UHVRC Awards 7,000 Vaccine Doses and Microchips for Horses in Need

This Old Horse, a Hastings, Minnesota-based provider of rescue, retirement and recovery support for older and special-needs horses through their farms and foster network, is among 223 nonprofit aftercare facilities to receive complimentary vaccines and microchips through the Unwanted Horse Veterinary Relief Campaign (UHVRC).

The longstanding partnership between Merck Animal Health and the American Association of Equine Practitioners provided 7,000 of the company’s HomeAgain® TempScan® Microchips and 7,000 doses of both Prestige® 5 + WNV and EquiRab® to help protect horses against Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, equine rhinopneumonitis (EHV-1 and EHV4), West Nile virus, equine influenza, tetanus and rabies. Since inception of the UHVRC in 2008, Merck Animal Health has generously provided more than 53,000 doses of core vaccines valued at over $1 million.

“On any given day, we support more than 200 horses in our facilities, all of them requiring regular vaccination as part of their ongoing health maintenance,” said Nancy Turner, founder and president of This Old Horse. “Microchipping plays a big role in our safety net program to assure that any of ‘our’ horses placed in adoptive homes can always find their way back home if their circumstances change. The generous award of vaccines and microchips will reduce our health and safety expenses for each horse, enabling the savings to be reallocated to help horses in other ways.”

Dr. Dale Magnusson of Magnusson Veterinary Services in Hudson, Wisconsin, coordinated This Old Horse’s application for free vaccines and microchips.

Bunny, a 27-year-old American Paint Horse who was a successful show horse and broodmare until her retirement, is among the equine residents at This Old Horse to benefit from Merck Animal Health vaccines and microchips through the UHVRC.