Breathing easy

Changes or problems in air quality are often imperceptible, but nonetheless have an impact on health. Imogen Johns FRCVS elaborates on how horses are affected, and how air quality can be improved

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MANY of us who own and ride horses are lucky enough to live in rural areas, where issues of air quality and its impact on horse health are likely to be quite low on our list of concerns. Indeed, the UK as a whole tends to have relatively low levels of air pollution, certainly when compared to some more urban or industrialised countries.

But air quality is not just about levels of air pollution. In fact, what we feed our horses, where we house them, and what we bed them on can have a significant effect on the quality of air they breathe. Within the stable environment, levels of organic dust, endotoxin (from bacteria) and ammonia can all contribute to poor air quality, and if ventilation is also poor (as is the case in many older-type stables) this can result in even higher levels of these particles.

Poor air quality plays a major role in disorders such as equine asthma (previously called equine inflammatory airway disease) and severe equine asthma (previously called heaves, stable cough or recurrent airway obstruction). These disorders can affect not only performance in athletic horses but also quality of life in severely affected horses.

Because of the impact air quality can have on our horses’ health, it is important to understand what air quality is, how it impacts horse health and what we can do to optimise it.

WHAT IS AIR QUALITY?