Equid Blog : Horse Health & Diseases : University of Guelph : Ontario Veterinary College : Equine Infectious Diseases

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When people talk about prevention of infectious diseases on horse farms, they often use the term "biosecurity." I don’t.  I prefer to use the term "infection control." Here’s why:

• Biosecurity is a term often used in association with rearing of food animals, particularly chickens and pigs. In these types of facilities, new animals are rarely or never introduced to an established group, control of personnel access is very strict, and significant efforts are made to prevent exposure of animals to new infectious agents.
• In my opinion, we do not (and cannot) practice true biosecurity on horse farms because of the way horses are managed - the movement of horses on and off farms, movement of people that work with horses, and diseases that are always circulating in the horse population. The simplest daily, weekly or monthly activities - going to a show, buying a new horse, going off-site on a ride, bringing in visitors/farriers and other people that have had contact with horses - in combination with the fact that even healthy horses can carry  potentially harmful bacteria and viruses, means that there is always an risk of exposure to infectious agents on horse farms.
• We are not able to completely exclude infectious agents like bacteria and viruses from entering horse farms (i.e. making them "biologically secure"). However, what we need to strive for is to limit the problems that develop when these agents do enter the farm. For example, we know that the majority of horses carry equine herpesvirus in a dormant state in their bodies. We can’t eliminate it, but we try to reduce the risk of problems like herpesvirus abortion in mares by vaccinating mares while they're pregnant.

While it may be somewhat an issue of semantics, I think it’s important that horse owners have a realistic mindset. There is always, and will always be, infectious disease risks when dealing with horses in any situation. Some risks are avoidable while others are not.  The key is to implement measures to reduce the inevitable impact of infectious disease exposure on our horses.