Kentucky Farm Managers' Meeting Focuses on Equine Health

• Email
• Print
• Tweet

The Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club focused on equine health and biosecurity and offered a presentation by guest speaker Dr. Roberta Dwyer of the Gluck Equine Research Center Oct. 9.

Prior to Dwyer’s presentation, David Crimmins of Protectas Health spoke on stem-cell therapy and application to equine health.

“Stem-cell therapy (for Thoroughbreds) is in the early stages but definitely going in the right direction,” said Crimmins, chief executive officer of the company based in Dublin, Ireland. “There are achievable benefits that can be given to you and your horse.”

Craig Carter of the UK Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center gave an update on the status of the center’s biosurveillance pilot, a 31-day program implemented in August to demonstrate proof-of-concept that syndromic data can be collected at the farm level. The pilot also sought to prove the value of regional medical situational awareness with the development of a Web-based network to collect syndromic data from Kentucky farms.

Dwyer, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kentucky, spoke on the steps farm managers can take to prevent the spread of infectious diseases throughout the state.

“Having a biosecurity plan in place and implementing it is far less expensive than dealing with the disease itself,” she said.

• Email
• Print
• Tweet