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Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season

The destinations of Thoroughbred (TB) racehorses exiting the racing industry is a high-profile issue with ethical and welfare implications of interest to both animal welfare groups and racing regulators. This cross-sectional study investigated the reasons that TBs temporarily or permanently exited r...

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Autores principales: Shrestha, Kshitiz, Gilkerson, James R., Stevenson, Mark A., Flash, Meredith L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8454983/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34547036
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257581
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author Shrestha, Kshitiz
Gilkerson, James R.
Stevenson, Mark A.
Flash, Meredith L.
author_facet Shrestha, Kshitiz
Gilkerson, James R.
Stevenson, Mark A.
Flash, Meredith L.
author_sort Shrestha, Kshitiz
collection PubMed
description The destinations of Thoroughbred (TB) racehorses exiting the racing industry is a high-profile issue with ethical and welfare implications of interest to both animal welfare groups and racing regulators. This cross-sectional study investigated the reasons that TBs temporarily or permanently exited racing and training in Australia in the 2017–2018 racing season and the outcomes for these horses post-racing. An online questionnaire was sent to the last registered trainers of a representative sample of 2,509 ‘inactive’ TBs. Inactive horses were defined as those horses that were recorded as ‘active’ but had not trialled or raced in the last 6 months of the racing season or had an inactive status recorded in the Racing Australia database. Of the 1,750 responses received, the largest group of inactive TBs had permanently exited the racing industry (45% retired, 5.3% deceased). A relatively large group exited racing temporarily (43%) but participated in the racing industry in the following season. The reasons for retirement were predominantly voluntary, such as poor performance or owner’s request. Almost one third of retirements were due to injuries with tendon or ligament problems the most frequently conditions listed. The median age at retirement was five (Q1 4; Q3 7) years. Extrapolation of the survey results to the population of horses racing or training in Australia in 2017–2018 (n = 37,750) show that that 17% of the population retire each year and 2.1% die. These estimates provide benchmarks for industry and animal welfare organisations to resource and measure the effectiveness of interventions.
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spelling pubmed-84549832021-09-22 Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season Shrestha, Kshitiz Gilkerson, James R. Stevenson, Mark A. Flash, Meredith L. PLoS One Research Article The destinations of Thoroughbred (TB) racehorses exiting the racing industry is a high-profile issue with ethical and welfare implications of interest to both animal welfare groups and racing regulators. This cross-sectional study investigated the reasons that TBs temporarily or permanently exited racing and training in Australia in the 2017–2018 racing season and the outcomes for these horses post-racing. An online questionnaire was sent to the last registered trainers of a representative sample of 2,509 ‘inactive’ TBs. Inactive horses were defined as those horses that were recorded as ‘active’ but had not trialled or raced in the last 6 months of the racing season or had an inactive status recorded in the Racing Australia database. Of the 1,750 responses received, the largest group of inactive TBs had permanently exited the racing industry (45% retired, 5.3% deceased). A relatively large group exited racing temporarily (43%) but participated in the racing industry in the following season. The reasons for retirement were predominantly voluntary, such as poor performance or owner’s request. Almost one third of retirements were due to injuries with tendon or ligament problems the most frequently conditions listed. The median age at retirement was five (Q1 4; Q3 7) years. Extrapolation of the survey results to the population of horses racing or training in Australia in 2017–2018 (n = 37,750) show that that 17% of the population retire each year and 2.1% die. These estimates provide benchmarks for industry and animal welfare organisations to resource and measure the effectiveness of interventions. Public Library of Science 2021-09-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8454983/ /pubmed/34547036 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257581 Text en © 2021 Shrestha et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shrestha, Kshitiz
Gilkerson, James R.
Stevenson, Mark A.
Flash, Meredith L.
Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title_full Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title_fullStr Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title_full_unstemmed Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title_short Drivers of exit and outcomes for Thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 Australian racing season
title_sort drivers of exit and outcomes for thoroughbred racehorses participating in the 2017–2018 australian racing season
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8454983/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34547036
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257581
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