Equine Health and Performance Centre (EH&PC)

The proposed Equine Health and Performance Centre (EH&PC) will provide modern diagnostic, health and rehabilitation facilities for horses in South Australia. It will be open to both veterinary health professionals and private horse owners and will offer a broad range of services, many of them for the first time in South Australia. It will also serve as a teaching facility for the University's veterinary students.

The Centre will be staffed by veterinarians specialising in equine surgery, equine sports medicine, equine internal medicine and equine reproduction and will attract leading researchers and graduate students.

Professor Christopher Riley who will lead the team at the Equine Health and Performance Centre is investigating the various models for partnership and development of an equine clinic at Roseworthy. To this end, he has visited equine teaching facilities in Australia, the USA and Canada, as well as private equine hospitals in Australia and Kentucky and to research various designs and get feedback from their owners on their relative efficiencies so we can maximise our design. Practice partnerships are being developed as well for external rotations for the students in both equine referral and stud practices.

Services To Horse Owners And Veterinarians

The staff and students at the EH&PC will provide routine equine mobile and in-clinic health services in the region and specialist services such as:

• Imaging, including radiography and ultrasound
• Intensive care medicine for critically ill foals & adult horses (e.g. severe colic)
• Surgery and anesthesia
• Pain management
• Infectious disease isolation & treatment
• Sports medicine assessment & rehabilitation.

It is hoped that arrangements may be made to allow private veterinarians to directly access some of the facilities of the EH&PC on behalf of their clients and participate in clinical teaching programs.