VETERINARY experts have issued a timely reminder to horse owners throughout Scotland to ensure their animals are vaccinated against equine flu.

A raft of new outbreaks have been recorded in the UK over the last three months with two in the Scottish Borders.

Nicola Snowden equine veterinary advisor for Keeping Britain’s Horses Healthy said: “Since mid-August there have been 25 reported outbreaks of equine flu throughout the UK, including eight in Scotland,” .

“Equine flu is a highly contagious disease; yet adopting preventative healthcare practices such as vaccination can reduce the impact on both individual horses and the wider equine industry.” Equine flu is a viral disease that can cause acute respiratory disease in naïve horses with symptoms including high fever, coughing and nasal discharge.

Depression, reduced or absent appetite, and weakness are also frequently observed. Most adult horses recover from the initial episode within a few weeks, however the time taken to regain full health and to resume normal activities may be many months and performance may be impaired.

In foals and immunocompromised horses the outcome can be fatal.

Equitait is a veterinary practice based in Duns, Berwickshire, that has actively been involved in the latest outbreak.

Practice owner Colin Tait said: “Given the recent surge of cases in Scotland we are keen that horse owners are well educated about the disease and it’s prevention.

“These recent outbreaks have been in horses with an incomplete vaccination history, following the normal pattern of symptoms including a snotty nose, coughing, raised lymph nodes and generally feeling pretty unwell.

“Whilst it goes without saying that the best advice is to ensure your horse/s are vaccinated, you’ve also got to look at the yard’s general biosecurity.” When horses are coming onto a new yard, the best practice is to isolate the horses for three weeks and also to monitor any resident horses that are travelling in and out of the yard.

Mr Tait added: “Remember, just because your horse isn’t going off the yard, it doesn’t mean he or she is not at risk of becoming exposed to influenza so vaccination is still advisable.

“As a practice, we try to sit down with yard owners and create structured yard healthcare plans, which look at biosecurity and what to do in the event of an infectious disease outbreak.

“It amazes me that many owners are very worried about strangles, but seem less concerned about flu! With the advent of more widespread vaccination most horse owners have never seen a case of influenza and are not aware of how sick some infected horses can become.”