Canterbury veterinary surgeons are advising horse owners to vaccinate their animals against tetanus, after noticing a recent increase in the disease. Corin Murfitt said he had seen three horses with the disease in the last two months, where normally he would see only case every three to four years.
He said the condition was now so rare horse owners could be forgetting to vaccinate.
Two horses were from the Broadfields area between Lincoln and Weedons, and the other from Cashmere Road. Two had died.
Tetanus develops from a soil bacteria which grows in anaerobic or oxygen-deficient conditions. The disease is likely to develop from deep puncture wounds closed to the air.
New Zealand was one of the few countries in the world where people did not regularly vaccinate horses for tetanus.
A vaccine that gave lifetime immunity cost about $80.
The increasing incidence of tetanus in horses would not pose any greater to threat to people, who can also contract tetanus from the same bacteria.
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