Education Center
Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM) is a neurologic disease in horses caused by infection with the protozoan Sarcocystis neurona (SN). SN infects horses when they ingest the organism in contaminated feed or water. The definitive host of this organism is the opossum, which passes the organism in its feces.
In winter terrain and weather, a horse that’s down on ice is in a life threatening situation. The horse may be suffering from an injury from falling on the ice, or have hypothermia from laying in the snow/ice for a long period of time. This is often from an inability to stand due to poor traction and muscle weakness from the cold.
Preparing our horses and our pastures for winter turnout brings a new set of challenges to horse owners. We need to consider the basics of keeping our horses warm and keeping happy herd dynamics, as well as the more complex issues such as what our horses should have on their feet in the winter, and what secondary trauma we need to think about.
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