The much-anticipated revisions to the Internal Parasite Control Guidelines shared in a January post <Link> are now complete. Key take-home messages from these Internal Parasite Disease Control Guidelines are:
- Perform fecal egg count reduction tests annually to ensure that you are using effective dewormers in every herd or barn.
- Recognize that no anthelmintic will eliminate all parasitic stages from a horse.
- Continue using fecal egg counts once or twice a year to stratify horses into low, medium, and high shedders to reduce pasture contamination.
- Deworm all horses at a baseline rate (once or twice a year) and target selected horses more often based on FEC (strongyle high shedders).
- Do not use FEC to diagnose disease in horses; there is no correlation between FEC and disease-causing parasite life stages.
- Discontinue deworming all horses with fixed intervals year-round (e.g., every 2 months)
- Stop blindly rotating anthelmintic classes
Source: AAEP, May 31, 2024. Link. To access the full resource click here <Link>.
Commentary: Sales from OTC sources occupy a significant market share of the equine parasiticides sold in the U.S.
- Veterinarians need to consider communicating the guideline changes about fixed intervals, rotations and annual FEC testing to horse owner clients.
- Animal health pros supporting or managing in OTC sources are advised to train their sales and service teams on the new guidelines as well as adjust fixed interval autoship settings for horse owners enrolled in those services.