Prescribers

Information for vets, pharmacists and RAMAs/SQPs who prescribe equine anthelmintics.

One of CANTER’s primary goals has been to produce a set of CANTER Guidelines for sustainable parasite control strategies to address wormer resistance. We are delighted to let you know that the long-awaited CANTER guidelines were published 3rd October 2024! This extensive free resource is aimed at prescribers of equine wormers, offering key principles for responsible parasite control in equines to address the rising problem of resistance.

There are several ways we would like to encourage you to get involved. Please:

1. Read and use the CANTER Guidelines in any prescribing so that this unique resource can be utilised for the benefit of horse welfare and welfare.
2. Share to your membership/with colleagues via email newsletters and on your social media. We have free graphics and suggested copy available to download.
3. Add a news story to your website if your audience is relevant.
4. Use the PowerPoint slide deck to talk about the CANTER Guidelines in any relevant presentations.

If the link above doesn’t automatically open a dialogue box to download the .zip file, right click on the link, ‘copy link address’ and paste this into a new browser window to prompt downloading.

Parasite Risk Profile Tool

CANTER launched in March 2023 with our parasite risk profiling tool. This is still as relevant as ever and one of the three key principles for responsible parasite control in equines to address the rising problem of resistance.

1. Apply pasture and horse management strategies to reduce parasite infection in the environment and break worm transmission cycles.
2. Use monitoring tools such as worm egg counts to inform the need to treat individuals shedding higher levels of eggs and monitor for resistance
3. Apply a risk-based approach to estimate parasite transmission potential in individual horses.

To support prescribers and increase awareness about wormer resistance with clients and customers, CANTER has developed a free profiling resource that we are encouraging you to share. The Parasite Risk Table and supporting infographics are intended to highlight the broad range of factors that influence a horse’s parasite risk. Working through the risk factors of the CANTER acronym: Clinical history, Age Profile, Number of horses, Test results, Environment to give an overall parasite Risk profile, the aim is to give owners an easy assessment tool to categorise their horses as low, medium or high risk of parasite infection and disease and take appropriate action.

It’s hoped that increased understanding of these factors will help to open the dialogue with prescribers about ways to manage parasite risk and reduce exposure to wormers. Prescribers should be promoting testing before treatment – worm egg counts, tapeworm testing and the small redworm blood test to target wormers only where necessary – as well as pasture management techniques to break the lifecycles of the parasites without relying on chemicals.

The above table is a simplified version of the Horse Parasite Risk Profiling tool from in Chapter 1.3 of the CANTER Guidelines. For more information on working with this and your equine clients please refer to 1.3. A risk assessment-based approach to equine parasite control in adult horses at www.canterforhorses.org.uk/guidelines/.

Gallery of Social Media Infographics

We’re encouraging you to use these infographics on your website and social media. Simply download the asset file and use with suggested post content in the enclosed Excel worksheet. In using these free resources we respectively request you do not alter or edit them in any way. Thank you for your support in helping to raise awareness of this important topic.

If the link above doesn’t automatically open a dialogue box to download the .zip file, right click on the link, ‘copy link address’ and paste this into a new browser window to prompt downloading.