2 Feb 2023
As data from Surveillance of Equine Strangles shows high levels of disease in 2022, Dechra has raised importance of vaccination alongside good biosecurity measures.
Vet Times
Job Title
The Surveillance of Equine Strangles found 333 reported positive diagnoses of the disease in 2022.
Vets are being urged to raise awareness of strangles and promote vaccination alongside good biosecurity measures to keep the disease at bay.
According to the Surveillance of Equine Strangles’ (SES) latest results, 333 positive diagnoses of strangles submitted by 175 practices were reported in 2022. Fifty-seven samples were submitted from 34 practices in October and December.
SES is a surveillance project funded by The Horse Trust and based at the RVC, with its laboratory network comprising nine diagnostic laboratories in the UK.
Sara Barker, equine field support manager at Dechra, said: “Strangles continues to be a significant health and welfare issue among the equine population.
“Biosecurity and quarantine measures, alongside vaccination, are key to help prevent the disease. This includes quarantining horses that are new to a premises for 21 days and implementing biosecurity measures, such as the use of separate equipment and regular hand washing when moving between groups of horses.”
Among research by the SES network to understand how horse owners were managing outbreaks and factors leading to Streptococcus equi, 60% of respondents reported a new horse moving to the premises in the preceding two weeks.
A small number (13%) of respondents reported they quarantined and screened new horses on arrival at premises, while 50% implemented quarantine procedures after an outbreak.
Dechra has launched Strangvac, which it describes as a “ground-breaking, new protein-based strangles vaccine” for horses and ponies. It is the first and only IM strangles vaccine, and contains recombinant proteins CCE, Eq85 and IdeE from S equi.
It is capable of differentiating infected from vaccinated animals – the vaccine contains no live bacteria or bacterial DNA, so will not trigger positive culture or PCR tests. Further information on Strangvac is online.
