WHILE we are all preoccupied with the Covid-19 pandemic in the human population, it is easy to forget that endemic diseases in our horses continue to occur as usual.

It is at this time of year, with an increase in temperatures and the availability of a naïve population of foals and young stock at grass, that gut worms begin their annual cycle of infection. For many years the availability and effectiveness of anthelmintic drugs (dewormers) meant that the issue of worms could be easily dealt with. However, as a consequence of our overreliance of these drugs, resistance to them has developed in most worm species which means that these treatments are less, or in some cases, not at all effective.