Barn air quality and Respiratory Disease- How it effects you and your horse.
This is the first of what I plan to be a series of notes and perceptions from the ACVIM Forum in Montreal. This an annual meeting of Veterinary Internists and a lot of current research is presented. This is a synopsis of "Air Quality in Barns" presented by Melissa R.Mazan, DVM, Diplomate ACVIM. After listening to this I wasn't sure I wanted to go back into a barn again. Everyone knows that Barns are dusty places , this is no surprise. We don't design them for good airflow, in fact we build them more for protection and put walls up. Additionally, most barns are also used for hay and equipment storage. Not to be insulting but when was the last time you cleaned your barn? When an epidemiology study was done to evaluate respiratory disease among barn workers it was found that they had 50% more respiratory symptoms and grooms had a 3x incidence of asthma. Whereas significantly less symptoms were reported among Poultry, Swine and Dairy workers. In those environments ther...