Supporting Redwings during its strangles outbreak, Dr Richard Newton, Head of Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance at the Animal Health Trust (AHT), said:
“The Animal Health Trust has worked closely with Redwings for over two decades on better understanding the persistence of Streptococcus equi, the bacteria that causes strangles. This work has been very important in preventing introduction of the infection into many populations of horses and ponies around the world, including the large population of resident animals found at Redwings for over 23 years. The AHT’s scientists and diagnostic laboratory staff worked closely with Redwings’ veterinary surgeons and staff in 2015 in devising and conducting laboratory testing protocols in order to clear this rare incursion of the disease onto Redwings’ own sites and we have together again learned valuable new lessons. The AHT applauds Redwings openness in publicising that it had strangles and its thoroughness and timeliness in dealing with the problem and returning its population to a strangles-free status – we think this is a great example for others in the horse sector.”
One year on, Redwings is launching a strangles survey, which aims to understand horse owners’ perceptions of the disease and their current approach to infectious disease prevention and control. Together with Redwings’ in-house team of veterinary surgeons, the survey has been developed in collaboration with experts at the AHT and the University of Liverpool.
Dr Claire Scantlebury, Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, said:
“We know that strangles is a common and often troubling infection in horses. We hope to capture the practical experiences and views of horse-owners, so that we can shed light on how owners, vets, and the equine industry can work together to better control strangles in the future. I am hugely pleased to be involved in this collaboration, this is an exciting example of putting research into practice, aimed at developing practical advice for the equine sector.”
Spearheading the survey, Redwings Education and Campaigns Manager Andie Vilela said:
“We’re all talking about strangles in tack rooms or in social media circles, but let’s have an open conversation about it. Tell us your experiences and your thoughts on improving how strangles is dealt with by completing our survey and help us make combatting the disease a reality”.
With support from the British Horse Society, SEIB insurance, the AHT and the University of Liverpool, the charity has high hopes for a great response to the survey.
Andie explains:
“We are interested in hearing from horse owners regardless of their experience of strangles. Every respondent is incredibly important to us, so everyone who completes the survey will receive a free healthy treat from Dr D’s Tasty Treats for their horse or pony. They will also receive a 15% discount on purchases of Safe4 disinfectant, which is proven to be effective against the strangles bacteria.”
The strangles survey will open online here from 8 April – 8 June 2016.
The survey is completed anonymously and all information supplied will be kept on password protected computer databases and not used for any other purpose beyond this study.
Further supporting comments for the strangles survey:
Emmeline Hannelly, Welfare Education Officer at British Horse Society:
“Silence spreads strangles. The British Horse Society is keen to echo the message that keeping quiet in a strangles outbreak runs the very high risk of the disease being spread and more horses suffering from this debilitating and highly infectious disease. We urge all horse owners to complete the Redwings survey to help provide key information and experiences involved with strangles”.
Dr Heather Daniell, Dr D’s Tasty Treats founder:
“We’re all about healthy horses, so we are delighted to support this survey by rewarding anyone who completes it with free treats for their horse. Strangles awareness and prevention is a crucial issue for horse health, which is too often overlooked so it’s fantastic that Redwings is highlighting this issue.”
