In the worst outbreak of sycamore seed posioning ever seen in this country, more than 100 horses and ponies have died. Dr Ursula Fogarty of the Irish Equine Centre told The Irish Horse that “easily over 100 horses and ponies” have now died from the outbreak, which is caused by toxins in “helicopter” seeds.

“New cases are still coming into us and people should be aware that where there is a high incidence in the autumn, it can follow on that there will be further cases in spring,” she said.

The helicopter seeds contain a non-protein amino acid that triggers an often fatal muscular disease in grazing horses and ponies, known as equine atypical myopathy (ATM).

Dr Fogarty added: “We need to gather as much information as possible and we are interested in hearing about people’s experience and anything they may have noticed at all about the trees or seeds on their land. We are also asking people – whether they have had a case or not – to collect seeds, dry them in a cool place and contact us as we are trying to build up the most complete picture we can of all the factors involved here. Everyone’s observations are important in something like this.”

Two informative articles are now on the IEC’s website (www.iec.ie). All collected Irish research and data is being fed into the University of Liege, Belgium.