Brian Hennessy

SHOW organisers, equestrians centres and horse owners in the Dublin, Meath and Kildare region were out on high alert this week following a suspected outbreak of strangles in north Co Dublin.

Reports of an outbreak of equine strangles prompted the organisers of Oldcastle Agricultural Show to warn intending exhibitors to exercise caution if travelling to the show from any affected area.

A post on both the Irish Shows Association and Oldcastle Agricultural Show Facebook pages earlier this week warned of “a confirmed case of strangles in the north Dublin area” which was later updated to read: “this is only a suspected case.”

When contacted by The Irish Field, a spokesperson for Oldcastle Show said: “It had been brought to our attention by an exhibitor who was coming to our show that there were rumours of a strangles outbreak, not in our area but in north county Dublin and they had asked for assurances as to what procedures we had in place.

“We would ask anyone thinking of coming to our show that has any concern that one of their animals may have been in contact with any horse in the affected area, to act responsibly and not to attend our show.”

Department of Agriculture officials were unable to confirm the location of any outbreak, saying: “Strangles is not notifiable to the Department under the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013.

However Monks’ Field Equestrian Centre, located on Cooks Road in north Dublin, posted a message on social media late on Thursday evening which read: “We are delighted to confirm that there are no cases of strangles at Monks’ Field Equestrian. We have had all our horses tested and all results are negative for the disease.”

It continued: “The Irish Equine Centre offers the most up to date diagnostic tests available worldwide, nasopharyngeal swabs have been taken and tested for both culture & PCR DNA and every single horse’s test result came back negative for this disease. The health and well being of all our horses is something that Monks’ Field Equestrian takes very seriously. We would encourage anyone who is concerned about strangles, or any other disease, to contact the Irish Equine Centre. We would also like to thank all of our customers for their great support and co-operation during this time.”

CONTAGIOUS

The highly contagious respiratory tract infection, caused by the bacteriumStreptococcus equi is a common disease in Ireland and worldwide but yards affected by the disease must act quickly to stop its spread

While declining to comment on any specific case or area, the Irish Equine Centre’s clinical consultant Des Leadon said: “Strangles is endemic here and in many other countries, so it is no surprise to hear of an occasional flare-up. There is no cause for alarm as long as horse owners are adhering to good practices and behaving responsibly.”

“Anyone with a horse displaying symptoms of strangles should have their horse tested. If it returns positive then do not move the horse until it has returned to full health and screen the animals it was in contact with. On returning home from any event where horses are gathered and there is a risk of infection, owners should isolate those horses from the rest of their stock for a period. That should be an ever-present feature of good animal husbandry.”

Strangles symptoms include fever, nasal discharge and depression, as well as head and neck abscesses.