Horse Vaccines

Horse Vaccines Schedule

Vaccinating your horse is an important part of preventative health care, and no one understands horse health better than veterinarians. All vaccination programs should be developed in consultation with a licensed veterinarian.

There are two categories of vaccines—core vaccines and at-risk vaccines—that reflect differences in a foal or horse’s susceptibility to disease and ability to mount an appropriate immune response to vaccination based on the presence (or absence) of maternal antibodies derived from colostrum.

For an example vaccine schedule, refer to the Vaccinations for Foals guidelines and https://aaep.org/sites/default/files/Documents/AdultVaccinationChartFINAL05.11.20.pdfdeveloped by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Infectious Disease Committee in 2020.

Core Vaccinations

Core vaccinations protect against diseases that are endemic to a region, those with potential public health significance, required by law, virulent/highly infectious, and/or those posing a risk of severe disease. Core vaccines have clearly demonstrated efficacy and safety, and thus exhibit a high enough level of patient benefit and low enough level of risk to justify their use in all equids.

There are 5 core horse vaccines:

• Rabies
• Eastern Encephalomyelitis (EEE)
• Western Encephalomyelitis (WEE)
• West Nile Virus (WNV)
• Tetanus

Rabvac-3 Rabies Vaccine is available for healthy horses.

Risk-based Vaccinations

Risk-based vaccinations vary between individuals, populations, and geographic regions. Risk assessment should be performed by, or in consultation with, a licensed veterinarian to identify appropriate vaccines for a given horse or population of horses and an appropriate vaccine schedule.

Common risk-based vaccines include:

• Equine Influenza
• Equine Herpesvirus (EHV)
• Venezuelan Encephalomyelitis (VEE)
• Strangles Streptococcus equi