Advances in Equine Research: Understand drug resistance and how to deal with it: These ain't your father's parasites!

Many of the most important parasites of horses have become resistant to dewormers. This leads to treatment failure and the potential for disease. A main driver of drug resistance is the high frequency of treatments that are given to horses. Adult horses in particular do not need to be dewormed nearly as often as in commonly done. And when a horse is dewormed it is important to know whether the treatment actually worked. In this webinar we will discuss how and why drug resistance develops, how we can prevent it from getting worse, and how we can control parasites better with fewer deworming treatments.

Dr. Ray Kaplan is a Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia. Dr. Kaplan received his bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech and his DVM from Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. He worked as a clinical veterinarian in a mixed-species private practice in Pennsylvania for several years before leaving practice for the University of Florida where he earned a PhD in Veterinary Parasitology. Prior to his position at University of Georgia, Dr. Kaplan served in the Army Veterinary Corps at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research where he was Chief of Parasite Biology in the Division of Experimental Therapeutics. Since 1998 he has been in his current position where he teaches and performs research and service in veterinary parasitology. Dr. Kaplan’s research program is focused on measuring, understanding, and solving the problem of drug resistance in helminth parasites. He is a Diplomate of both the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists (Parasitology) and the European Veterinary Parasitology College, and is the director of the Athens Parasitology Diagnostic Laboratory. He also is recipient of the Pfizer Award for Research Excellence, the University of Georgia Charles N. Dobbins Award for Excellence in Service, and the Dr. Fred C. Davison Award for outstanding service to veterinary medicine.