Three of the large animal team attended a meeting on controlling disease outbreaks last week. Strangles and herpes virus were discussed in detail. With both of these diseases the take home message was that prevention is better than cure, and will save a lot of heartache and money.
With herpes keeping pregnant mares away from other horses, or vaccinating the whole group is recommended. If anything aborts it should immediately be isolated and the foetus and placenta sent for testing, to prevent a potential abortion storm.
A quarantine and testing procedure is the only safe way of preventing strangles from entering a yard as carrier horses can show no signs of the disease, yet can still spread it to others.