Horses die from African Horse Sickness

I have just seen this article on EWN
ewn.co.za/2013/01/26/Horses-die-from-Afr...t&utm_medium=twitter

Apparently there is a vaccination for it.
www.africanhorsesickness.co.za/about_ahs.asp
Surely if your horses are vaccinated they can control it?

Warren,

Unfortunately there are 2 problems - we have a large population of unregulated, unvaccinated horses (mainly in the rural, less educated communities who do not understand the impact of this disease). The second problem is that there is an un-approved vaccine available that some people seem to be using. I have no idea why, as this alternative vaccine has not been tested or approved and there is (at this stage) no evidence to suggest that it works.

Fortunately our breeding and racing community is pretty good (on the whole) about ensuring horses are vaccinated annually. While this improves your chances, it's unfortunately not a guarantee. The sad reality is that even WITH vaccination, some horses still succumb to this disease, but vaccination and sensible management can do an awful lot to cut down the risks.

AHS is a massive problem in SA and we all need to do our bit to raise awareness, educate and help vaccinate. The AHS Trust and associated organisations are doing their best to identify and vaccinate our 'unregulated' (for want of a better word) horse population and there is an initiative for concerned parties to donate to the Trust to help them buy vaccines. It's well worth supporting for anyone who has a little extra to put towards a good cause.

sounds a similar story to our rabies problem....

zsuzsanna04 Wrote:

---

> Warren,
>
> Unfortunately there are 2 problems - we have a
> large population of unregulated, unvaccinated
> horses (mainly in the rural, less educated
> communities who do not understand the impact of
> this disease). The second problem is that there
> is an un-approved vaccine available that some
> people seem to be using. I have no idea why, as
> this alternative vaccine has not been tested or
> approved and there is (at this stage) no evidence
> to suggest that it works.
>
> Fortunately our breeding and racing community is
> pretty good (on the whole) about ensuring horses
> are vaccinated annually. While this improves your
> chances, it's unfortunately not a guarantee. The
> sad reality is that even WITH vaccination, some
> horses still succumb to this disease, but
> vaccination and sensible management can do an
> awful lot to cut down the risks.
>
> AHS is a massive problem in SA and we all need to
> do our bit to raise awareness, educate and help
> vaccinate. The AHS Trust and associated
> organisations are doing their best to identify and
> vaccinate our 'unregulated' (for want of a better
> word) horse population and there is an initiative
> for concerned parties to donate to the Trust to
> help them buy vaccines. It's well worth
> supporting for anyone who has a little extra to
> put towards a good cause.

Thank you. Nou verstaan ek bietjie beter. Africa not a place for sissies.

Altyd bly om te help

As far as I understand it, there is an existing 'pool' of the disease in our local zebra population as they seem able to carry the disease without getting sick. Unfortunately horses do not seem to have strong enough immune system to cope in the same way.

The disease is carried by miggies when they bite an infected animal and then move on and bite others. When miggie season hits us, the midge bites a host animal and then bites a horse (and with windy conditions, and our modern transport methods that can transport a horse (and miggie) thousands of kilometres these little sh!ts can travel a very long way) and now the disease has made it's transition back into the horse population. This is why there are such strict regulations in place for the movement of horses. Unfortunately of course, rules only work when people abide by them....

I've had it explained to me that the number of bites also makes a difference ie a vaccinated horse may be able to cope with one or two bites, but when there are swarms of miggies, they might be bitten multiple times, which is when the disease is able to really take hold (of course this will also depend on the individual's immune system). There are also several different strains of the virus and again, some horses will be able to cope better with some strains than with others.

The disease takes a few days to incubate, so a horse may be infected without the owner being aware, giving the midges yet more time to bite the infected horse and then transfer the virus to others, so you can see that it is very easy for the disease to spread in an unregulated situation.

I am not clever enough to understand whether it would be possible to eliminate the disease in our local host population of zebras, but assuming it is not possible, the next best thing is to protect horses as far as possible from midges and of course from other unvaccinated horses.

So that's why the AHS regs are so strict about monitoring travel and making sure that horses that are being moved, are moved responsibly and have all the necessary inoculations. They also recommend not taking horses outside in peak miggie time (a few hours either side of sunrise and sunset) and of course all the usual things like spraying horses with insect repellents, using fly sheets, etc if the horses live out and trying to keep indoor conditions as insect free as possible.

The good news is that the miggies cannot survive cold and usually all die off once we've had our first frost. Usually, as long as one is sensible, follows the vaccination programme and takes the necessary precautions, you can cut down on the risks significantly.

But as you say - Africa is no place for sissies !!