Don’t Ignore Drug-Resistant Equine Parasites

Over the years, parasites have developed resistance to certain commonly used anthelmintic classes.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

In the world of human medicine, you’ve likely heard about concerns of bacteria becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. It works like this: Each time a person takes an antibiotic, sensitive bacteria are killed. Resistant germs, however, are left to grow and multiply, ultimately creating a population of "supergerms" that don’t respond to traditional antibiotics.

What’s that got to do with horses and parasites? Well, a similar theory applies. Over the years, parasites have developed resistance to certain commonly used anthelmintic classes. What does that mean for horse owners? Their horses could have parasites that are resistant to some of the deworming products owners are currently using.

So not only could owners be wasting money on products that are no longer effective in controlling some parasites, but they could also be putting their horse’s health at risk and helping create bigger populations of resistant parasites.

Horse owners might be asking how that can happen if they’ve carefully adhered to the decades-old recommended practice of rotational deworming. The answer is simple: Parasites have responded to the anthelmintic challenge by developing resistance. In the case of small strongyles, identified as the most prevalent parasite in adult horses today, there is evidence of their widespread resistance to two of the three major dewormer classes: benzimidazoles and pyrantels

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
300 votes · 300 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!