Systematic review maps global equine piroplasmosis prevalence, 2020–2025
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 2020–2025 evidence, online 17 October 2026 in The Veterinary Journal, consolidates global equine piroplasmosis prevalence.
Updated
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A systematic review and meta-analysis covering evidence from 2020 through 2025 has consolidated the global prevalence picture of equine piroplasmosis, with the paper available online from 17 October 2026 in The Veterinary Journal.
The review was authored by Lintang Winantya Firdausy, Faisal Fikri, Arya Pradana Wicaksono, Salipudin Tasil Maslamama and Muhammad Thohawi Elziyad Purnama. Their work pools studies published across the five-year window to estimate how widely the disease occurs in horse populations worldwide.
Why does this matter at the exam table?
Equine piroplasmosis is caused by tick-borne protozoan parasites and remains one of the most consequential diseases in international horse movement. The review's five-year scope, 2020 to 2025, means it captures the most recent diagnostic and serosurveillance data available to practitioners.
For clinicians, a consolidated prevalence estimate answers a practical question: how likely is a positive or negative result in an endemic versus non-endemic region, and how should pre-export testing conversations be framed with clients.
Takeaway: a single pooled estimate gives practitioners a defensible reference point when interpreting test results and advising on travel plans.
What changes for sport and trade horses?
Pre-export testing regimes in many jurisdictions screen for piroplasmosis, and prevalence estimates feed directly into risk assessment. Regions with higher pooled prevalence face tighter scrutiny when horses move to countries that enforce disease-free status.
The 2020–2025 window also spans a period of expanded international equestrian competition, which raises the volume of tested horses moving across borders each year.
Takeaway: practitioners advising competition and breeding clients should expect prevalence data of this kind to shape testing requirements and quarantine decisions.
What does the study design tell us?
The authors used a systematic review and meta-analysis format, meaning they searched, screened and combined existing primary studies rather than generating new field data. This design strengthens the reliability of the pooled estimate but inherits the limitations of the underlying studies, which vary by diagnostic method, sampling strategy and region.
No specific pooled prevalence figure, regional breakdown or pathogen split between Theileria equi and Babesia caballi appears in the publication notice reviewed here; the full paper in The Veterinary Journal carries those results.
Takeaway: read the full text for the numbers, but the methodology itself signals that this is the most current global synthesis available.
What comes next?
With the paper available online from 17 October 2026, practitioners and regulatory veterinarians can expect its estimates to inform surveillance priorities, test interpretation guidance and international movement rules in the years ahead.
Source: The Veterinary Journal (Elsevier)
Elena Vasquez
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Market editor covering money, funding and market shifts around Small- and large-animal clinical practice at The Vet Scope.
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