The Animal Health Trust has launched an interactive website detailing up-to-date information on diagnoses of Strangles across the UK.
Horse owners and vets can now access the most up-to-date information on Strangles diagnoses from across the UK at the click of a button using a new online resource.
The new website, from the Surveillance of Equine Strangles project, is a huge step forward in the sharing of information about this harmful disease. It will quickly become a vital tool for people owning and working with horses, especially those travelling around the country to areas which have seen higher rates of diagnoses of Strangles.
Strangles, as one of the most commonly diagnosed infectious diseases of horses worldwide with more than 600 outbreaks in the UK each year, causes immense welfare problems for horses and significant economic costs to their owners.
The new online tool includes a useful mapping function highlighting regions where cases have been confirmed, and allows users to change date ranges to view information particularly relevant to them and their location.
Information based on the geography of vet practices making diagnoses, the demographics of horses being confirmed with infection, the ways diagnoses are made and the types of samples being submitted for lab testing, is also included.
Users can look at the time course of diagnoses over longer time periods to highlight seasonal trends, and view the most important associated clinical signs and the combinations of these, as reported on submission forms sent with samples to diagnostic laboratories.
Dr Richard Newton, Director of Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology at the Animal Health Trust, said: “This new website provides comprehensive insights about the disease in a very up-to-date manner in a way that has never been available before.”
The Surveillance of Equine Strangles scheme was launched in April 2019 by the Animal Health Trust, in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College and the Universities of Liverpool and Melbourne, thanks to funding from The Horse Trust. This followed a year of research and development to create a platform for collating information on laboratory diagnoses of the disease and recruitment of laboratories across the UK to the scheme.
Abbi McGlennon, PhD student at the Animal Health Trust, who led the development of the resource, said: “Our aim with the Surveillance of Equine Strangles scheme is to reduce the spread of the disease. This website is one of the first key tools to emerge from the larger surveillance project. It joins the dots across the equine industry by collating information from laboratory confirmed Strangles diagnoses and communicating this back in almost real time. I’m excited about the prospect of extending this internationally, and the difference that could make for horses globally.”
The Surveillance of Equine Strangles interactive website is available to view at: www.aht.org.uk/disease-surveillance/surveillance-equine-strangles
A short video-tour of the new website is available to view here: https://youtu.be/BAurQUKZ1-g
Here at Feedmark, we are delighted to be able to support this fantastic charity and it's pioneering work. The Animal Health Trust (AHT) is an independent charity, employing over 250 scientists, vets and support workers. It aims to improve the health and welfare of horses, dogs and cats through research. It also provides specialist referral services and continuous education to vets. Visit the website at www.aht.org.uk.
The Animal Health Trust, registered charity no: 209642.