The British Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), headquartered in London, England, has awarded £1.6 million in equine veterinary research and education grants in 2013, a rise of over 30% on the 2012 allocation.

Nine new research projects will be supported, in disciplines that reflect the HBLB’s research priorities. Further detail on these new projects, together with summaries describing recent and current research on diseases and injuries of Thoroughbreds, is available on a new online resource at https://racehorsehealth.hblb.org.uk.

The prevention of infectious disease remains a key priority and one in which the HBLB has invested strategically over many years. It continues to build on previous funding towards effective vaccines for ‘rattles’ (i.e., Rhodococcus equi foal pneumonia) and strangles, and into modeling the potential effects of African Horse Sickness if it spread to Britain.

Another disease risk is West Nile virus and research funding will support the creation of a rapid diagnostic test. Research will also start in 2013 towards improved vaccines and novel drugs to protect the Thoroughbred breeding industry from equine herpesvirus, which can cause abortion, neonatal death, and neurological disease