News that a new strangles vaccination is to go on sale in October has been cautiously welcomed by vets and charities.
Equilis StrepE is a new version of the jab withdrawn in 2007.
But some experts have warned that eradication of the highly infectious respiratory disease, rather than learning to live with it, should be the aim.
Epidemiologist Richard Newton of the Animal Health Trust said: “There are two ways of dealing with strangles. One is zero tolerance, where you identify the carriers and make sure they don’t mix with other horses, and the other is living with the problem, which is where this vaccine takes us.
“The vaccine has its place and deals with the end result of the problem, but not the root cause.”
He said that although chances of eliminating strangles from the UK horse population were remote, strangles can be eradicated on a premises, by isolation of incoming horses.
Read the full story, including comments from BEVA and World Horse Welfare, about this latest development, in the current issue of Horse & Hound (10 June, 2010)
