What protocols do you have in place to protect horses from diseases that are spread from wild animals and insects to your horse? | Photo: iStock

What’s your level of “wary” around the barn? Are you of the mindset that what you don’t see won’t necessarily hurt you or your horse, or are you a bit more barn-detective-paranoid? What was that rustling in the brush on the far side of the fence? Are the mosquitoes worse this year than last? What kind of vermin poop is that beside the feed bin? What the heck … did you just see a raccoon in broad daylight?!

“Biosecurity protocols were largely designed to help mitigate pathogen transmission between horses and from humans to horses, but what protocols do you have in place to protect horses from diseases that are spread from wild animals and insects to your horse?” asks Scott Weese, DVM, DVSc, Dipl. ACVIM, professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College