DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB BASED EDUCATION MATERIAL TO HORSE OWNERS CONCERNING FEED SAFETY AND HYGIENIC QUALITY IN HORSE FEEDS

Sammanfattning: The most common disease causing elements in feed is of microbial nature. Therefore it is of great importance for horse owners to be familiar with the fundamental requirements for microbial growth in feeds and the problems that can originate in case of insufficient handling. However, horse owners are not organized in a way that makes it easy to reach them with information as a target group. Additionally, most horse owners only have one horse and limited possibilities for education in feed safety. Thus, there is need for an easy accessed education material that is explicitly directed towards horse owners. The fundamental content of such an education material was composed in this project. Focus was on the importance of good microbial quality in horse feed and the material was structured into three chapters; FEED SAFETY, MICROORGANISMS IN FEEDS and CONSERVATION, STORING AND FEEDING. The aim was to publish the material as part of a larger web based education package on the web page, http://www.sva.se of the Swedish National Veterinary Institute. The basic structure for such a web education was also composed in this project.