Spreading the word to prevent spreading disease has proved more successful than the UK’s leading equine charity World Horse Welfare could ever have imagined.

Concerned that Britain’s growing equine population is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the risk of disease, the charity produced a free information pack and dvd for horse owners.

Entitled “Keep Your Horse Healthy,” the first pack was sent out in the second week of July. Since then more than 500 packs have been requested, leaving staff surprised and delighted at the uptake, and working hard to keep up with demand.

The pack gives advice on how to keep individual horses healthy and how to reduce the risk of spreading disease amongst the country’s equine population. It provides information on how to identify various notifiable, newly emerging and common diseases such as strangles and equine influenza, and it shows how you can take simple measures to prevent disease even if you don’t have access to top of the range isolation facilities.

The creation of the packs came about partly in response to the discovery of Equine Infectious Anaemia in two horses brought into the UK from Eastern Europe. Graham Capper who is senior animal health and welfare officer at Wrexham County Borough Council and one of the UK’s leading experts said: “The packs are excellent, very simple, easy to understand and get the message across – they tell people what they need to know.”

When the pack was launched, World Horse Welfare Chief Executive Roly Owers said: “With the growing popularity of horse riding, climate change and the ever increasing movement of horses both within the UK and overseas, the threat of disease is on the increase. We are extremely concerned that if we as a horse owning nation do not act now we will have an epidemic situation on our hands. Education is vital to protect our horses.”

A number of veterinary practices are now offering the packs in their surgeries. Jenny Fogg of Scott Mitchell Associates in Hexham said she had already started handing out packs to her clients. She said: “I think they would be very useful to any horse owner or yard owner, so I will recommend them. The dvd was short and concise, providing very good and important advice on disease prevention, especially on isolation, which I think is probably the most important and yet the most under-used control we have.”

If you would like to receive one or more packs please ring 01953 497232, email campaigns@worldhorsewelfare.org or visit our website at www.worldhorsewelfare.org