBLB invests in this important scheme which also benefits the industry as a whole. We know that approximately just 40% of the total UK herd is vaccinated, so when you consider that all racehorses and many other competing and performance horses are vaccinated under compulsory rules, that leaves the remainder of the herd even less protected and the total percentage well short of the 70% required in order to prevent an epidemic¹,²,” he adds.  

“Many horses that don’t travel are still at risk of equine influenza, but frequently go unvaccinated. These animals are not only at risk of contracting and amplifying virus from their stable-mates that do travel, but are also at risk of airborne infection as equine flu is capable of travelling over a mile as an aerosol on the wind,” he concludes. 

For more information on Equine Flu Awareness Month visit www.equinefluawareness.com

References

1. Baker D. Equine Vet J 1986;18(2):93–96. 

2. Merial Proactive Insight benchmarking 2015.

About Merial

Merial is a world-leading, innovation-driven animal health company, providing a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of a wide range of animals. Merial employs 6,200 people and operates in more than 150 countries worldwide with close to €2 billion of sales. Merial is a Sanofi company. www.merial.com

Equine Flu: ProteqFlu® first to secure Clade 2 update

The recent launch of the updated equine influenza (EI) vaccine, ProteqFlu®, brings to market the first and only EI vaccine in Europe to contain a clade 2 strain, and also the only vaccine that is fully compliant with the latest 2014 OIE World Organisation For animal Health Expert Surveillance Panel (ESP) recommended EI vaccine strains

Louise Radford MRCVS of manufacturer Merial Animal Health explains the significance of the launch

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Merial, the world-leading, innovation-driven animal health company has recently launched the updated ProteqFlu vaccine, marking the UK’s first and only fully updated equine flu vaccine that contains both a Clade 1 and Clade 2 antigen, which includes protection against the latest Florida Clade 2 strain, Richmond 07. This is a significant step for horse health and the equine industry as a whole. 

Since its launch in 2003, ProteqFlu has become a leading EI vaccine on the European market, demonstrating its success and efficacy in real outbreaks, particularly during the last major outbreak - in Australia in 2007 - when it was the only vaccine chosen for the eradication programme.

EI remains a significant disease across most of the globe, primarily due to its ability to cause extensive disruption to equestrian breeding, training and competition schedules.  As a result of this threat, vaccination against EI has become widespread and mandatory in some equestrian discipline being made mandatory for racing thoroughbreds in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France in 1981 following epizootics in 1979.  

Virus strains are constantly evolving, a process which is monitored regularly by a panel of EI experts (Expert Surveillance Panel or ESP), which includes representatives from OIE reference laboratories.  Data from outbreaks of EI, particularly in vaccinated horses, and the antigenic and genetic characteristics of EI viruses are reviewed annually. 

Recommendations are then made on the need to update vaccines.  The ESP’s latest recommendations are that vaccines for the international market should contain representative H3N8 EI viruses from both Clade 1 and Clade 2 of the Florida sublineage, with no requirement stipulated any longer for European lineage H3N8 or H7N7 EI viruses. 

The timely updating of influenza vaccines with relevant viruses is considered essential by the ESP to minimise the threat of EI to equine populations worldwide. 

 The continuous evolution of EI vaccines is of major concern in relation to maintaining the protection of equine populations against EI across the world. If there is a mismatch between the ‘field’ virus and those strains in a vaccine containing ‘outdated’ strains the horse will be affected and even if only sub-clinically infected, is more likely to shed virus.

By way of example, the vaccinated animals from Japan that introduced EI virus into the Australian quarantine facility in 2007 had been vaccinated with vaccines containing outdated strains, as none of the vaccines available at the time had been updated in line with the most recent OIE recommendations. 

The New updated ProteqFlu received its EU marketing authorisation on 11th July 2014, and was available in most European markets as of December 2014.

www.merial.com