A meeting for equine veterinarians to be held May 28-29 in Debrecen, Hungary, will serve as a platform to bring education to veterinarians in surrounding countries in Middle and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, and Romania.

Presenters at the meeting, which is organized and sponsored by the World Equine Veterinary Association, the British Equine Veterinary Association, World Organization of Hungarian Veterinarians, and the Hungarian Association of Equine Practitioners (HAEP), will cover techniques and treatments that can be performed in the field and less sophisticated facilities, as well as infectious and contagious diseases. Several hundred delegates are expected to attend.

Hungary is a classic horseman’s country with about 75,000 horses. Most of these are sport (show jumping, dressage, and three-day eventing) and leisure horses, along with some racehorses. Driving is also very important, both culturally and on the international competition stage. Only a few stud farms remain government-owned, as most have been privatized. Around 100 vets focus exclusively on equine practice.

While Hungary’s equine health concerns are similar to the rest of Europe, surrounding countries face larger challenges, including equine infectious anemia (EIA), which is considered endemic in Romania, home to more than 1 million horses. Veterinarians also diagnosed Hungary’s first equine case of West Nile virus in 2007