Zoetis Equine Launches the “Buy Less Dewormer” Campaign
Zoetis Inc., the world’s leading animal health company, has launched an awareness campaign encouraging horse owners to rethink their deworming practices and potentially buy less dewormer. The campaign comes after updated 2024 deworming guidelines from the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and growing concern around widespread anthelmintic resistance.
In June 2024, the AAEP announced a revised set of internal parasite control guidelines aimed at delaying further development of anthelmintic resistance and helping maintain the long-term effectiveness of current deworming products. The AAEP now discourages fixed-interval, year-round deworming and rotating dewormers. Their revised recommendations state that the majority of adult horses should be dewormed twice a year at most. They also ask horse owners to work with their veterinarians to conduct fecal egg count tests to identify high-shedding horses, which would require additional targeted deworming treatments.
“The industry has seen increasing resistance levels to several parasite treatments, which can be caused, in part, by deworming too often and with active ingredients that do not target the right parasites at the right time,” said Dr. Nathan Voris, Director of Equine Technical Services at Zoetis U.S. “Our aim with the “Buy Less Dewormer” campaign is to raise awareness around best practices focused on less frequent deworming, and to get horse owners and equine practitioners to re-evaluate their current protocols, which for many, are set on autopilot.”
The “Buy Less Dewormer” campaign will also highlight that not all active ingredients are the same. While no parasiticide can eliminate all parasites, a single dose of moxidectin effectively treats adult small strongyles, encysted small strongyles larvae, adult large strongyles, migrating large strongyle larvae, roundworms, bots, pinworms, hairworms and stomach worms.
The Zoetis Quest line of dewormers—Questâ Gel (moxidectin) and Questâ Plus Gel (moxidectin/praziquantel)—are the only dewormers on the market that are formulated with moxidectin and support parasite treatment for healthy adult horses. With Quest Gel and Quest Plus Gel, horse owners can buy less dewormer* while effectively treating their horses in accordance with the most recent AAEP guidelines.
The Zoetis “Buy Less Dewormer” campaign will include educational activations at the Kentucky Three-Day Event with trivia, dewormer giveaways with coupons and paid print, digital and social advertisements.
To learn more about how Zoetis continues to innovate, support the industry and stay by your side, visit ZoetisUS.com/Horses.
