Press Release by the German Equestrian Federation (FN)
The mandatory vaccination against equine herpesvirus for competition horses is being lifted. Since 2023, all horses participating in a competition have been required to be vaccinated against EHV-1. The German Equestrian Federation (FN) had once again asked the members of the Sports Advisory Board for their opinion and a renewed vote. The result is that while vaccination remains recommended, the mandatory vaccination requirement will be lifted as of 15 April 2024. 76 percent voted against the herpes vaccination requirement.
"When we introduced the mandatory vaccination, we assumed that the International Federation for Equestrian Sports and other nations would follow suit. However, that is not the case. The International Federation for Equestrian Sports also continues to dispense with a vaccination requirement. At the same time, the regional federations are experiencing persistent resistance to the vaccination requirement among the membership. With our renewed vote, we are also reacting to current developments such as the high inflation of recent years or the new scale of fees for veterinarians," explains FN Secretary General Soenke Lauterbach.
According to the Permanent Vaccination Commission for Veterinary Medicine, vaccination against herpes is one of the "core components". "Therefore, the recommendation for vaccination remains firmly in place," confirms Soenke Lauterbach. "Only the decision regarding this is once again left to the individual horse owner's own responsibility."
When the Sports Advisory Board made the decision in favour of a mandatory vaccination requirement in the summer of 2021, the framework conditions were entirely different. In 2021, a massive outbreak of the neurological form of EHV-1 had occurred at an international competition in Spain. Consequently, international competition sport in Europe as well as national competition sport in Germany were suspended for several weeks. The consequences of the competition sport stoppage were massive. In connection with the outbreak, 19 equine fatalities had to be recorded. A herpes vaccination requirement had already been discussed within the association for several years. This is because outbreaks of herpes are recorded every year, which often end fatally for the affected horses in the event of the neurological form. Furthermore, during the outbreak in the spring of 2021, the FN had received many messages from members demanding the introduction of a herpes vaccination requirement. For these reasons, the Sports Advisory Board had addressed the introduction of a herpes vaccination requirement and ultimately turned the vaccination recommendation into a mandatory requirement as of 2023. With its decision at the time, the Sports Advisory Board followed the recommendations of the Permanent Vaccination Commission for Veterinary Medicine.
Photo: Stefan Lafrentz
