Curtailing crisis

Stringent health control measures require effort, but applying them is crucial to avoid potentially serious consequences.

- Karen Coumbe

APPLYING proper biosecurity protocols and sensible measures to minimise the risks of infectious disease may seem like hard work, but the inconvenience and effort of diligent health checks is far less than the major time-consuming and horse health-threatening horror if a disease takes hold.

No one understands this better than the FEI, which as the International Equestrian Federation has more than 120,000 registered athletes and horses competing in 4,300 international events annually. Although these are elite equine athletes with hopefully high health status, there are inevitably risks of infectious disease when any group of horses mix together. It is therefore vital to have effective protocols in place to minimise the spread of disease.

The FEI veterinary regulations are designed to ensure all competitors pay attention to the biosecurity requirements and best practice at every single FEI competition. These are important for horse welfare, as they protect horses worldwide and all global equestrian sports from the consequences of infectious diseases being transmitted before, during and after equine events.

 RULES AND REGS

TO make this happen, the FEI has several important precautionary measures in place.

These enforce that: Each horse arriving at an FEI competition must undergo an examination on arrival by an FEI vet before being allowed access to the stables. This will include checking that all vaccinations for equine influenza are up to date. It will confirm that the horse is well with no signs of illness consistent with infectious diseases, nor suffering any injuries from their journey.