To help protect BC’s horses the Animal Health Centre at the BC Ministry of Agriculture has launched a webpage devoted to equine disease reporting: B.C. Equine Disease Surveillance & Report.  The timely reporting of accurate information about disease outbreaks allows owners to make informed decisions, improves horse welfare and helps to mitigate the potential for serious financial loss to the industry.

The goal is to increase and facilitate communication with current and reliable reporting for veterinarians, horse owners and other stakeholders to help inform and educate.

This “Surveillance and Report” program is a cooperative information sharing partnership between the B.C. government’s Animal Health Centre and veterinarians practicing in B.C. Verified diagnostic information regarding the occurrence of reportable, notifiable and non-reportable/notifiable diseases will be posted in the B.C. Equine Disease Surveillance & Report. At this time there isn’t an email alert system in place so check the website for information.

The United States has a national reporting system in place for equine disease: the Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC) works to protect horses and the horse industry from the threat of infectious diseases in North America. The communication system is designed to seek and report real time information about disease outbreaks similar to how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alerts the human population about diseases in people.

Working in cooperation with state animal health officials and the United State Department of Agriculture, the EDCC seeks information about current disease outbreaks from official state reports and veterinary practitioners. Once information is confirmed, it is immediately posted on the website and messages sent to all states and horse organizations by email. Daily updates are posted until each outbreak is contained or deemed no longer a threat. http://www.equinediseasecc.org/