Equine Quarantine Recommendations
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Quarantine is an important, effective and underused practice on horse farms. Quarantine can reduce the risk of introducing new infectious agents to animals on the farm or limit the spread of something that’s already starting to circulate through the herd.
A recent article from TheHorse.com gives a good overview of why and how to implement quarantine. Importantly, it emphasizes that quarantine is not just for large, high-risk farms, and that any farm can and should have a quarantine plan. Not everyone can implement a quarantine protocol easily. We know and accept that, but the inability to implement a textbook quarantine program can't be used as an excuse to do nothing. Even a cursory quarantine program, with some basic practices to reduce direct and indirect contact of quarantined horses with other horses, can be very useful.
Most of the time, quarantine goes uneventfully and no problems are encountered. That sometimes leads to complacency, but it's the few cases where quarantine contains a problem that makes it all worthwhile. The implications of a single horse getting past quarantine can be huge, both for the individual farm and more broadly (e.g. Australian influenza outbreak). The article has some sound, practical advice that all horse owners should consider.
Another EHV-1 Equine Hospital Quarantine
Once again, an equine hospital is under quarantine because of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1). There have been a number of such incidents this year, highlighting both the increasing concern with this important pathogen and perhaps more transparency and willingness on the part of hospitals to take aggressive infection control measures when it is detected.
The latest incident involves the University of Tennessee Equine Hospital. The entire situation is related to identification of EHV-1 infection in one horse that was admitted on September 15 and euthanized a few hours later because of severe and progressive neurological disease. The next day, the Tennessee state veterinarian implemented a seven-day quarantine, while the hospital voluntarily implemented a 14-day quarantine. Seven days is pretty short and if you're concerned enough that you think quarantine is needed - if it's going to be done at all, it should be done right (i.e. for longer than a week).
At last report, there was no evidence of transmission to other horses. Presumably university personnel are closely watching horses in the hospital and are hopefully in contact with people who had horses they after the EHV-1 horse was admitted but before quarantine was implemented.
The need for facility closure or quarantine is always something of debate. EHV-1 should be a containable problem with prompt recognition of affected horses, proper isolation facilities and compliance with infection control procedures. Identifying infectious horses is a key aspect, as they are not always screaming "I have EHV!" when you see them. If a horse with EHV isn't identified as a potentially infectious animal and isolated from the start, the risk of transmission goes up. In this case, it was stated that the horse was kept in a "separate area of the equine hospital." It's not clear whether this was in an isolation unit or not. If it was admitted directly to isolation and was handled with appropriate protocols, the risk of other horses being infected should be very low. Given the time frame involved (it was only in the hospital for a few hours), even if it was in the main hospital, the likelihood of transmission to other horses is probably still relatively low, but it's certainly possible.
From a disease control standpoint, it's much better to be overly aggressive at the start while you are sorting out what's going on rather than sitting back and hoping for the best. While this often results in negative publicity, it's better than ending up with an outbreak which results in even worse publicity, as well as more sick animals.
Hendra virus in a dog
Adding a new twist to the already very concerning situation in Australia, Hendra virus infection has now also been identified in a dog. It's been a bad year for Hendra virus in Australia, with larger numbers of cases of this highly fatal disease in horses in a geographic range that seems to be expanding. Spread by flying foxes (fruit bats), Hendra virus predominantly infects horses, but can be transmitted to people working with infectedhorses.
The Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Geelong has now announced diagnosis of Hendra virus infection in a dog. The dog is from a quarantined farm in Queensland where the virus has been identified in a horse. The dog was healthy and was tested as part of a standard policy to test dogs and cats on infected farms. It's great to see this approach being used, since it helps identify other potential sources proactively - something that is often overlooked in outbreak investigations that focus only on the main species that are already known to be involved.
In this case, the dog had antibodies against the virus in its blood. That means that it was exposed to the virus and mounted an immune response. It doesn't indicate whether it was exposed recently or in the past. Two tests for the virus itself were negative, suggesting that the dog's immune system eliminated the virus (or that the virus isn't really capable of surviving for long in a dog). This is a good news/bad news scenario.
Bad news:
- Dogs can be infected. It increases the range of known susceptible species.
- If dogs can be infected and shed live virus, then they could be a source of infection for other individuals, including people.
- The dog wasn't sick. This might sound like strange "bad news," but healthy carriers of infectious diseases are harder to spot and control than ones that are sick.
Good news:
- The dog wasn't shedding the virus. That's critical since if dogs can be infected but not infectious (i.e. if they can carry the virus but not transmit it), then they are of limited concern.
- They have been testing farm dogs and cats as a routine measure, and this was the first positive. Infection of pets therefore must be relatively uncommon even on farms where the virus is active.
- The dog wasn't sick. While it's only one case and doesn't guarantee dogs won't be affected clinically, this might suggest that dogs just occasionally get exposed with no disease. Since it's highly fatal in other species, that's a good thing.
What should be done based on this?
- Probably not much more than should have been done before this finding, but it's a good reminder about the potential involvement of other species.
- Dogs and cats should be kept away from fruit bat roosting sites.
- Dogs and cats should be kept away from infected horses.
- If a farm is quarantined because of Hendra virus, dogs and cats should be tested and quarantined. Quarantining the animal while testing is underway helps reduce the risk of an infectious dog or cat (should that occur) transmiting the virus to people on the farm, or wandering away and exposing other people or animals.
- Animals of any type in areas where Hendra virus is active that get sick with signs that could possibly be consistent with Hendra virus infection should be tested.
This should also be taken as yet another reminder that infectious diseases are unpredictable. Considering the potential involvement of different species in a proactive manner as was done here is critical.
Image: Bay Horse and White Dog by George Stubbs (1724-1806)
This Worms & Germs blog entry was originally posted on equIDblog on 26-Jul-11.
Rabies quarantine in (and of) Santa Cruz County, Arizona
A large number of rabies cases in Santa Cruz County, Arizona has lead to the rare practice of implementing a county-wide rabies quarantine. Fifty-four cases of rabies have been diagnosed so far this year, mainly in skunks. That's about twice as many as normal.
Quarantine is probably not the best description of what they are doing, but they are taking measures to improve vaccination of pets, reduce roaming pets and discourage human-wildlife interaction.
For the next 60 days, the following rules are in place:
- Dogs and cats must be vaccinated against rabies.
- Dogs must be confined to the property or on a leash.
- People are not allowed to feed wild animals.
- Pet food must not be left outdoors after sundown.
Those are all pretty standard measures that should be used anytime. It sounds like these rules already exist in Santa Cruz County but their "quarantine" means that they will be aggressive in enforcing them. Increasing enforcement is a good idea, but ongoing efforts after this quarantine period are also needed because rabies will continue to be a risk in that area.
Image source: www.acmeanimalremoval.com
