HORSES can be affected by several different worms in their intestines, some of which can cause serious and life-threatening disease. Controlling these worms is vital to keeping horses healthy. There has been growing recognition that many of the worms are becoming resistant to the current deworming drugs (wormers or anthelmintics).

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) has recently spoken of concern about a potentially damaging online promotion advertising cheap horse wormers. David Rendle Chair of BEVA’s Health and Medicines Committee said: “It is exceedingly disappointing to see de-wormers being advertised in this way by companies who are putting their short-term profits above equine welfare and the long-term effectiveness of these products.

“We now have resistance to every class of de-wormer and it is grossly irresponsible to be promoting these products based on their low cost. These products should only be used where there has been careful consideration of the risk of clinical disease and appropriate diagnostic testing.

“Antibacterial drugs would never be advertised in this way so why is it acceptable for de-wormers? Resistant worms pose a far more immediate threat to equine welfare than resistant bacteria. Is the equine industry ever going to wake up to the threat that resistant parasites pose to equine welfare and the future viability of the industry?”

Project WORMS

BEVA has joined forces with a number of veterinary groups to urge horse owners and stud managers to share information about their approach to worming in a bid to tackle anthelmintic resistance and safeguard equine health in the future.

Project WORMS, which stands for Working to Overcome Resistance and Make for a Sustainable future, has been launched to help find a solution to the rapidly growing problem of resistance to equine worming products.

In the first stage of the project, horse owners and stud managers are being asked to complete surveys to find out how and when they worm, and which products they use.

The data will be used to help vets work with horse owners to try and prevent serious disease, and even death, due to wormer resistance in the future. A QR code to access the survey is in the graphic opposite.

Impending resistance

Julia Shrubb, deputy chair of VetPartners’ Equine Clinical Board involved in Project WORMS said: “In order to safeguard worming drugs, vets need to understand how and when they are being purchased and administered. Most horse owners want to do the right thing for their horses, now and in the future, but many are unaware of the seriousness of the impending resistance problems of current wormers. Information from the surveys will help us to help horse owners and keepers improve worming practices in the future.

“This will improve the effectiveness of anthelmintics for as long as possible and ultimately benefit the health and welfare of our entire equine population.”

Transient horse population

Camilla Scott, a member of the stud team at Rossdales Veterinary Surgeons, is urging owners and managers of stud farms to support the project urging that: “Stud managers are faced with a number of challenges including maintaining appropriate stocking densities, dealing with an often transient horse population and managing multiple different age groups of horses on the same grazing.

“Foals and weanlings are particularly susceptible to parasites prior to developing immunity and the potential for clinical disease is a real concern. Add to this the increasing reports of anthelmintic resistance on stud farms, now is the time to act.”

Horse Sense will soon launch a new series of articles on the latest

worming research with specialist

Dr Siobhan McAuliffe.