From providing free equine flu vaccines for the charity Riding for the Disabled to producing 200 million doses of horse wormer around the world, Merial is a world-leading, animal health company that helps you to care for your horse. We provide a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of horses as well as a wide range of other animals.
This year our leading horse wormer Eqvalan® celebrates 30 years of legendary performance with over 200 million doses used around the world. The product can be used to treat foals and horses of any age and when additional tapeworm coverage is required, horse owners can use Eqvalan® Duo in foals from two months of age.
Merial also supplies the market leading equine flu vaccine in the UK1. This month the charity Riding for the Disabled (RDA) thanked us for providing the thousandth complimentary dose of vaccine.
Nigel Hoppitt, Chair of the Surrey-based Broadlands Group RDA (pictured below) believes such support is vital to the organisation.
“The RDA is all about the ponies. We are very reliant on them so they need to be fit and healthy all the time, and vaccination takes away one of those worries.” says Nigel. “If we didn’t have such support, I don’t know what we would do.”
Mr Hoppitt is pictured (right) with Charlie Mitchell MRCVS (Cedar Veterinary Group) and Mutley the pony, with Millie looking on from behind
Helping horse owners manage worming
In order to help horse owners manage their worming programmes effectively, Merial has launched the SMART worming planner. This website planner aims to educate owners about worming programmes, as well as providing them with a record of when horses were last wormed and when a worm egg count test was last performed or should be performed in the future.
Did you know that it is beneficial to keep a small number of worms that are sensitive to worm treatments in the population, referred to as ‘refugia’? It is important not to over-worm. In order to determine your own horse’s individual needs, you’ll need to do a faecal worm egg count (WEC) every 8-10 weeks.
Find out all you need to know about worming
Ref 1: gfk vettrak April 2013
Merial is a world-leading, innovation-driven animal health company, providing a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of a wide range of animals. Merial employs approximately 6000 people and operates in more than 150 countries worldwide. Its 2012 sales were €2.2 billion ($2.8 billion).
Merial is a Sanofi company.
For more information, please see www.merial.com.
