Grub

You are so lucky to be here Grub, out of 4 mares foaled you are the only one to have survived the ordeal of the dreaded Caterpillar!

Grub is by Assets N Cash and out of a Cee A Barpasser mare "Dee". Dee was the last of my mares to foal this season to Assets N Cash which was his first foal crop. He has a colt foal that was born in October in Western Australia who is fit and well...no caterpillars over there! His name is Astro. I guess Dee was the lucky one as we were able to do some research on these darn Caterpillars and thankfully with Dee hanging on we were able to get her onto a couple of doses of Trimidine powder and Bio Equus which is a magic product from my Sponsors Hiform Australia. We took Dee out of her paddock and put her in a smaller paddock that ironically had not been inundated with caterpillars. I walked the paddock for two days and found only around 7 caterpillars, so got them out and delightfully killed the buggers.

Below is a bit of information on these plagues of caterpillars both from Australia and America. I don't have 100% proof that it was the caterpillars that did the damage however, I myself believe it to be them 100% since doing some of my own investigating.

Around the end of September a plague of these caterpillars hit some of Ballarat's surrounding districts, our Property here in Snake Valley was unfortunately one of them.

Information from my vet was that they usually see to about 10 "Dummy" foals a season, up until about a month ago my vet said that she had seen around 36 Dummy foals. She also reported loads of stillborns and abortions (I had all 3 of the above).

My neighbour who is about 1000 meters up the road from me breeds mini horses, she has had 3 dead so far as well and had a plague of caterpillars go through her property as well.

Another vet that I use has lost 3 this year also, she is over near Cape Clear but she reports that she didn't have any caterpillars.

I have heard numerous stories this year on people losing foals especially here in Victoria, some with caterpillars and some without. My friend in Tasmania lost two this year both of them stillborn...
I am still convinced mine were from the caterpillar plague.

Researchers from The University of Queensland have found hairy caterpillars are responsible for causing abortions in Australian mares.

Dr Judy Cawdell-Smith and Professor Wayne Bryden, from UQ's School of Animal Studies, found mares exposed to processionary caterpillars were likely to miscarry.

"This is an unusual form of abortion that was first reported in Australia in 2004 and is similar to a condition reported in Kentucky in 2002," Dr Cawdell-Smith said.

"Researchers in Kentucky identified Eastern Tent Caterpillars as the cause of the US equine condition, Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome."

Similar equine abortion cases were reported in the Hunter Valley in 2004.

"Studies conducted by veterinary epidemiologist, Professor Nigel Perkins, suggested the abortions were caused by caterpillars or poisonous plants," Professor Bryden said.

"No poisonous plants were found on any of the stud farms where mares aborted.

"Caterpillars were identified as the cause of the US problem but the same caterpillars don't exist in Australia.

"However, other related caterpillars were found on the affected Australian stud farms.

"If you've ever seen a hairy caterpillar, it is unlikely that a horse would eat a whole one.

"What's more likely is that the caterpillar's exoskeleton – which is much harder to see in the grass – is picked up by the horse while it is grazing.

"In our studies, both whole caterpillars and exoskeleton caused mares to abort."
The researchers believe ingestion of the caterpillar changes the permeability of the intestinal wall, allowing bacteria to pass into the horse's circulation and through the placenta.

"The subsequent infection caused by the bacteria in the fetus results in abortion," Dr Cawdell-Smith said.

"These bacteria are found in the intestine of mares and normally don't cause a problem.

"Interestingly, mares that abort have no ill effects or evidence of illness."

Funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation and the Hunter Valley Equine Research Centre, Professor Bryden and Dr Cawdell-Smith have conducted research in this area since 2006.

Media: Dr Cawdell-Smith (0418 631 646), Professor Bryden (0413 808 830) or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723)