It’s not a coincidence that we see more equine infectious diseases during busy show seasons. Shows are a great way for infectious diseases to spread, with outcomes ranging from disease in single horses to widely disseminated outbreaks, even across international borders.
We can’t eliminate all risk in life, and the risk of infection in horses
It’s that time of year again… at least in some areas.
West Nile virus (WNV) infection has been identified in a horse in Colorado. It’s not really a surprise. West Nile virus is one of those pathogens that we know is coming back every year, we just don’t know exactly when. The date of
A couple days ago, I was talking to a vet who’s trying to manage a strangles outbreak on a farm. In many outbreaks, the biggest hassles are dealing with horse owners, not the disease itself. Strangles, infection by the bacterium Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, is a highly contagious disease but one that is relatively easy
Hint… if you like time off during the summer, don’t get into equine infectious diseases.
Vesicular stomatitis (VS) has been identified in five (so far – probably more to come) horses in Kinney County, Texas. The case is shown on the Worms & Germs Map, and more details are available in the news release
Following the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (rather mind-boggling) abandonment of the rabies response portfolio, there’s been a scramble by provinces to figure out what to do. The CFIA will still perform testing, but will not have any role in sample collection, sample shipping or investigation. I’m not sure what most provinces are doing (and based
Not many days go by when I don’t get a few calls about rabies. Here are a couple from yesterday that highlight some important issues.
An indoor cat tangled with a bat. The bat’s no longer around to test so this is considered a potential rabies exposure (bats being important rabies vectors, and catching and
It’s hard to think about mosquito-borne disease season here at the moment, with temperatures in Ontario still going down to freezing, but the highly concerning disease eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) has been identified in a Marion County, Florida horse. This mosquito-borne virus causes highly fatal infection in both humans and horses. People don’t get it
Spring’s slow arrival has brought many things. Disappearing snow, a hint of green in the grass… and a greater risk of disease outbreaks in horses. Outbreaks can occur at any time of year but we often start to see certain infectious diseases ramp up as horses start moving around more at the start of training
There have been a few reports of equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) neurological disease over the last couple of weeks and some other cases that have been less well publicized. Hopefully it’s all just been a blip on the radar and not a sign of things to come as equine events start to ramp up at this
An outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) neurological disease has occurred on an Oregon farm. At last report, five horses had tested positive for the virus (though it’s not clear if all of them had neurological disease) and one had died.
EHV-1 outbreaks are not exactly rare these days. There’s certainly more reporting
