New guidelines for the control of equine parasites have been released by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP).

They noted that the goals for equine parasite control are to “minimize the risk of parasitic disease” and to “delay further development of anthelmintic resistance and maintain efficacious drugs for as long as possible.”

This document was originally created in 2013. It was reviewed and updated in 2024 by the AAEP Internal Parasite Control Guidelines Task Force under the oversight of the AAEP Infectious Disease Committee.

The task force members who worked with the AAEP to create these guidelines included: Martin K. Nielsen, DVM, PhD, DEVPC (chair); Michael Erskine, DVM, DABVP; Sally Anne L. DeNotta, DVM, PhD, DACVIM; Dennis D. French, DVM, PhD, DABVP; Emily Graves, VMD, DACVIM; Ray M. Kaplan, DVM, PhD, DACVM, DEVPC; Sarah Reuss, VMD, DACVIM; Eric L. Swinebroad, DVM, DACVIM; Wendy Vaala, VMD, DACVIM; and Rose D. Nolen-Walston, DVM, DACVIM (LAIM).

Equine Parasite Control Take-Homes

The following are the take-home messages from the AAEP’s new parasite control guidelines:

  • Perform fecal egg count reduction tests (FECRT) annually to ensure that you are using effective dewormers in every herd or barn.
  • Recognize that no anthelmintic will eliminate all parasitic stages from a horse.
  • Continue using fecal egg counts (FEC) once or twice a year to stratify horses into low, medium, and high shedders to reduce pasture contamination.
  • Deworm all horses at a baseline rate (once or twice a year) and target selected horses more often based on FEC (strongyle high shedders).
  • Do not use FEC to diagnose disease in horses; there is no correlation between FEC and disease-causing parasite life stages.
  • Discontinue deworming all horses with fixed intervals year-round (e.g., every 2 months), and stop blindly rotating anthelmintic classes.

To read or download the entire guidelines, visit this page.

Further Content

  • Kimberly S. Brown
    Kimberly S. Brown is an award-winning writer and publisher. She is the Editorial Director for My Senior Horse. Brown spent 10 years at Equine Network, parent company of My Senior Horse. Prior to that she worked for three years in equine nutrition after she retired from nearly 30 years working at The Blood-Horse. Brown spent the last 15 years of her time at that organization creating and developing The Horse and TheHorse.com.
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