Patterns of health maintenance on Michigan equine operations.

This research investigates the frequency and pattern of health maintenance measures in horse farms in Michigan, USA, including vaccinations, deworming, and farrier services. It reveals that while active operations seem to employ these measures more, the overall usage doesn’t always reach recommended levels.

Methodology

• The researchers used data from two 12-month observational studies that monitored the management, economic factors, and animal health scenarios in randomly selected equine operations in Michigan.
• The researchers looked at the rate at which various health measures were employed, grouping them and calculating yearly averages for the most common protocols such as respiratory, Potomac Horse Fever, neurological, and multiple-system vaccinations.
• Other measures included in the study were deworming treatments and farrier services (hoof care and shoeing).
• The factors they analyzed for potential correlations with health maintenance measure usage were: the number of horses and horse-days on an operation, average age of equids, disease prevention strategies implemented, and the types of activities carried out either by the operation or individual horses.

Results

• The most frequently reported vaccinations were respiratory, with rhinopneumonitis vaccines accounting for 61% of cases.
• Mutual-system, Potomac Horse Fever and neurological vaccines were given an average of 0.9, 0.9 and 0.7 times respectively, per horse annually.
• The average deworming treatment frequency was 2.7 times per horse per year, with ivermectin making up 64% of these treatments.
• Overall farrier work was reported 3.3 times per horse per year – with trimming done 2.9 times and shoeing 1.5 times per horse annually.

Conclusions

• Operations with active horses used health maintenance measures more often. These active horses were those participating in training, breeding, or showing activities.
• Despite this, the overall use of health maintenance measures in the studied equine operations in Michigan did not appear to meet recommended levels. This was due to many operations reporting no use of these measures at all.
• However, where health maintenance measures were being employed, the operators were using them at or near the recommended frequencies.