The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials (1-4 September) is doing its bit in the fight against strangles by awarding a £15,000 bursary to the Animal Health Trust (AHT).
The bursary will help fund the development of a blood test that can identify animals infected with the disease within 10min.
The AHT has already developed a test that can detect strangles, the most common infectious equine disease in the world, but the result is not known for 48 hours.
“Without this vital funding to carry out the painstaking work that will give us the confidence to launch the test, it will remain no more than a theoretical possibility,” said the AHT’s Dr Richard Newton.
The bursary will be presented at Burghley in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the event.
This news story was first published in the current issue of Horse & Hound (7 July, 2011)
