The dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky told several Kentucky lawmakers the school’s Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center is overburdened and under-funded.

“Quite frankly, we are not the best equine diagnostic center and we should be,” Dean Scott Smith told members of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Horse

From Penn State University’s Dairy & Animal Science News

The wet weather this summer has not only increased the price of quality hay, but creates the right conditions for increased mold, fungi and mycotoxins in hay and grains. The cool, wet growing season has delayed the harvest of hay and grains and has also set up the right conditions for mold and mycotoxin to be found

“Blazing Saddles Adventures” First Business Accredited

Northern Queensland trail riding operator “Blazing Saddles Adventures” is the first organization to be accredited to the Australian Horse Industry Council’s Code of Practice for the horse industry. Over the coming months and years, more businesses and organizations will be accredited. This should see “HorseSafe”

Horse owners, farriers, and equine veterinarians are invited to attend the first International Hoof-Care Summit, to be held Feb. 5-7, 2004, in Cincinnati, Ohio. The summit will bring together leading authorities on the sometimes divergent, controversial methods of equine footcare.

The International Hoof-Care Summit will allow leading experts, working farriers and horse owners to

An Oct. 12 ProMED-mail posting reported that Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) has re-emerged in Venezuela after being controlled by health authorities for more than three years. This virus hasn’t been reported in the United States for more than 30 years.

The ProMED posting said that representatives of the National Breeders’ Federation reported that the disease has affected animals

According to the October issue of Equine Disease Quarterly (funded by underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, brokers, and their Kentucky agents), a significant increase in the number of equine cases of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) was reported in the United States during June compared to numbers in recent years. The number of equine cases of West Nile virus (WNV)

The two colts came down from Lloyd and Melanie Cancade’s ranch in Canada on a nice stock trailer with several other weanlings. I met Lloyd and a fellow who works for him at Asbury College near my home in Kentucky on the evening of Oct. 1 so we could use their barn to sort through the weanlings. Asbury started taking weanlings in 2001 as part of the NPHA program, and they got two more this

While many farrier services and veterinary clinics will treat severe foot problems, and perhaps even specialize in them, very few can offer a veterinarian/farrier team available on a full-time basis to treat those horses. Although it’s still a month or two away from construction completion, the Nolensville Veterinary Hospital in Nolensville, Tenn., is already taking cases in its new equine

In November, the Missouri-based Animal Health Foundation (AHF) will celebrate 20 years of fundraising efforts to help support laminitis research. Established in 1984 by Donald Walsh, DVM, and his wife, Diana, AHF raises funds that go directly to research programs. AHF has no employees, no office, and very few administrative costs, but it does have hundreds of dedicated volunteers who build

Cats Don’t Dance, one of the two Saddlebreds which survived malicious attacks in late June, is sound and has been started back under saddle, according to his owner, Sally Jackson, of Overland Park, Kan., and Nathan Slovis, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, the horse’s treating veterinarian at Hagyard-Davidson-McGee veterinary hospital in Lexington, Ky. The 6-year-old gelding and four other Saddlebreds at

Nearly 250 veterinarians from across the country attended a continuing education conference sponsored by Purina Mills. A full day was spent touring the LongView Research Facility where Purina Mills conducts feed research for all types of animals, including horses.

Besides researching and developing horse feeds, which on average takes five years for a new feed to go from idea to feed

Mineshaft, the leading handicap horse in the country, was retired Friday due to what trainer Neil Howard said was a small chip in his right front ankle.

“This morning Dr. Foster Northrop, Mineshaft’s vet, his owner, Mr. William Farish, and I had a discussion and made the decision to retire Mineshaft due to a minor problem in his ankle that we have been managing,” said Howard. “A