EQUINE NEWS

By Henrietta Coole

With winter and flu season approaching, you’re ready to do everything in your power to reduce your chances of catching a cold, but how do you rate in keeping your horses safe from infectious disease? See how you score. Calculate your horse farm’s risks with Equine Guelph’s new and improved Equine Biosecurity Risk Calculator, a tool designed for horse owners to generate a report that grades them on their biosecurity management practices on their farms.

Live and online now at Biosecurity Calculator, the interactive tool is an educational resource of Equine Guelph (University of Guelph) developed in collaboration with Colorado State University and sponsored by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Foundation and Vétoquinol Canada Inc.

“Every horse owner should think about a biosecurity management plan,” says Karan Ann Paradis, Equine Product Manager of Vétoquinol. “Having a solid understanding of equine health, infectious disease and disease control is paramount in reducing biosecurity risk in a high-risk industry. Vétoquinol is delighted to support the development of this important educational tool for caretakers.”

The online resource helps horse owners calculate the biosecurity risk on their farms and also provides educational feedback on ways to decrease the risk of infectious disease. It takes about 10 minutes to answer 42 questions in 10 categories about their farms and rates their individual biosecurity risks in each category. Possible scores include: green for go (keep doing what you’re doing), yellow for caution (consider improvements) and red for stop (reassess to reduce serious risk).

“The online resource will give horse owners a great starting point by revealing the potential risks currently present on their own farm and the most practical ways to decrease those risks,” says Dr. Wayne McIlwraith, AAEP Foundation Chairman. “AAEP Foundation is pleased to collaborate with our partners in Canada and the U.S. to provide this valuable tool for horse owners in North America.”