World Horse Welfare’s Hall Farm, Snetterton, closed to public after second horse diagnosed with highly infectious disease

The movement of horses at an animal welfare charity remains suspended after a second animal tested positive for a highly infectious respiratory disease.

World Horse Welfare’s Hall Farm, in Snetterton, announced earlier this month that a recent arrival had been found to have strangles – a highly contagious bacterial infection of the upper respiratory tract.

A further case was discovered yesterday.

Cases of strangles are not uncommon but, as per guidelines, all movement of horses both in and out of the site has been suspended until further notice.

The charity has now also closed its rescue and rehoming centre to visitors as an additional precautionary measure.

Malcolm Morley, director of UK support at World Horse Welfare, said: “Given the nature of the horses that World Horse Welfare helps, cases like this are not unexpected, and the team have well-rehearsed biosecurity measures to mitigate the risk of the disease spreading.

“While the risk of strangles spreading off the farm by visitors is extremely low, we felt that, with the identification of further horses with
strangles on the farm, we should take this additional step and close our doors to visitors whilst we investigate.

“We would like to apologise to everyone who had planned to visit Hall Farm this half-term and reassure those who have visited recently that the disease poses no risk to humans.”

The infected horses are being kept away from the main herd until they have recovered and are no longer infectious. All rehoming at the centre has also been suspended while the infection is still present.