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 second of our BEST blogs, we look at just a few of the recent developments in our understanding of Strangles and why engaging with up-to-date information from trustworthy sources is such an important part of protecting horses from infectious disease.

Our understanding of Strangles is developing all the time thanks to ongoing research and information sharing. Staying up to date means we can make the most of the latest advice and products.

For example, in just the past few years some of the insights that have helped us understand and manage Strangles more effectively include:

Strangles bacteria don’t survive in the environment for as long as was once thought. In warm, dry conditions they are unlikely to live for more than a few days. However, bacteria can live in cool, damp conditions like water tanks and wet buckets for several weeks.
There is evidence that some horses can take up to 21 days to develop signs of illness after being exposed to the disease. Redwings increased its routine quarantine period for new arrivals from two weeks to three weeks as a result of this updated knowledge.
The Surveillance of Equine Strangles scheme has been tracking outbreak data since 2015. More than 40% of positive diagnoses recorded by the scheme during this period were from horses that were not showing signs of illhealth. They were tested either after a recent Strangles infection, as part of screening requirements when moving yards, or following the results from Strangles blood testing suggested further investigation was needed.
There are many different strains of Strangles. Researchers are using samples submitted from outbreaks to help track which strains are circulating in the UK. This helps us to link cases across the country and shows clearly that infection doesn’t just move locally, but between regions and even countries, both within the UK and further afield.
One study showed that in 108 ponies infected with Strangles, each one presented with fever before they developed abscesses. This brought into sharp focus the fact that by spotting a raised temperature as early as possible, we can take steps to quarantine a horse before they have chance to spread infection to others, potentially preventing one infected horse becoming a whole infected yard.

Perhaps the most significant development of all is the availability of a new Strangles vaccine, launched in the UK in autumn 2021. This safe and effective vaccine is a major milestone in our battle to protect horses from the disease. Find out more about the vaccine here.

Being informed isn’t only about knowledge, it’s about attitudes too. In the past, Strangles has been subject to stigma in a way that other diseases haven’t. This stigma isn’t justified, the disease can happen to anyone. Sadly, hiding the disease has helped it to thrive and spread but being open and honest when outbreaks occur can ensure everyone contributes to efforts to protect more horses from being affected.

No one chooses Strangles. Speak to anyone with first-hand experience of the disease and they are likely to tell you that an outbreak is stressful, emotional, exhausting and expensive, and that they never want to go through it again. It can also be a lonely time, as infected horses – and their owners – remain isolated from others on their yard. Anyone going through a Strangles outbreak needs and deserves support.

If you are going through a Strangles outbreak, or know someone who is, our self-care tips (PDF 892 KB) are free to download and may be helpful.