From identification to sanitary organisation

For the fight against infectious diseases, one needs to have an alert system in place as soon as there is a disease outbreak to identify all the horses infected in the hazardous area (identifying the animals, their location and access to information concerning their movements and their state of health).

In the case of venereal diseases, a chronology of matings or inseminations should be tracked and screening tests should be conducted before any further matings.

For animals destined for meat, the animals should be free from disease or from any residual medication from possible prior treatments.

This is the purpose of the generalisation of identification and microchipping, which is now compulsary in France for all equines, since 31/12/2001 for identification, and since 31/12/2007 for microchipping.

Any equine animal present on French soil must have a detailed descriptive file and a transponder (unique number) which is noted on the identification document and in the Central equine database SIRE. The description and the transponder enable to check the horse’s identity against his identification document. The transponder can be used to identify the animal when there is no identification document, in cases of theft, or escaped horses, and avoids the necessity of re-identifying the animal.

Generalised identification and microchipping has been extended to all the European countries since 2009, so as to improve security of exchanges.

This is the aim of  registration management of horse owners and custodians, both ensured by the SIRE.

The owner of any newly registered equine is recorded, and since 1998 each change of ownership is entered in the database.

The owner does not always live in the same place as his horse, therefore locations where horses are kept have also been registered by the SIRE since 2010. The aim is to record all the places where horses reside (not to follow their every movement, as is the case for the bovine population). Management of places where horses are kept is the final phase in consolidating the procedure.

From detection of an outbreak of a disease, it is then easy to determine a perimeter and to alert other horse custodians to the measures to be taken.

This is the aim of the husbandry register which has become compulsary since 30/06/2000 for any location accomodating equines.

The register, updated and kept on the site where the animals are kept, enters animal’s movements in and out, pathologies noted and treatments administered.

From a disease outbreak, an epidemiological study can then be carried out from these registers, and any suspect cases identified.

The most detrimental diseases (transmissible to Man or with a high economic impact) are attributed a status of diseases reputed contagious (DRC : rabies, infectious anaemia and West Nile fever) or diseases requiring a declaration (DRD : equine contagious metritis, equine viral arteritis).

The veterinarian or the laboratory who discovers the disease should report it to the veterinary authorities in charge of implementing the fight against the DRDs.

For other diseases, the Réseau d’Epidémio-Surveillance en Pathologie Equine (RESPE : Equine pathology and epidemio-surveillance network) enables to track the main pathologies observed in the field, this is carried out by volunteer veterinarians (30%). Thanks to the increase in the exchanges, this procedure is extending to other countries.

Covering is a transmission means for certain diseases (infectious anaemia, viral arteritis, contagious metritis). Transmission is bilateral between the mare and the stallion in the case of natural covering, and unilateral in the case of artificial insemeination.

Prevention consists in  ensuring that breeding animals are free from any disease (systematic screening tests for stallions and when resorting to natural covering of a harem) prior to mating. This system is applied for all thoroughbred stallions and mares using natural covering, and for all the stallions used in artificial insemination, and is applied partially in other breeds.

The breeds who wish to implement this system may impose a mandatory sanitary procedure for mating, by adding it to the rules of their stud-book. 

Once the animal has been subject to a treatment which is incompatible with human consumption, he is excluded from human consumption for life.

The information « destined for or excluded from human consumption » as well as any medication administered to horses destined for human consumption must be recorded in the database and noted on the medical treatment sheet in the identification document.

For each horse the abattoir will check that the horse is identified (check that the animal is microchipped), possesses an identification document, that he is destined for human consumption and that he has not received any forbidden treatment or a treatment for which the withdrawal period is not respected. The procedure for monitoring slaughtered animals in France protects consumers of horse meat.