14 February 2025

Your horse deserves the BEST

Strangles Awareness Week encourages everyone who cares for horses to do the BEST to protect them from Strangles with four preventative actions:

Boost immunity with Strangles vaccination

Engage with trusted information

Separate unfamiliar horses

Temp-check routinely

In the third of our BEST blogs, we look in more detail at why and how keeping a healthy distance can make all the difference when it comes to preventing the spread of infectious disease.

Horses are often on the move. From importing a new horse or changing yards to attending events or travelling for veterinary treatment, horse boxes and trailers are a regular feature on our roads. But where horses travel, infectious diseases like Strangles can travel too.

The arrival of a new horse on a yard is one of the biggest risk factors when it comes to Strangles. A survey found that of yards that had experienced an outbreak, more than two thirds (67%) had welcomed a new horse in the previous two weeks. We can’t conclude that the new horses were responsible for all those outbreaks, but the data certainly suggests a possible link, which needs to be taken into account when reducing the spread of infectious disease.

One of the most important ways we can reduce the risk of a Strangles outbreak on a yard is to routinely separate new horses when they first arrive, using quarantine measures to prevent any undetected disease from spreading. This means not allowing the new horse to be in direct contact with other horses on the yard, and to avoid transmitting bacteria on shared surfaces, equipment or water sources, or on people’s hands, boots or clothing. Managing a horse in quarantine can be inconvenient, but it is far, far less inconvenient than dealing with a Strangles outbreak across the whole yard.

Separation doesn’t necessarily mean having special facilities. Quarantine measures can be used effectively in lots of different ways, including in a paddock setting. Strangles isn’t an airborne disease, so as long as there is either a solid partition, or enough distance to prevent mucus that is coughed or snorted landing outside the quarantine boundary, bacteria can be contained and other horses protected.

A small brown pony is in quarantine in a paddock

The separation period allows a horse who has only just been exposed to the disease to develop signs of illness. A horse in the early stages of Strangles is very unlikely to test positive on any clinical tests (even guttural pouch endoscopy) so even if tests are conducted to check if a horse has recently recovered from Strangles or is a Strangles carrier, only quarantine protects a yard from the risk that the new arrival is incubating disease.

It’s important to remember that horses who may be carrying Strangles bacteria don’t always look unwell. Many horses remain infectious after they have recovered from the effects of the infection. In many cases individuals will no longer pose a risk after a few weeks, but others will go on to become Strangles carriers if not identified and treated. This is why testing horses who are recovering from Strangles is so vital to prevent the continued spread of disease.

Keeping a safe distance where unfamiliar horses mix is also important. Sharing lifts, competing at events and taking part in leisure rides can all involve a degree of risk. Preventing your horse from coming into direct contact with unknown horses is common sense, and avoiding indirect contact through shared transport, housing, grazing, water sources and equipment – or using suitable disinfectant to sanitise them – can all help prevent the spread of Strangles and other infectious diseases.

The exciting development of a new Strangles vaccine, alongside sensible biosecurity practices, is a great way to allow horses to continue to get out and about while enjoying heightened protection from the risk that Strangles presents across the whole of the UK. Find out more about the vaccine here.