STABLES, YARDS, ARENAS AND PADDOCKS
By Cheryl Johns
BASIC YARD
BIOSECURITY PROTOCOLS
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s an ambassador for Redwings Strangles Awareness Week, LiveryList is a huge advocate for both yard owners and horse owners understanding the risks of infectious disease on their yards, and the steps they can take to reduce the likelihood of an outbreak. The Covid pandemic has gone a long way to help the general population better understand the way that infectious diseases and virusus can be spread, and to have a better understanding of prevention methods. This better understanding means more and more yards are thinking about biosecurity measures when considering the movement of horses on their yard. Whatever type of yard you have, there will always be a risk of infectious disease. This is not limited to Strangles, but also other infectious diseases such as Equine Flu and Equine Herpes (EHV), be this from new arrivals, people travelling to events, or visitors to the yard. Whilst isolation is not always
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possible on yards, at least some basic biosecurity protocols can help: • Where possible, isolate new arrivals to the yard in an area providing stabling and grazing separate to the main yard, and no sharing of tools or equipment • Ensure new arrivals to the yard are fully vaccinated, wormed and consider requesting strangles testing • Know the resting temperature of all equines in your care and make routine checks so that any signs of fever can be spotted immediately • Avoid the sharing of tack and equipment, especially at shows or events. Taking your own equipment such as feed and water buckets is best practice • Consider hygiene protocols for visitors to the yard, especially if they may come into contact with lots of equines (ie farriers, or instructors) • Avoid nose to nose contact of equines not on the same yard, such as out hacking, or at events and shows
• If it’s not possible to isolate when you return from an event or show, consider regular temperature testing in line with FEI guidance • If you hire out your facilities or hold events at your yard, consider limiting access to areas of the yard to reduce cross contamination • Have a process in place for notifying a suspected outbreak, and open lines of communication between yard owner and horse owners The cost of an outbreak can be huge to a yard owner and their livery clients both financially and in terms of disruption, so although it may seem inconvenient taking these steps
STOP INFECTIOUS DISEASE
SINCE ITS LAUNCH IN 2011, UK LIVERY YARD DIRECTORY ‘LIVERYLIST’ HAS DEVELOPED TO ALSO BECOME A UNIQUE AND INDESPENSIBLE RESOURCE FOR YARD OWNERS, OFFERING GUIDANCE, RESOURCES AND SUPPORT ON ALL ASPECTS OF YARD MANAGEMENT it can be hugely beneficial in the long run if it prevents even just one or two cases on a yard. With Redwings having raised the awareness of infectious diseases since the launch of their #StampOutStrangles campaign in 2018, this has helped lessen the stigma of outbreaks, and what was once an incident kept behind closed doors is becoming more widely spoken about, leading to more horse owners asking about biosecurity when considering livery yards. The most effective steps to preventing an outbreak of infectious disease is simply good stable management and biosecurity practices. We would encourage all yard owners to consider the movement of horses on their yard, and the steps they can take to best protect themselves. www.liverylist.co.uk/ resources
