Two cases of strangles confirmed in Norfolk
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Strangles can be transmitted through contaminated items such as feed and water buckets.
All movements have been temporarily suspended at a Redwings Horse Sanctuary site in Norfolk following the confirmation of two cases of strangles.
A routine check at Piggots Farm in south Norfolk last Thursday (19 February) revealed that one of the resident horses had the disease.
The six-year-old bay gelding was immediately put into isolation at the charity's quarantine centre and all movements were suspended as a precaution. Another horse was found showing symptoms the following day and was also placed in quarantine.
Strangles is a highly infectious disease cause by the bacteria Streptococcus equi. It can cause fever, loss of appetite, and swelling of the lymph nodes - predominantly of the head and neck.
The infection can be transmitted both directly via close contact with an infected horse, or indirectly through contaminated items such as feed and water buckets. It is infectious even when symptoms are not showing, making it very difficult to identity.
Although the disease is not usually fatal, strangles causes distress and can result in large abscesses that prevent swallowing and restrict breathing. As it is commonly found in horses that have impaired immune systems, Redwings staff deal with the infection routinely in the rescue and neglect cases they take in. However, this is the first time in 23 years that there has been a case in the charity's herd.
“We have extremely stringent quarantine procedures in place and every horse that comes in to the Sanctuary is screened and cleared before they join a farm like Piggots," said Redwing's head of welfare and senior vet Nic de Brauwere. "It just shows that no system or test is 100% effective. We are very proud of, and invest a lot of time, care and resources into our quarantine systems and so if we can get an unexpected case amongst our residents at Redwings, I believe that it shows that anyone can.
"It’s not a notifiable disease but it’s so prevalent and contagious that we believe anyone finding themselves suffering an outbreak should, for the sake of the wider horse population, do the responsible thing and be up front and open about the situation so the proper steps get taken to bring cases and the spread to a halt.”
Redwings chief executive Lynn Cutress added: "With a resident herd of 1,500 horses and so many new arrivals and unavoidable movements between our sites, a strangles outbreak is one of the biggest risks for our organisation, and unfortunately even taking into account all the robust controls and systems we have in place to prevent it we can never fully eliminate that risk.
"However, this also means that no one is better placed to deal with this than us. Our knowledgeable teams of vets and care staff were fully prepared, they manage and deal with cases of strangles all the time in our new arrivals and they have dealt with this situation in an equally calm and professional manner.”
Redwings Horse Sanctuary say that both horses are now receiving treatment and making good progress. They are also actively monitoring and testing other horses in the herd who may have been in contact with the infected equines.
All Redwings visitor centres remain open as normal and, although rehoming has been temporarily suspended, it is hoped that this will be up and running again soon.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
