Organisers of the National Equine Health Survey (NEHS) – the only one that looks at the general health of UK equines – are appealing for one final push to maximise 2018 data collection.
More than 5,200 people took part in the previous survey, returning records for 15,433 animals to benchmark the general health of horses, ponies, donkeys and mules in the UK.
Complete in 15 minutes
The survey closes at 9am on Monday 28 May, and organisers – Blue Cross, supported by BEVA – are hoping they can surpass their 2017 participant figures to provide the most detailed and accurate data yet.
Separate surveys are available for horse/ponies and donkey/mules, and should take approximately 15 minutes to complete.
Key points
Key points from the 2017 NEHS included:
- 5,235 people took part (5,635 in 2016) and returned records for 15,433 horses (16,751 in 2016).
- 59% of horses were healthy (that is, had no health problems recorded) and 4% of horses had one or more health problems recorded, compared to 62% and 38%, respectively, in 2016.
- The most frequent general disease syndrome recorded was skin disease, accounting for a third of all problems reported.
- The top five broad categories of disease syndromes recorded were skin problems (31% of all syndromes recorded), lameness including laminitis (23%), metabolic diseases (8.1%), eye problems (7.6%) and gastrointestinal diseases (7.5%).
- The top five individual disease syndromes recorded were proximal limb (non-foot) lameness (11.7% of all syndromes recorded), laminitis (6.5%), mud fever (6.1%), sweet itch (6.1%), and pituitary pars intermedia disfunction (equine Cushing’s disease; 6%).
- Diseases of the foot – excluding laminitis – accounted for 22% of all lameness (31.9% in 2016) and 5.1% of all syndromes reported (10.5% in 2016).
Take part
To complete the survey, visit the Blue Cross website.