Like human influenza, equine influenza can be a seasonal disease with periods of particularly high activity. It’s possible that we are in a period of high flu activity in horses in Ontario, based on cases we’ve seen and anecdotal information from the general population. We’ve seen a couple of confirmed cases of influenza over the
August 2011
New BSAVA guidelines for MRSA/MRSP
The British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) has updated its practice guidelines for management of MRSA and MRSP.
Overall, there’s good information in the document with an emphasis on routine infection control as the key measure to reduce the impact of MRSP and MRSA. I’d like to see more emphasis on developing an overall …
EIA Outbreak In Arkansas
A large equine infectious anemia (EIA) outbreak has claimed the lives of 40 Arkansas horses. The outbreak has hopefully been contained to one farm in Johnson County. Two horses on the farm died from this viral disease, while 38 others were euthanized, presumably because they tested positive. Approximately 40 other horses are on the…
Bordetella bronchiseptica infection in a cancer patient…kitten suspected as source
A paper in the Journal of Neurooncology (Redelman-Sidi et al, 2011) describes "kitten-transmitted Bordetella bronchiseptica infection" in a cancer patient. The patient in question had a brain tumour that was surgically removed. The 56-year-old man was then started on chemotherapy, which in addition to killing cancer cells can also cause significant…
MRSA In Aussie Horses
In the early 2000s, we took a lot of bad publicity in Ontario (particularly at the Ontario Veterinary College) because of MRSA in horses. While MRSA had been found in horses before and there were anecdotal reports of MRSA infections and outbreaks in different areas, the fact that we intensively investigated the issue and published a…
Rabies In New Mexico Horse
Rabies is pretty rare in horses, but there have been a few reports this summer. Though rare, rabies is still a major concern because it’s invariably fatal in horses, and almost always fatal in people.
Rabies was recently diagnosed in a horse in Eddy County, New Mexico. It started showing undefined signs of rabies…
21 Horses Dead In Beirut Racetrack Outbreak
A somewhat confusing report in Lebanon’s The Daily Star describes an outbreak of disease at Beirut’s Hippodrome (racetrack) that has resulted in the deaths of 21 horses; 2 from disease and 19 that were euthanized as part of the outbreak response.
It’s not specifically stated in the report, but the commentary about glanders…
Rabies in illegally imported dog: France
A recent case of canine rabies in France showed yet again the risks posed by illegal importation of animals. This case is somewhat unusual since it seems to involve ignorance of the rules and lax enforcement, compared to rampant animal smuggling, but the end result was the same.
The animal in question was a puppy…
More Mosquito-Borne Mayhem
The mosquito-borne diseases eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) and West Nile (WNV) continue to rear their ugly heads in the northeast as we get further into the late summer season during which they are most common.
On August 13 there was an unconfirmed report of a case of West Nile in a horse at Woodbine Racetrack…
West Nile Warnings
Following on the heels of the beginning of the start eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) season, warnings are going out about another mosquito-borne disease in parts of North America, West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis. While mosquitoes have been swarming around here for months, WNV only becomes a real concern in southwestern Ontario starting in mid-to-late August.