CAFRE Equine Industry Projects

Date published: 01 August 2016

CAFRE Equine Technologists work with equine businesses, organisations and individual owners to encourage innovation and adoption of new technologies and developments to improve the health, welfare and performance of horses in the industry. CAFRE has recently launched two equine Industry Projects to assist owners in the management of their horses and to build up a picture of the equine population in Northern Ireland.

CAFRE have just launched two equine Industry Projects to assist owners in the management of their horses.

Equine Weight Management Project

This project aims to promote the use of equine weigh tapes, equine weigh bridges and fat scoring as methods of maintaining horses at a healthy body weight. The project will help owners to identify when their horse is overweight, underweight or of ideal weight and provide accurate measures of horse’s body weight that are essential for calculating correct feeding rations and medication dosage.

The project encourages the regular use of equine weigh tapes and fat scoring to horse owners to enable necessary changes in body weight and associated feeding to be identified and provide opportunities to weigh horses twice each year at specified locations. Project participants will submit their horses weigh tape and fat score results to CAFRE on a monthly basis via an online form. This information will develop an understanding of the health status of the Northern Ireland equine population and enable fluctuations in equine body weight to be identified.

Equine Parasite Control Project

This project aims to promote the use of various methods of detecting parasite burdens in horses and reduce resistance of parasites in the equine population in Northern Ireland.

A targeted worming approach, in which anthelmintics are only used when the presence of parasites is confirmed, helps to prevent overuse of the active ingredients.

The project will promote the use of Faecal Worm Egg Counts, (FWEC) and the equine saliva test for Tapeworm to horse owners and adopt a targeted parasite management programme. Project participants will submit their results to CAFRE on a quarterly basis via an online form. This information will develop an understanding of the equine parasite burden in Northern Ireland.

For further information on these projects, search for Equine Industry Support at the DAERA website or register on either project at the RuralNI website.

Notes to editors: 

  1. All media enquiries to DAERA Press Office, pressoffice.group@daera-ni.gov.uk or tel: 028 9052 4619.

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