This summer, we started a monthly Canadian Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance teleconference series to provide quick periodic updates on various infectious disease issues and outbreaks to/from provincial, territorial and federal regulatory animal health officials, academia, practicing veterinarians and industry partners. Recordings of some of the calls are now available on the Equine Canada website.
Equine infectious anemia in Canada
A recent cluster of equine infectious anemia (EIA) cases in Saskatchewan highlights the personal side of EIA control. EIA is a serious insect-borne viral disease of horses that can cause illness ranging from mild to fatal. Some horses recover uneventfully but are then potential sources of the virus for others, and disease can build up
Communication done right: EVH-1 in Minnesota
Two cases of EHV-1 have been detected on a farm in Prior Lake, Minnesota. There aren’t a lot of details about the cases, other than one horse was put down, and the other was taken to the University of Minnesota veterinary hospital for treatment and has apparently recovered and is ready to come home.
Vesicular stomatitis in Texan horses
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
EHV-1 in the news
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
EHV-1 on Oregon farm
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
Equine neuro herpesvirus outbreak, New Zealand
An outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) neurological disease (also known as equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM)) is underway in a currently undisclosed location in New Zealand. It appears that at least 12 horses have been affected with 6 deaths, all on one farm.
This is being described as the first outbreak of the neurological
More Ontario equine herpesvirus
An outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) has resulted in implementation of a quarantine at Woodbine, a major Thoroughbred track in Toronto. This outbreak is unrelated to the recent outbreak at an Ontario Standardbred training facility.
The Ontario Racing Commission has issued the following release:
The Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) announced that there have
Protocols for contagious diseases at horse shows
Horse show season is upon us, and with it comes the questions from concerned horse owners who want to protect their animals from the infectious diseases they may encounter at these events. In this case, the specific question is:
What protocol would go into place if a horse with a highly contagious disease such as
Equine MRSA in Israel – Different strain, same old tricks
It’s been quite a while since the last post about MRSA in horses, but rest assured, it’s still out there! Not too surprisingly it’s also spreading (or at least starting to be found) in new places. A recent report in Veterinary Microbiology (Schwaber et al, 2013) describes an MRSA outbreak at a