Check out how your barn rates on the Biosecurity Calculator created by University of Guelph in collaboration with Colorado State University. Sponsorship was provided by the American Association of Equine Practitioners Foundation and VÈtoquinol Canada Inc.
The following information was summarized from the November 2011 edition of E-Insight, the monthly online magazine for the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Colorado State University.
Last spring, animal officials nationwide were watching to see if the highly contagious equine herpes-virus 1 (EHV-1) outbreak, related to horses having attended a Utah cutting competition, would spread beyond a handful of Western states and select areas in Canada. As for preventative measures, horse shows were cancelled, owners and trainers kept their horse at home, some Veterinary Hospitals canceled all non-emergency appointments, and everyone hoped that the outbreak would abate without sickening or killing more horses.
For many equine owners, it was a sad but important reminder of the importance of biosecurity, particularly protecting their horses at home where they have the most control. Following this outbreak a new online Equine Biosecurity Risk Calculator became available which can assist horse owners in assessing the biosecurity health of their farms, and helps them with preventive measures, and early detection of sick horses.
The online resource helps equine owners calculate the biosecurity risk on their farms and also provides educational feedback on ways to decrease the risk of infectious disease. It takes about 10 minutes to answer 42 questions in 10 categories about their farms and rates their individual biosecurity risks in each category. Possible scores include: green for go (keep doing what youíre doing), yellow for caution (consider improvements) and red for stop (reassess to reduce serious risk).
Is your farm at risk? Use the website below or click on the illustration below and then right click and select open the hyperlink to visit the Equine Biosecurity Risk Calculator.
