SITUATED in Johnstown just outside Naas, Co Kildare, the Irish Equine Centre (IEC) has served the equine community for over 36 years. Established by Sean M. Collins and other senior figures in the Irish horse industry in response to an earlier outbreak of Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM). Since being founded the centre has grown considerably and now plays an important role in the national equine industry.
From humble beginnings, the IEC has gone from strength to strength and currently employs 68 people. It is the largest and most accredited equine laboratory in Ireland, covering all aspects of equine health.
Today, the IEC works with over 600 veterinary clients throughout Ireland and is frequently used by international veterinary surgeons and laboratories. Clients also include racehorse trainers and breeders across Ireland, the UK and Europe. In 2019, the IEC was awarded Veterinary Laboratory of the Year at the annual Irish Laboratory Awards for the second consecutive.
The IEC is known for the wide range of tests it offers in monitoring disease. Many horse owners around Ireland have dealt with the IEC but usually through their own veterinary surgeon.
However, there is a lot more going on at the centre than you might think. You are greeted by helpful and approachable the staff, from the receptionist, to the lab technicians and to the CEO. The centre welcome enquiries and although the centre’s core service is for veterinary surgeons, they also assist individual animal owners.
Services on offer
The IEC offers a wide range of services. There is no end to the range of testing and services on offer and a full list is available online or over the phone.
The name Irish Equine Centre would suggest that it just services the equine industry, however, although this non-profit organisation primarily serves the equine industry, it also offers diagnostic services for cattle, sheep and small animals, along with providing environmental and nutrition testing services.
The IEC’s new mass spectrometry analyzer \ Emer Bermingham
The centre consists of five scientific units:
The range of services on offer have increased over the years and now includes commercial work, such as testing for the food industry and retailers, compost producers, animal feed manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies.
This work contributes vital revenue which is used to fund key initiatives such as research into equine diseases and improvements in the laboratory service through new test methodologies that generate faster test turnaround times.
One unique aspect of the IEC is that it operates a 365-day service via its emergency on-call service to veterinary surgeons – this is a service only available from the centre.
If you have a query, their expert veterinary surgeons, scientists and laboratory technicians are available to provide advice on specific cases and they encourage people to get in touch. However, it is important to remember to consult your primary veterinary surgeon first before getting in contact with the IEC.
Microbiology
The most diverse unit is microbiology which encompasses the main microbiology laboratory and forensics.
The microbiology laboratory alone analyses over 40,000 samples each year and provides a vigilant eye for disease and disease trends.
These tests include screening for Strangles, R. Equi (can cause fatalities in foals), enteritis (scour), Salmonella, Clostridia and other bacterial infections.
This unit is a great benefit to horse owners, and one particularly helpful service on offer is checking worm counts. As horse and pet owners, we are often too quick to use wormers without first checking if dosing is required. Overuse of wormers can lead to resistance and this will present a real challenge in the future.
The faecal worm egg counts offered by the IEC checks for roundworms, tapeworms, lungworm and fluke, to name a few. If you have a horse or a companion animal (even a budgie!), the IEC can analyse a fresh faecal sample within the day at a very affordable price.
The IEC recently held a pop-up parasitology laboratory for a day at TRI on the Curragh which proved very popular and gave horse owners the opportunity to meet and engage with several members of the IEC team, including veterinary surgeons and senior scientists. They hope to hold more informative days like this in the future.
Everyday stress effects our health, and research has shown that animals also suffer from stress. A more recent innovation from the microbiology laboratory is the formulation of a bespoke equine probiotic, unique to each animal.
This development follows 20 years of extensive gut flora research and centres on the ability to assess the horse’s gut flora and identify the beneficial bacteria required to balance it.
This bespoke probiotic product, ProSol, is now used by trainers, breeders and horse owners throughout Europe.
In 2018, the IEC extended this service to dogs after a very successful trial which showed a range of benefits to the dog’s health. As has been identified in human health, healthy gut flora play a major role in immunity and prevention of disease.
In horses, causes of gut flora imbalance include antibiotic treatment, stress and parasites. A horse can be stressed by many things, for example, by training, transport, diet, illness and any changes in their environment, such as changing yards.
Practical assistance
As horse owners, we spend a great deal of money and maintaining our animals’ health. The IEC offers practical assistance in the management of your horse’s environment and nutrition. The IEC’s consulting service run by the Environment and Nutrition unit carries out over 500 yard visits each year which focus on diagnosing performance or disease-related problems.
The team also works proactively with horse owners and trainers who are building new facilities, to ensure that any new barns have the ventilation and design to maximise your horse’s health.
In addition, they can carry out hygiene testing on all equine premises to included feed, forage, bedding, air and water quality. Full nutritional testing is also available including grass analysis for mineral content.
If you are buying hay or haylage for your horses, they recommend that you always try to test a sample first to check the quality. Horses are what they eat, and if their food is poor, their performance will undoubtedly suffer.
The service is not limited to feedstuffs, they will also test domestic water, including wells, and this service is not limited to animal owners. Contaminated well water, especially from faecal matter, can be detrimental to your family’s health. Checking your water quality with the IEC costs €45 and mineral / chemical analysis is available at an extra cost.
Purchasing a horse
From the onset of horse ownership, the centre can offer assistance. As we all know, buying a horse or a pony is an investment and not necessarily a cheap one at that. To protect yourself, you should take every precaution available.
The IEC offers the Veterinary Defence Society (VDS) service in conjunction with veterinary surgeons. At the pre-purchase inspection stage, any purchaser can and should ask their veterinary surgeon to take bloods from the horse using the kit supplied by the IEC, which includes all the components to take the bloods and do the necessary paperwork.
The veterinary surgeon then submits the sample and kit to the IEC’s forensic team for storage or testing. The sample can be stored for six months and if, during that time, the horse presents unusual signs or negative behaviour, your veterinary surgeon can recommend testing of the blood sample.
The VDS kit and storage for six months costs €30 and this service can give you peace of mind that the horse is not concealing any issues as a result of undisclosed medication.
Pathology
If your mare aborts her foetus, the IEC can give you answers via the pathology unit. A post mortem of a foetus or a foal less than 14 days old is free, including disposal, to all horse owners.
A post mortem of older horses is heavily subsidised to make the process as affordable as possible. In doing this, the IEC can monitor any infectious disease issue in the equine herd as a whole.
Without a doubt, if you have a sick animal, your first port of call is your veterinary surgeon. This is something that the IEC stress. However, as a horse owner, it is worthwhile getting to know what services the centre offers.
One thing that really stands out is the range of services on offer at the IEC, and the vast experience of their staff and team members. Over 50% of the staff have over 10 years’ experience in the IEC.
The quality of the service is underpinned by those decades of knowledge and this will no doubt help us in the future.
The IEC’s cross collaboration between the various scientific units helps it be proactive in anticipating future challenges such as antibiotic resistance and emerging disease threats.