Just as an extra precaution, I would like to spray down our stalls with a disinfectant and occasionally spray the trailer down with something when cleaning it.
What are your favorites/most effective disinfectant for equines?
On my list of possibilities are a bleach dilution, res-cue, or Zep.
A 10% bleach to water solution is probably the most effective and cost efficient for larger areas like stalls and trailers.
I dilute down the concentrated Mr. Clean disinfectant because bleach smell is not my fav. But yes, buy a concentrate. I bet they make something that can go in the soap dispenser of a pressure washer, too.
Related Q, as we’ve just started trailering to longer shows…can we spray down the walls then immediately lay shavings and move the horse in? Or does it need to dry out for some time before bringing an animal in?
10% bleach is cost effective, and very effective at disinfecting hard surfaces,. but there’s a catch. The issue with using bleach is the surface needs to be cleaned with a detergent and then rinsed to remove all debris and organic matter (like manure, dirt etc) first. Bleach doesn’t do well with organic matter. The cleaning itself will remove most of the contaminants and then allow the disinfectant to work better anyways, but just spraying bleach in a dirty stall will NOT result in a decontaminated stall.
Zep Antibacterial Disinfectant would work the same way. It’s a chlorinated cleaner, so it will work like bleach. But you still need to clean beforehand with a detergent cleaner. Original Zep, the all purpose cleaner will not work for disinfecting. It is a detergent only.
I work in the food industry. Production, bottling and sales. Bleach is great, but it’s a common misconception that it will kill everything without doing any actual cleaning first. It will still kill some bacteria that way, but not everything.
Most of the commonly available disinfectants are inactivated by dirt/organic matter, so thorough cleaning before disinfection is required for any appreciable effect.
For adequate disinfection, you need to clean/wash thoroughly, rinse, dry, then apply disinefectant according to directions. It helps to know which bugs you’re trying to kill.characteristics-of-selected-disinfectants.pdf (292.9 KB) antimicrobial-spectrum-of-disinfectants (1).pdf (217.2 KB)
Here are a couple of charts that might be useful:
I like Rescue for all things requiring disinfecting, as it basically breaks down to water, but I don’t have a trailer and have never used it on a whole stall. I do use at barn and at home and find the concentrate to be affordable (though not as affordable as bleach).
Big fan of Simple Green Pro 3 – Anti-bacterial/fungicidal/virucidal. Get it at Home Depot, bottom shelf of the cleaning products aisle. Concentrated, so mix with water per directions.
I clean my whole house with it. Smells great, no harsh chemical vapor like bleach etc.
FAB for thrush in hooves as a soak or spray 
Thank you for sharing! I have had issues in the past with clostridiosis and newborn foals. In my research, I remembered finding that Tek Trol was appropriate. A short while ago I was reading the label and did not see anything about clostridium nor its effectiveness as a sporicide. So thank you for posting this. It is handy, comprehensive, and easy to read.
Virkon would be my first choice.
Thank you, this is incredibly helpful, I may have to print these out to use at work as well!
Looks like I’ll be changing to Virkon. The one document says it’s effective in the presence of organic material. I do realize that organic material needs to be removed for max effectiveness, but let’s face it, no surface in the barn or trailer will be perfectly free of poop and dirt. So I like something that at least isn’t totally inactivated (at least the way I’m reading it). And it is a sporocide, so major plus there.
I have to give credit to USDA/APHIS for the links.
I grabbed them while doing the requisite CE for renewal of my USDA/APHIS accreditation recently.
It’s effective in the sense a little bit of organic matter won’t deactivate the entire batch. It will still disinfect on the hard surfaces. But if there is visible manure, that manure can spread cooties even if sprayed with Virkon.
But my main reason I’d prefer it over any of the other disinfectants is it won’t corrode someone’s trailer as badly as the others mentioned.
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
