It’s a common misconception that senior horses, having received vaccinations for years, are already protected and haven’t the need for annual vaccinations.

Unfortunately, on a global scale, we’ve seen the overuse and misuse of life-saving medications in both humans and animals. Antibiotic resistance is a naturally occurring phenomenon, but the overuse of these medications has significantly accelerated AMR selection and spread. As a result, the world is rapidly reaching a point where we are in danger of seeing more people dying from infections due to antibiotic resistance than from cancer,” Dr Page said.

Traceability in the equine industry has been a highly-discussed topic for several years, with varying progress across the country to move forward with a national infrastructure. NIAA sought to establish consensus on the parameters of a national equine identification program, and provide recommendations for advancing equine identification technologies and electronic data capture methodologies by involving stakeholders from across the horse industry to get a broad perspective on the state of today’s technology and its uses.

The government has not called for legislated mandatory Hendra vaccination, as there is no precedent for this in human and animal health in Queensland. The government has however endorsed a recommendation of the AVA for the right of horse event organizers to insist on mandatory vaccination as a condition for entry into competition.

Spotted a few familiar faces in this Merial video about how LEGEND treats joint dysfunction due to synovitis associated with equine osteoarthritis!

“Once hay is cut, it will ‘sweat up’ for approximately two to three weeks. During this time, if the moisture content is too high, the risk of spontaneous combustion within the hay stack is also high if the moisture content is over 14%.”

Foals are apt to rear, jump and generally bounce about so it is important that any grills that remain in the stall, the front wall for example, have bars a maximum of three inches apart so that hooves do not become trapped during errant behavior. It is also important to remove extra bucket hangers, mangers or other ‘traps’ that the foal could encounter in his exuberance.

Laminitis, the number-two killer of horses after colic, continues to have an enormous impact on equine welfare, in wide and varied circumstances. Dr. Andrew van Eps, Associate Professor of Equine Musculoskeletal Research, will discuss different approaches for successful prevention and treatment of laminitis, as part of the First Tuesday Lecture series.

TW Grose, trainer, know the challenges of keeping older horses sound. He owns a former horse legend himself, and continues to treat him like royalty. “I have a retired 22-year-old gelding. I showed him as a youth. He was a world-champion, high point champion in the country. He has a lot of miles on him. LEGEND is something we give him; makes him a lot more comfortable to where he goes out every day, helps his joints.”

After a foal has consumed an adequate amount of colostrum, they can be encouraged to accept a foal milk replacer and gradually increase daily intake. Milk replacer should be mixed and fed per directions. Feeding watered down replacer will not give the foal the needed nutrients. Overly concentrated milk replacer can cause digestive upset and scours.