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EmailIphone Application    Posted: 10th January 2013
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'Glow in the dark donkey' project launched
UK animal charity pilots project to improve road safety

SPANA, the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad has teamed up with the Maun Animal Welfare Society (MAWS) in Botswana to make donkeys glow in the dark.

The project involves fitting the country's donkeys with reflective ear tags to improve their visibility to night-time road users.

"The people who own working donkeys are some of the poorest in Botswana's society," says Laura Higham, SPANA's outreach veterinary advisor. "[They] often have no choice other than to let their animals roam freely in search of food in the sparse desert environment. This practice is essential, but obviously makes the donkeys vulnerable to accidents, and we hope this simple solution will help reduce the number of collisions every year."

It is estimated that approximately 330,000 donkeys live in Botswana, and official figures report that 10% of road traffic accidents in the country involve night-time collisions with animals. This is a danger not only for the donkeys who become injured or killed, but also night-time drivers. Furthermore owners who lose their donkeys often then have no source of income.

MAWS Chairman Ally Lamb says: "In northern Botswana there's one donkey for every two people, and our welfare efforts for donkeys have been limited to humanely euthanising those that have been injured in road traffic accidents to prevent further suffering. Thanks to SPANA funding this tagging project, we hope to prevent these accidents happening all together."

So far the charity and its volunteers in Botswana have tagged 500 of the animals and SPANA will be closely monitoring the impact this has on road traffic accidents. Higham says:

"We hope to demonstrate a clear impact from tagging these animals…this could be a really crucial project, not just for animal welfare, but in terms of the people depending on those animals."

If the project is successful it is hoped that tagging may be rolled out in other parts of Africa

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Strangles survey seeks views of horse owners

News Story 1
 With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.

The survey, which has been designed by Dechra, aims to raise awareness of Strangles and promote best practices to prevent its transmission. It includes questions about horse owners' experiences of strangles, together with preventative measures and vaccination.

Respondents to the survey will be entered into a prize draw to win two VIP tickets to Your Horse Live 2025. To access the survey, click here 

Click here for more...
News Shorts
DAERA to reduce BVD 'grace period'

DAERA has reminded herd keepers of an upcoming reduction to the 'grace period' to avoid BVD herd restrictions.

From 1 May 2025, herd keepers will have seven days to cull any BVD positive or inconclusive animals to avoid restrictions being applied to their herd.

It follows legislation introduced on 1 February, as DAERA introduces herd movement restrictions through a phased approach. Herd keepers originally had 28 days to cull BVD positive or inconclusive animals.

DAERA says that, providing herd keepers use the seven-day grace period, no herds should be restricted within the first year of these measures.

Additional measures, which will target herds with animals over 30 days old that haven't been tested for BVD, will be introduced from 1 June 2025.

More information is available on the DAERA website.