Equine Grass Sickness Weather Risk Alert System

Thanks to a grant from the RS Macdonald Charitable Trust and through extensive work by Dr Hayley Coulson and jDATA (Pty) Ltd, in collaboration with Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance, the Equine Grass Sickness Fund are pleased to formally announce our new Equine Grass Sickness (EGS) weather risk alert system.

Through Hayley’s work, it has been established that certain patterns in weather, and in particular patterns of temperature fluctuations and breaks in drought, followed by sufficient rainfall, may lead to a higher incidence of EGS cases. These models were integrated into a real-time analysis system utilising weather forecasts and allows for users to select a region of interest (currently limited to the UK) and obtain risk alerts for potential EGS. Users can opt to sign-up to weekly or monthly WhatsApp messages, which will contain a historical risk prediction for their selected geographical area (e.g. a livery yard or field) over a predetermined period, providing valuable information that informs potential risk of EGS for equines under their care.

The link to sign-up to the alert system can be found here: https://moredun.connectanimalhealth.com/apps/egssubscribe/ and for more detailed information on the models used we invite you to visit our EGS dashboard at https://moredun.connectanimalhealth.com/apps/egsview/