A few years ago, I looked out my kitchen window one holiday morning and saw a newborn foal running outside of a fence line. The foal had been born to my neighbours’ mare, a maiden mare, and they were out of town. The mare had rejected the foal and wasn’t interested in any of my
equIDblog
Equine Infectious Anemia: Outbreak Out West
This week an article on TheHorse.com discussed the current situation in the western provinces of Canada with regard to equine infectious anemia (EIA). The prairies are seeing the highest number of EIA cases in years, with more than 70 horses affected on 22 different properties.
Also commonly called "swamp fever," EIA is caused by…
Botulism outbreak kills 23 horses
Botulism has been in the news lately, with numerous outbreaks involving different species and some human food recalls. Botulism outbreaks are often pretty dramatic because of the number of individuals that can be involved, the severity of disease and the fact that it’s often difficult to do much beyond damage control once the problem is…
Botulism outbreak in horses
Botulism outbreaks in horses are usually bad news. Horses are very susceptible to botulism, and outbreaks in horses caused by contamination of food often end up killing multiple horses on a farm. The recent botulism outbreak in Reddington, IN is another reminder of how deadly it can be.
The outbreak involved a family that…
California equine event biosecurity document
In response to the large and high-profile equine herpesvirus outbreak that occurred last summer, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has published a Biosecurity Toolkit for Equine Events. It’s a nice, comprehensive document that goes over a wide range of things that can be done to reduce the risk of disease transmission at…
Rabid horses in Tennessee
Rabies is pretty rare in horses in North America, with only 37 reported cases in the US in 2010 and 1 in Canada in 2011 (the latest years for which data are available). So, finding two apparently unrelated cases of rabies in horses in the same area in the same month is pretty unusual and…
Tropical Rhodococcus equi outbreak?
TheHorse.com has reported on an outbreak of Rhodococcus equi that has claimed the lives of seven ponies at an equestrian facility on the island on Mayotte (a French protectorate off the coast of Madagascar). Local agriculture officials report that two other horses are also affected, but recovering, and the facility has been quarantined
There are…
Ontario equine biosecurity seminars
Equine Guelph has announced a series of equine biosecurity workshops across Ontario which will take place during the month of March 2012. The sessions are free to attend and will focus on how to apply basic and practical concepts of infection control to reduce the risk of disease exposure and outbreaks in horses of all…
West Nile warning for BC horses
A Prince George, British Columbia veterinarian is warning other veterinarians and horse owners about West Nile in the province. Little information is available at this point, but the warning is in response to a diagnosis of West Nile infection in a horse from the area. The report calls it a "deadly disease" but it…
Headshaking and equine herpesvirus
Headshaking is a frustrating problem in horses. It’s often hard to identify a cause and treatments are frequently unrewarding. Many different possible causes of headshaking have been proposed, including equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) infection.
As is common with herpesviruses, EHV can lie dormant in the body, and it may be re-activated during times of…