Yard owners are urged to play a part in tackling growing and potentially deadly wormer resistance.
Project WORMS, an initiative set up by vets is asking owners and managers of livery and competition yards to share information about their parasite control methods.
The project was set up in response to “real concern that the horse world could be left without effective de-wormers in the future, putting horses at an increased risk of parasite damage-related illnesses such as severe diarrhoea, weight loss and colic, which are currently preventable”.
It has already gathered information on worming practices from horse owners and stud managers, to help inform improvements, and a key finding was that 42% of owners who responded keep horses on a yard managed by someone else. For most of theses horses, yard managers make decisions about worming.
“All grazing horses are affected by worms and controlling them is vital to maintain the health of these horses,” a Project WORMS spokesperson said. “However, the deworming drugs (anthelmintics) that we have relied on for many years are becoming less and less effective due to increasing levels of resistance among the worms.
“The latest survey is aimed at owners and managers of yards with two or more liveries and the data captured will be used to help support yard owners to make better decisions on their properties, to try and prevent serious disease, and even death, due to wormer resistance in future.”
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The project is a collaboration between VetPartners’ equine clinical board, CVS Group, IVC Evidensia and Equine Reproductive Services, and is supported by the British Equestrian Veterinary Association (BEVA). It has ethical approval from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).
Vet Julia Shrubb, chair of the equestrian industry’s CANTER initiative set up to tackle wormer resistance, said: “We need to take action because resistance has been demonstrated in all the deworming drugs currently available to us and there are no new products being developed to replace them.
“The results of the first Project WORMS survey were encouraging because they showed that resistance has become more widely understood and more owners are switched on to testing. However, some liveries may be continuing to over-use dewormers due to rules set out by their yard.”
Difficult decisions
Ms Shrubb said yard owners have to make difficult decisions when considering all the horses in their care. The project team wants to understand how they make these decisions, to be able to support them better.
“It’s really important that yard owners make sure their deworming approach includes risk assessing and testing,” she said. “If many continue as they are, we are not only risking the health and welfare of horses in the future, but the viability of livery businesses if the land cannot safely be grazed by horses.”
Equine internal medicine specialist Tim Mair of CVS Equine added: “More information is now needed about how yard managers are controlling worms and using deworming drugs on their yards. A responsible approach to the use of dewormers is crucial to maximise animal welfare and ensure we have effective products available in the future.
“We understand that controlling parasites in groups or herds of horses is complicated, but we hope that by finding out more about how it’s approached we’ll be able to identify where improvements can be made, which will benefit livery yards as well as horses and their owners.”
Surveys are anonymous, but anyone taking part can leave their details to be entered into a prize draw with the chance to win £100 in Love2Shop vouchers.
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
