As of the morning of 14.04.2021 we have been informed that all nasopharyngeal swab results are back from the horses tested at Arran Bank. These include ALL horses that travelled to different centres / events over the Easter weekend. All nasopharyngeal swabs have tested NEGATIVE for EHV-1.
Horses who were being isolated as a precaution having been at these centres / events no longer need to do so.
Arran Bank remains on complete lockdown pending further results of blood tests. We expect the first set of blood results to be back over the next 48 hours, and Newnham Court Equine Clinic (the vets who are undertaking the testing) will inform owners and yard managers of the results first before notifying the public.
There are plans to take second sets of bloods at the end of next week and we shall forward the information as it comes through to us to keep you all up to date.
Again we thank everyone, including the owners of Arran Bank, for their professionalism and assistance with managing this situation. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any queries or concerns.
For those competing this LINK to British Equestrian may be useful: As part of the measures put in place to mitigate the risk of the current European EHV outbreak, British Equestrian and its member bodies introduced an Equine Health Self-Certification form in mid-March which was mandatory for all British Dressage, British Eventing and British Showjumping competitions up to 12.04.21.
While the official mandate to use the form has now ended, British Equestrian and the EIDAG are recommending that a revised version of the form be introduced as an ongoing biosecurity measure to protect our horses and mitigate the risk of spreading infectious conditions. It might even be worth filling one out for your own records as a precaution so you have all the details to hand if required.
The EIDAG chair Celia Marr commented to British Equestrian; “Recent events have shown what can be achieved when we work collectively to implement effective biosecurity measures such as self-certification. We actively encourage all member bodies, event organisers and horse owners to continue to make use of a self-certification process to ensure that horses coming to gatherings are as healthy as possible, in order to reduce risk of disease spread. Infectious disease management is a collective responsibility which everyone shares.”