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Help requested from all vets with Equine Grass Sickness cases

Practice vets are being called to assist with an innovative project involving developing a national EGS sample biobank and database

The Moredun Foundation (TMF) and The Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF) have joined forces and launched an innovative three-year Fellowship to breathe fresh thinking and multi-disciplinary approaches into Equine Grass Sickness (EGS) research. One hundred years after the disease was first characterised in working farm horses, the causes remain elusive, but the consensus is that it is likely to be multi-factorial. There are no treatments or vaccines to prevent disease and around 80 percent of horses contracting the disease do not survive.

Our new research fellow, Dr Kathy Geyer, started in February 2021 and one of her initial main objectives is to set up a national database and sample biobank from EGS cases. This is critical as a lack of these samples has seriously hindered previous research projects.

As it is estimated that over 90 percent of all EGS cases are euthanised within practice, TMF and EGSF are reaching out to all veterinary practices throughout the UK who deal with EGS cases to assist us in sample collection, both pre- and post-mortem, of any EGS cases they have.

With generous funding recently awarded from the British Horse Society, sample packs, protocols and return postage boxes will be provided to all participating vets practices and we have a fund available for vets to apply to for a set fee to cover their time in collecting the relevant post-mortem samples. All participating practices will have the opportunity to be involved with the project through practice or regional meetings and will be kept updated with progress as the fellowship progresses.

Exciting times are ahead for EGS research, so please help by joining the project, opening up channels and forming an inter-disciplinary, collaborative network, so we can work towards providing answers and solutions to this difficult and devastating disease of equines. To get involved, please sign up for a vets’ webinar scheduled for Tuesday 23 March 7.30-8.30pm.

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