Biosecurity for Your Home Horse Facilities

Biosecurity is basically good animal health management. It is the compilation of management protocols that limit the transmission and spread of contagious or infectious disease-causing pathogens. These could be bacteria, viruses, or fungi. And spread can happen at home or on the road.

Outbreaks and Biosecurity

There have been numerous, serious outbreaks of highly infectious and potentially fatal diseases in recent years. These include equine neurologic herpesvirus (equine herpesvirus myeloencephalitis, or EHM) and equine influenza.

Any time horses congregate, they are subject to exposure to any number of infectious or contageous diseases.

Other illnesses that can spread from horse-to-horse include strangles (Streptococcus equi), respiratory and abortion problems from equine herpesvirus, , vesicular stomatitis, and salmonella. And those are just a few of the issues that can be spread among horses.

Vaccines to Protect

There are effective equine vaccines against two viral respiratory diseases—equine rhinopneumonitis (caused by equine herpesvirus) and influenza. Vaccination is one method of helping to contain the spread of those diseases.

In fact, the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) requires documentation of immunization against influenza and the respiratory form of equine herpesvirus twice annually in order to attend USEF events. The Federation Equestrian International (FEI) requires documented annual influenza vaccination.

Besides vaccinations, there are many other methods to maximize biosecurity and to keep your horses as safe and as healthy as possible. Keep reading!

On the Farm

To begin, let’s look at ways you can keep your horses safe from infectious disease at home. This starts by considering isolation techniques for new horses. You also should have an isolation protocol for horses from the farm that travel in and out to clinics and events.

Keeping tabs on every horse on the property is sound advice. Know what is normal for each individual, and have barn personnel inform you if anything is amiss with a horse’s attitude, appetite, or manure and urine output.

Any time something seems out of the ordinary, take a rectal temperature as a starting point. Temperatures exceeding 101°F—especially in a horse that isn’t acting or feeling normal—is a good reason to isolate the horse until your veterinarian can determine what is wrong.

You should group horses by biosecurity risk (age, breeding status, use, health). If possible, also place them in small groups. For example, mares and foals should be grouped together. Traveling/show horses should be in their own group. This allows for more efficient containment in the event of a disease outbreak.

Welcome, but Beware!

Bringing new equids onto your property should be done carefully. Keep in mind that a horse can carry an illness and even shed that disease without overt signs of sickness.

Before admitting a horse to your property, insist on a certificate of veterinary inspection (or CVI, which is a health exam and veterinarian-signed certificate). This should be done within a few days prior to entry. You also want a negative Coggins test for equine infectious anemia (EIA).

It is also a good idea to ask for a fecal exam and/or proof of deworming in the preceding week or two.

Also ask for the horse’s travel history. This allows you to check to see whether there were any disease outbreaks at venues the horse might have visited.

A great way to keep up with reported diseases is through the Equine Disease Communication Center. This non-profit organization continually updates infectious disease reports in horses throughout the U.S. There is a similar service called Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance in the U.K.

Isolation Facilities

If yours is a small farm that has minimal interaction with outside horses, then you can set up an isolation area a good distance away from your resident horses. A minimum distance for controlling spread of equine herpesvirus is at least 30 feet.

Other infectious diseases (such as equine infectious anemia or piroplasmosis) have a required distance of 200 yards between suspect or infected horses and other equids.

The concept of isolation is not just about the distance. It is also about the concept and implementation of multiple biosecurity practices.

Larger facilities should also encourage isolation procedures. Unfortunately, there often is more pushback. This is especially true at big boarding barns, where horses often come and go to clinics and events.

There should be no opportunity for nose-to-nose contact or shared watering vessels between resident horses and those traveling or newly entering the farm. Horses brought in only for lessons or clinics should have no contact with residents on the farm.

Isolation and Stabling

Stabling in the barn can also be a problem. One concern is that the airflow within barns can move pathogens (e.g., influenza and rhinopneumonitis viruses) through the air.

Ideally, a newcomer should stay completely out of touch with other horses for two to three weeks to ensure that he isn’t incubating disease. The length of time for isolation is dependent on knowledge of the horse’s health status and the health management program at the horse’s previous stabling.

All feeding and cleaning chores should be provided to the newcomer only after taking care of resident horses. Watering hoses should not touch the buckets or water within the containers. Equipment such as manure buckets, rakes, wheelbarrows, tractors, blankets, grooming tools, and tack shouldn’t be shared between the isolation area and the resident horses.

Biosecurity with Tools and Equipment

Tools and implements used in an isolation area should be appropriately labeled so they aren’t inadvertently mixed in with the resident herd equipment. Color-coding of buckets is also a useful technique to designate what is used where. Highest risk areas might use red, for example.

Good signage can also impress people about the location and seriousness of keeping the isolation area set apart.

Throughout the farm, dedicate implements—such as shovels, rakes, and pitchforks—with separate uses for either manure cleanup or application of bedding, but not both.

Consider the direction of water drainage. Try to avoid contamination of a part of the farm from any other part.

Manure management and the elimination of standing water also are important to minimize flies and mosquito vectors that can carry disease.

Don’t forget that children and small animals (cats and dogs), as well as wild animals (rodents, raccoons, opossums, etc.), also can carry disease around a farm. The cats, dogs, and children are manageable to some extent. Remove wild animal attractants and store feed supplies within animal-proof containers, rooms, or buildings. Clean up any spilled or leftover feed and remove trash regularly.

Observation and Cleaning Up

Observe an incoming horse closely. Keep a daily log of rectal temperature, attitude, appetite, and manure and urine output. Educate yourself about normal vital signs so you know when a horse isn’t quite right. Have your veterinarian immediately investigate any signs of malaise, fever, diarrhea, cough, ocular or nasal discharge, or neurologic instability.

Personnel who come in contact with horses on the farm should understand your isolation requirements. This includes barn help who feed and muck, trainers, farriers, veterinarians, alternative therapists, bedding suppliers, hay delivery people, and fence repair persons.

These people come across many horses in their daily rounds. Therefore, there is the potential to be a fomite to carry disease on their hands, clothing, shoes, and even within their noses.

Hand washing with liquid soap in between handling different horses is simply a good hygienic practice for everyone to follow. A general rule is to sing “Happy Birthday” twice while washing your hands.

Hand sanitizers with a minimum of 61% alcohol can also be used if hand washing isn’t available and if there is only minimal contamination on the hands. An appropriate amount (2-3 cm diameter or about an inch) of hand sanitizing gel can be applied, rubbed in, then allowed to dry for 15-20 seconds.

Traveling and Coming Home

Some farms require that every visitor sign a log book so there can be a trace back should an outbreak occur. When possible, request that all visitors park away from barns, paddocks, and pastures.

Ask everyone to be circumspect about visiting your farm if they have encountered any sick or not-quite-right horses. If they have, then request that they come back another day once they are cleaned up and in fresh clothing and footwear. If nothing else, make sure they disinfect footwear in a bactericidal and virucidal footbath and wash their hands.

It is often difficult to figure out biosecurity with horses that travel regularly off the farm and back again. Do you isolate them into separate areas? Reintegrate them into the herd or barn?

Many horse owners are lackadaisical about following biosecurity protocols in these situations, especially during a busy training and competition season.

If no special measures are taken on the farm, you should at least be cautious with horses away from home. These biosecurity protocols are discussed in the next section.

As mentioned above, it helps to segregate traveling horses into their own group on the farm. That gorup should have as much distance as possible from resident, non-traveling horses.

Biosecurity Bottom Line

Biosecurity strategies are part of waging a war on equine infectious disease. This is true on your farm or across the country.

These efforts might seem labor intensive. But keeping your herd’s health paramount through simple biosecurity steps can save you from great difficulty, expense, and intensive labor.

The objective of good biosecurity practices is to prevent an infectious disease outbreak in the first place. That way, you can keep your animals as “healthy as a horse.”