Disease surveillance in horses involves the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data to monitor and manage equine diseases. This process aids in the early detection of outbreaks, tracking of disease trends, and evaluation of control measures. Surveillance systems may incorporate various data sources, including clinical reports, laboratory testing, and field observations. These systems can focus on infectious diseases, such as equine influenza and West Nile virus, or non-infectious conditions affecting horse populations. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore methodologies, technologies, and outcomes associated with disease surveillance in equine populations.
Haghi MM, Etemadifar F, Fakhar M, Teshnizi SH, Soosaraei M, Shokri A, Hajihasani A, Mashhadi H.Babesiosis is a protozoal disease caused by Babesia spp. in mammals and humans worldwide. It is one of the most important tick-borne diseases, which affects livestock productions, reproductions, and accordingly failing economy. In this, systematic review and meta-analysis, study, the prevalence of babesiosis among domestic herbivores in Iran, between 1998 and 2015, was methodically reviewed. Nine databases including five English and four Persian databases were explored. A total of 49 articles, as regards the examination of 13,547 sheep, 1920 goats, 7167 cattle, and 940 horses, corresponding to...
Kameke D, Kampen H, Walther D.Culicoides Latreille, 1809 midge species are the putative vectors of Bluetongue virus (BTV) and Schmallenberg virus (SBV) in Europe. To gain a better understanding of the epidemiology of the diseases, basic knowledge about the overwintering of the vectors is needed. Therefore, we investigated culicoid activity in relation to air temperature at livestock stables during late winter and spring season. Ceratopogonids were captured weekly indoors and outdoors on three cattle farms, three horse farms and one sheep farm in the federal state of Brandenburg, Germany between January and May, 2015 by BG-...
Rocha T.Contagious equine metritis (CEM), a highly contagious bacterial venereal infection of equids, caused by Taylorella equigenitalis, is of major international concern, causing short-term infertility in mares. Portugal has a long tradition of horse breeding and exportation and until recently was considered CEM-free. However, in 2008, T. equigenitalis was isolated at our laboratory from a recently imported stallion and 2 mares from the same stud. Following this first reported outbreak, the Portuguese Veterinary Authority (DGVA) performed mandatory testing on all remaining equines at the stud (n=30)...
Roczo-Farkas S, Kirkwood CD, Bines JE.The Australian Rotavirus Surveillance Program, together with collaborating laboratories Australia-wide, reports the rotavirus genotypes responsible for the hospitalisation of children with acute gastroenteritis during the period 1 January to 31 December 2015. During the survey period, 1,383 faecal samples were referred for rotavirus G and P genotype analysis, and of these, 1,031 were confirmed as rotavirus positive. A total of 634 specimens had been collected from children under 5 years of age, while 397 were from older children and adults. Genotype analysis of samples from both children an...
Muellner P, Muellner U, Gates MC, Pearce T, Ahlstrom C, O'Neill D, Brodbelt D, Cave NJ.Veterinary practitioners have extensive knowledge of animal health from their day-to-day observations of clinical patients. There have been several recent initiatives to capture these data from electronic medical records for use in national surveillance systems and clinical research. In response, an approach to surveillance has been evolving that leverages existing computerized veterinary practice management systems to capture animal health data recorded by veterinarians. Work in the United Kingdom within the VetCompass program utilizes routinely recorded clinical data with the addition of fur...
Ayala-Valdovinos MA, Galindo-García J, Sánchez-Chiprés D, Duifhuis-Rivera T.Hydrocephalus in Friesian horses is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease that can result in an abortion, a stillbirth, or euthanization of a newborn foal. Here, the hydrocephalus-associated c.1423C > T mutation in B3GALNT2 gene was detected with PCR-RFLP and PCR-PIRA methods for horse genotyping. A preliminary genotyping survey was performed on 83 randomly selected Friesian stallion horses to determine the current allele frequency in Mexico. The frequency of the mutant T allele was 9.6%.
Faverjon C, Vial F, Andersson MG, Lecollinet S, Leblond A.West Nile virus (WNV) is a growing public health concern in Europe and there is a need to develop more efficient early detection systems. Nervous signs in horses are considered to be an early indicator of WNV and, using them in a syndromic surveillance system, might be relevant. In our study, we assessed whether or not data collected by the passive French surveillance system for the surveillance of equine diseases can be used routinely for the detection of WNV. We tested several pre-processing methods and detection algorithms based on regression. We evaluated system performances using simulate...
Pinto PS, Libonati H, Lilenbaum W.Leptospirosis is a worldwide zoonosis which can affect many species. Control programs need accurate diagnosis to be successful, and currently, diagnosis relies on serology. It presents three main issues: the sampling, the antigen panel, and the cutoff point. Herein, we propose a systematic review on leptospirosis among dogs, pigs, and horses in Latin America in order to improve the understanding of the seroepidemiology of leptospirosis in these species in the region as well as the temporal development of the research on this topic and, consequently, improve the chances of success on control pr...
Rocheleau JP, Arsenault J, Ogden NH, Lindsay LR, Drebot M, Michel P.Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) is a rare but severe emerging vector-borne disease affecting human and animal populations in the northeastern United States where it is endemic. Key knowledge gaps remain about the epidemiology of EEE virus (EEEV) in areas where its emergence has more recently been reported. In Eastern Canada, viral activity has been recorded in mosquitoes and horses throughout the 2000s but cases of EEEV in humans have not been reported so far. This study was designed to provide an assessment of possible EEEV human exposure by modelling environmental risk factors for EEEV in ...
Vina-Rodriguez A, Eiden M, Keller M, Hinrichs W, Groschup MH. (VEEV) is an from the family that causes epizootic outbreaks in equids and humans in Central and South America. So far, most studies use conventional reverse transcriptase PCR assays for the detection of the different VEEV subtypes. Here we describe the development of a TaqMan quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR assay for the specific detection and quantitation of all VEEV subtypes which uses in parallel a universal equine encephalitis virus control RNA carrying target sequences of the three equine encephalitis viruses. The control RNA was used to generate standard curves for t...
Tigre DM, Brandão CF, de Paula FL, Chinalia FA, Campos GS, Sardi SI.Equine infectious anemia is an important infectious disease that affects equids worldwide. Control of the disease is currently based on detection of anti-p26 EIAV by Agar Gel Immunodiffusion (AGID). In this work, 62 animals were examined by AGID and nested-PCR using primers for the gag gene. Fifty-three samples (85.5%) were positive by nested-PCR, whereas only 33 samples (53%) were positive for AGID. Fifteen amplicons obtained by nested-PCR were sequenced and the aligned results subjected to phylogenetic analysis. The analysis suggests that the Brazilian EIAV form a cluster with WSU5, EIAVUK a...
Pronost S, Hue E, Fortier C, Foursin M, Fortier G, Desbrosse F, Rey FA, Pitel PH, Richard E, Saunier B.Like hepatitis C virus (HCV) in humans, the newly identified equine hepacivirus (NPHV) displays a predominating liver tropism that may evolve into chronic infections. The genomes of the two viruses share several organizational and functional features and are phylogenetically closest amongst the Hepacivirus genus. A limited amount of data is available regarding the spread of hepacivirus infections in horses. In this study, we asked whether in a more representative sample the prevalence and distribution of NPHV infections in France would resemble that reported so far in other countries. A total ...
Woo PC, Teng JL, Bai R, Wong AY, Martelli P, Hui SW, Tsang AK, Lau CC, Ahmed SS, Yip CC, Choi GK, Li KS, Lam CS, Lau SK, Yuen KY.In a molecular epidemiology study using 791 fecal samples collected from different terrestrial and marine mammals in Hong Kong, genogroup I picobirnaviruses (PBVs) were positive by RT-PCR targeting the partial RdRp gene in specimens from five cattle, six monkeys, 17 horses, nine pigs, one rabbit, one dog, and 12 California sea lions, with 11, 9, 23, 17, 1, 1, and 15 sequence types in the positive specimens from the corresponding animals, respectively. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the PBV sequences from each kind of animal were widely distributed in the whole tree with high diversity, shar...
Welsh CE, Duz M, Parkin TDH, Marshall JF.Electronic medical records from first opinion equine veterinary practice may represent a unique resource for epidemiologic research. The appropriateness of this resource for risk factor analyses was explored as part of an investigation into clinical and pharmacologic risk factors for laminitis. Amalgamated medical records from seven UK practices were subjected to text mining to identify laminitis episodes, systemic or intra-synovial corticosteroid prescription, diseases known to affect laminitis risk and clinical signs or syndromes likely to lead to corticosteroid use. Cox proportional hazard ...
West Nile fever (WNF) is a viral disease of wild birds transmitted by mosquitoes. Humans and equids can also be affected and suffer from meningoencephalitis. In Algeria, since the 1994 epidemic, no data on WNV circulation was available until 2012. In September 2012, a fatal human case of WNV neuro-invasive infection occurred in Jijel province. This study describes the first seroprevalence study of West Nile virus (WNV) antibodies conducted in the equine population in Algeria. During 2014, serum samples were collected from 293 equids (222 donkeys and 71 horses) asymptomatic and unvaccinated for...
Müntener C, Kupper J, Naegeli H, Gassner B.A total of 292 adverse reactions to veterinary medicinal products were reported during the year 2015. This represents an increase of 9% compared to the previous year (268 reports). Similar to previous years, most of the reactions reported were linked to the use of antiparasitics (55.1%), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory products (8.9%) or antiinfectives (9.3%). The affected animal species were primarily dogs (198 reports) and cats (42 reports), followed by cattle (31 reports) and horses (8 reports). Additional 42 reports were provided within the frame of consultations with Tox Info Suisse in Z...
Joó K, Bakonyi T, Szenci O, Sárdi S, Ferenczi E, Barna M, Malik P, Hubalek Z, Fehér O, Kutasi O.West Nile virus (WNV) mainly infects birds, horses and humans. Outcomes of the infection range from mild uncharacteristic signs to fatal neurologic disease. The main objectives of the present study were to measure serum IgG and IgM antibodies in naturally exposed and vaccinated horses and to compare results of haemagglutination inhibition test (HIT), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and plaque reduction neutralisation test (PRNT). Altogether 224 animals were tested by HIT for WNV antibodies and 41 horses were simultaneously examined by ELISA and PRNT. After primary screening for WNV a...
of surveillance testing, April to June 2016Continuing reports of abortion due to equine herpesvirus type 1 infectionInternational disease occurrence in the second quarter of 2016These are among matters discussed in the most recent quarterly equine disease surveillance report, prepared by Defra, the Animal Health Trust and the British Equine Veterinary Association.
Seo MG, Lee SH, Ouh IO, Lee GH, Goo YK, Kim S, Kwon OD, Kwak D.Members of the genus Coxiella can be transmitted from ticks to humans during contact with animals; Coxiella may thus spread from the infected horses or ticks to humans. In this study, the presence of Coxiella burnetii and Coxiella-like endosymbionts (CLE) in ticks found on infested horses was determined using PCR and genotyping. A total of 213 ticks were randomly collected from 51 horses (4-5 ticks per horse) raised on Jeju Island, Korea, between 2009 and 2013. All ticks were morphologically identified as adult Haemaphysalis longicornis, a predominant tick species widespread in Korea. Based on...
Efforts to detect West Nile virus (WNV) in the Vojvodina province, northern Serbia, commenced with human and mosquito surveillance in 2005, followed by horse (2009) and wild bird (2012) surveillance. The knowledge obtained regarding WNV circulation, combined with the need for timely detection of virus activity and risk assessment resulted in the implementation of a national surveillance programme integrating mosquito, horse and bird surveillance in 2014. From 2013, the system showed highly satisfactory results in terms of area specificity (the capacity to indicate the spatial distribution of t...
Stringer AP, Christley RM, Bell CE, Gebreab F, Tefera G, Reed K, Trawford A, Pinchbeck GL.Working horses, donkeys and mules suffer from numerous diseases and clinical problems. However, there is little information on what owners perceive as important health concerns in their working animals. Objective: To identify and prioritise with owners the diseases and other health concerns in working equids in central Ethiopia using participatory methodologies. Methods: Participatory situation analysis (PSA). Methods: The study was conducted with carthorse- and donkey-owners in 16 sites in central Ethiopia. Multiple participatory methodologies were utilised, including ranking, matrices and fo...
Grewar JD.Bluetongue (BT) and African horse sickness (AHS) are considered the most important orbiviral diseases in Southern Africans countries. The general endemic status makes these diseases challenging to be quanti ed in terms of their economic impact. Using country reported data from BT and AHS outbreaks and cases, as well as international trade data, the economic impact of BT and AHS is evaluated on local, regional, and global scales. Local scale impact in the Southern African region is underestimated as shown by the underreporting of BT and AHS. Exceptions occur during epidemic cycles of the diseas...
Corbeil LE, Morrissey JF, Léguillette R.This report describes 5 horses in the southern Alberta region with typical and atypical external abscessation due to Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (pigeon fever). "Pigeon fever" has recently been diagnosed in new geographic regions in North America and should be kept as a differential diagnosis by practitioners when an external or internal abscess is identified in a horse. L’infection parCorynebacterium pseudotuberculosis(fièvre du pigeon) chez les chevaux est-elle une maladie émergente dans l’Ouest canadien? Ce rapport décrit cinq chevaux dans la région sud de l’Alberta atteint...
Scantlebury CE, Pinchbeck GL, Loughnane P, Aklilu N, Ashine T, Stringer AP, Gordon L, Marshall M, Christley RM, McCarthy AJ.Histoplasma capsulatum var. farciminosum, the causative agent of epizootic lymphangitis (EZL), is endemic in parts of Africa. Diagnosis based on clinical signs and microscopy lacks specificity and is a barrier to further understanding this neglected disease. Here, a nested PCR method targeting the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA operon was validated for application to equine clinical samples. Twenty-nine horses with signs of EZL from different climatic regions of Ethiopia were clinically examined. Blood samples and aspirates of pus from cutaneous nodules were taken, along ...
Basile RC, Yoshinari NH, Mantovani E, Bonoldi VN, Macoris DD, Queiroz-Neto A.Borreliosis caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato is a cosmopolitan zoonosis studied worldwide; it is called Lyme disease in many countries of the Northern Hemisphere and Lyme-like or Baggio-Yoshinari Syndrome in Brazil. However, despite the increasing number of suspect cases, this disease is still neglected in Brazil by the medical and veterinary communities. Brazilian Lyme-like borreliosis likely involves capybaras as reservoirs and Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus ticks as vectors. Thus, domestic animals can serve as key carriers in pathogen dissemination. This zoonosis has been little studi...
Meseko CA, Ehizibolo DO, Nwokike EC, Wungak YS.Equine influenza virus (EIV) is a major cause of acute respiratory diseases in horses in most parts of the world that results in severe economic losses. Information on the epidemiology of EIV in tropical Africa is scanty. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detect the presence of influenza A virus nucleoprotein (NP) in 284 horse sera in Kaduna State, Northern Nigeria. The ELISA-positive sera were further examined for hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibodies to two strains each of H3N8 and H7N3 subtypes of influenza A virus. The results showed that antibodies against inf...
Maeda Y, Hanada M, Oikawa MA.This report describes the descriptive epidemiology of racing fractures that occurred from the 1980s to 2000s on racetracks of the Japan Racing Association (JRA). The incidence of racehorse fractures during flat racing was approximately 1-2%. Fractures occurring during a race are more likely to occur in a forelimb. Fractures mostly occur at the third and fourth corners of oval tracks and on the home stretch. They also occur more frequently at the time of changing the leading limb. Comparison of the incidence of racing fracture between before and after reconstruction of the geometrical configura...
Rizzo C, Napoli C, Venturi G, Pupella S, Lombardini L, Calistri P, Monaco F, Cagarelli R, Angelini P, Bellini R, Tamba M, Piatti A, Russo F, Palù G....In Italy a national Plan for the surveillance of imported and autochthonous human vector-borne diseases (chikungunya, dengue, Zika virus disease and West Nile virus (WNV) disease) that integrates human and veterinary (animals and vectors) surveillance, is issued and revised annually according with the observed epidemiological changes. Here we describe results of the WNV integrated veterinary and human surveillance systems in Italy from 2008 to 2015. A real time data exchange protocol is in place between the surveillance systems to rapidly identify occurrence of human and animal cases and to de...
Wasiński B, Paschalis-Trela K, Trela J, Czopowicz M, Kita J, Żychska M, Cywińska A, Markowska-Daniel I, Carter C, Witkowski L.Leptospirosis is one of the most common zoonotic infections worldwide, including in most livestock, some companion animals, horses, wildlife, and humans. Epidemiological estimation of its prevalence in all species is difficult due to the variety of clinical presentations and challenges regarding laboratory diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to measure the seroprevalence of leptospiral infection in Arabian horses kept in the largest breeding farms in Poland, representing over 15% of the Polish Arabian horse population. Leptospira antibodies were detected by MAT (cut-off 1:100) in 33.2% of...
Seo MG, Yun SH, Choi SK, Cho GJ, Park YS, Kwon OD, Cho KH, Kim TH, Jeong KS, Park SJ, Kwon YS, Kwak D.Equine piroplasms include two tick-borne protozoan parasites, Babesia caballi and Theileria equi. Although no clinical equine piroplasmosis has been reported in the Republic of Korea, the possible existence of the disease has been proposed due to a nationwide distribution of the vector ticks. To determine if the antibodies against B. caballi and T. equi were present, 184 sera of horses (Equus caballus) raised in the Republic of Korea from 2007 to 2010 were assessed using cELISA kits. Two (1.1%) out of 184 sera were positive for T. equi, but none were seropositive for B. caballi. Both samples t...
Vina-Rodriguez A, Eiden M, Keller M, Hinrichs W, Groschup MH. (VEEV) is an from the family that causes epizootic outbreaks in equids and humans in Central and South America. So far, most studies use conventional reverse transcriptase PCR assays for the detection of the different VEEV subtypes. Here we describe the development of a TaqMan quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase PCR assay for the specific detection and quantitation of all VEEV subtypes which uses in parallel a universal equine encephalitis virus control RNA carrying target sequences of the three equine encephalitis viruses. The control RNA was used to generate standard curves for t...
Yongfeng Y, Xiaobo S, Nan X, Jingwen Z, Wenqiang L.To monitor the occurrence of equine influenza in large-scale donkey farms in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, serological investigation and sequence analysis of HA/M protein gene of equine influenza virus (EIV) were carried out. Samples (n = 65) of the lung and nasal swab were collected in six different large-scale donkey farms and detected with RT-PCR for HA and M protein gene. The homology and evolution of HA and M genes were analysed with known sequences. Antibody titres of serum samples (n = 120, unvaccinated) level was determined by the HI test. The average seropositive rate was 32....
The Journal of traumaMay 7, 2004
Volume 56, Issue 3 643-647 doi: 10.1097/01.ta.0000053470.38129.f4
Petridou E, Kedikoglou S, Belechri M, Ntouvelis E, Dessypris N, Trichopoulos D.This study aims to estimate the burden and describe the profile of equestrian injuries in Greece, where horses, donkeys, and mules are still used in agriculture and where horse riding is a popular leisure activity. Methods: Prospectively collected information on 140,823 injuries reported in the national Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System was examined and 244 equestrian-related injuries that occurred during farming, equestrian sports, or horse racing were analyzed. Results: The estimated countrywide injury incidence for farming and equestrian sports combined was 21 per 100,000 pers...
Yoon J, Park T, Sohn Y, Lee SK, Park BJ, Ahn HS, Go HJ, Kim DH, Lee JB, Park SY, Song CS, Lee SW, Choi IS.Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen causing hepatitis worldwide. Despite the prevalent evidence of interspecies HEV infection in various animal species, the role of horses in HEV epidemiology remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of HEV infection in 283 blood and 114 fecal samples from 397 horses using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Among the 283 serum samples, 35 were positive for anti-HEV antibodies (12.4%; 95% confidence interval: 8.8-16.8), and four of the five sampling reg...
Zhang L, Wang X, Zhan Q, Wang Z, Xu M, Zhu D, He F, Liu X, Huang R, Li D, Lei Y, Xie P.Borna disease virus (BDV) is a non-cytolytic, neurotropic RNA virus that can infect many vertebrate species, including humans. To date, BDV infection has been reported in a range of animal species across a broad global geographic distribution. However, a systematic epidemiological survey of BDV infection in domesticated animals in China has yet to be performed. In current study, BDV RNA and antibodies in 2353 blood samples from apparently healthy animals of eight species (horse, donkey, dog, pig, rabbit, cattle, goat, sheep) from three areas in western China (Xinjiang province, Chongqing munic...
Boliar S, Stanislawek W, Chambers TM.The hemagglutination inhibition test is used by many diagnostic and surveillance laboratories for detection of antibodies to influenza viruses. It is well known that the hemagglutination inhibition test is affected by nonspecific inhibitors present in equine serum. Several serum treatments are in use to remove these inhibitors, including treatment with kaolin. Discrepant results were observed in the authors' laboratories when using kaolin treatment before testing equine sera for antibodies against equine influenza virus (EIV) subtype-1 (H7N7). It is demonstrated here that kaolin treatment lead...
Zakhia R, Dupuis AP, Khodr F, Fadel M, Kramer LD, Haddad N.West Nile virus (WNV) has never been reported from Lebanon. Yet, this country is located on the flyway of migratory birds in the Middle East region. Serological screening was conducted to assess the potential circulation of this virus. Human, horse, and chicken sera were collected from the Bekaa and North districts. Specific IgG and IgY were first screened by ELISA. Then, positive samples were confirmed by plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT). Besides this, adult mosquitoes were collected and tested for the presence of WNV RNA using conventional RT-PCR. Sera screening revealed a seropre...
Timoney PJ.Expansion in international trade in equids and equine semen has been especially notable over the past 10-15 years among those countries historically identified as having significant breeding and performance horse industries. The continuing trend towards globalization of the horse industry received additional impetus in January, 1995, following establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO), whose primary goal is to promote freer economic exchange between member countries through the reduction or elimination of protectionist barriers to trade. Continued growth in international trade, close...
Muellner P, Muellner U, Gates MC, Pearce T, Ahlstrom C, O'Neill D, Brodbelt D, Cave NJ.Veterinary practitioners have extensive knowledge of animal health from their day-to-day observations of clinical patients. There have been several recent initiatives to capture these data from electronic medical records for use in national surveillance systems and clinical research. In response, an approach to surveillance has been evolving that leverages existing computerized veterinary practice management systems to capture animal health data recorded by veterinarians. Work in the United Kingdom within the VetCompass program utilizes routinely recorded clinical data with the addition of fur...
Brocard P, Pfister K.Between March 1988 and December 1989, 198 gastrointestinal tracts from slaughtered horses from different areas of Switzerland have been analysed for the presence and the frequency of Gasterophilus spp. During the same period--always between July and November--200 horses from selected areas of Western Switzerland have been checked for the presence of eggs and their subsequent developmental stages in order to investigate further clinical and biological aspects of this infection. The evaluation has been performed according to origin, age, sex, colour of the horse and seasonal pattern of the cases...
Mukherjee S, Moody EE, Lewokzco K, Huddleston DB, Huang J, Rowland ME, Wilson R, Dunn JR, Jones TF, Moncayo AC.Human and equine outbreaks caused by eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus (EEEV) typically occur in North America adjacent to coastal wetlands associated with the presence of Culiseta melanura (Coquillet) mosquitoes. Eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) is an emerging disease in Tennessee, as the first records of equine disease began in 2002. In 2006 we trapped and tested mosquitoes for EEEV at hardwood swamps in western Tennessee that were at the epicenter of a multi-equine outbreak in fall of 2005. Additionally, the Tennessee Valley Authority tested mosquito pools collected in Tennessee ...
Morley PS, Townsend HG, Bogdan JR, Haines DM.To describe 3 epidemics of respiratory tract disease caused by influenza virus infections in a large population of horses. Methods: Cross-sectional and prospective longitudinal observational studies. Methods: All horses stabled at a Thoroughbred racetrack. Methods: During a 3-year period, descriptive information was collected as horses arrived at the racetrack and throughout race meetings. Routine observations and physical examinations were used to classify horses' disease status. Cause of epidemics was established by use of serologic testing and identification of influenza virus in nasal secr...
Pusterla N, Kass PH, Mapes S, Wademan C, Akana N, Barnett C, MacKenzie C, Vaala W.Recent surveillance studies for equine respiratory viruses have shown that equine influenza virus (EIV) continues to be a prevalent respiratory virus of equids throughout the United States and Europe. Objective: To gain a better understanding of the prevalence and epidemiology of EIV shed by horses, mules and donkeys in the United States from March 2010 to November 2013. Methods: 2,605 equids. Methods: Nasal secretions from index cases with acute onset of respiratory disease were tested by qPCR for EIV. Multilevel logistic regression was used to model the association between EIV status and pre...
Rocheleau JP, Arsenault J, Lindsay LR, DiBernardo A, Kulkarni MA, Côté N, Michel P.Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is a highly pathogenic arbovirus that infects humans, horses, and other animals. There has been a significant increase in EEEV activity in southeastern Canada since 2008. Few data are available regarding nonlethal EEEV infections in mammals, and consequently the distribution and pathogenicity spectrum of EEEV infections in these hosts is poorly understood. This cross-sectional study focuses on the evaluation of viral activity in southern Quebec's horses by seroprevalence estimation. A total of 196 horses, 18 months and older, which had never been vaccin...
Kirisawa R, Toishi Y, Akamatsu A, Soejima K, Miyashita T, Tsunoda N.In the spring of 2015, two stallions reared in Farms A and B in Hokkaido in Japan showed symptoms of equine coital exanthema. Equine herpesvirus 3 (EHV-3) was isolated from penis swab samples of both stallions, and the isolates from each stallion in Farms A and B were designated as SS-1 and YS-1 strains, respectively. BamHI restriction profiles of SS-1 and Japanese reference strain Iwate-1 were indistinguishable, but the BamHI-A fragment of YS-1 was larger than those of SS-1 and Iwate-1 by 1.9 kbp because of the lack of two BamHI sites. Nucleotide sequence analyses of glycoprotein G (gG), gB, ...
Borges IA, Reynolds MG, McCollum AM, Figueiredo PO, Ambrosio LLD, Vieira FN, Costa GB, Matos ACD, de Andrade Almeida VM, Ferreira PCP, Lobato ZIP....Since 1999 (VACV) outbreaks involving bovines and humans have been reported in Brazil; this zoonosis is known as Bovine Vaccinia (BV) and is mainly an occupational disease of milkers. It was only in 2008 (and then again in 2011 and 2014) however, that VACV was found causing natural infections in Brazilian equids. These reports involved only equids, no infected humans or bovines were identified, and the sources of infections remain unknown up to date. The peculiarities of Equine Vaccinia outbreaks (e.g., absence of human infection), the frequently shared environments, and fomites by equids and...
Toombs-Ruane LJ, Riley CB, Kendall AT, Hill KE, Benschop J, Rosanowski SM.To describe antimicrobial susceptibility, and identify antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in bacteria isolated from New Zealand foals. Methods: A database search was performed of submissions to a veterinary pathology laboratory between April 2004 and December 2013 for bacterial culture of samples from foals <3 weeks of age. Culture and susceptibility results were compiled with demographic information. Susceptibility results were as defined for the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion susceptibility test based on Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Multi-drug resistance (MDR) was defined as ...
Hornok S, Genchi C, Bazzocchi C, Fok E, Farkas R.Peripheral blood samples were collected randomly from 195 horses in various parts of Hungary, and the presence of microfilariae was evaluated by the Knott technique. On the basis of morphological identification 18 of the horses (9.2 per cent) were infected with Setaria equina, and the infection was confirmed in 10 animals by pcr and sequencing. The level of microfilaraemia was between 1 and 1138 larvae in 2 ml of blood. There was no correlation between the time of sampling or the sex of the animals (stallions versus mares) and the prevalence of infection, but the prevalence decreased with age....
Scare JA, Steuer AE, Gravatte HS, Kálmán C, Ramires L, Dias de Castro LL, Norris JK, Miller F, Camargo F, Lawyer A, De Pedro P, Jolly B, Nielsen MK.Anthelmintic resistance among cyathostomin parasites is a wide-spread problem. The parasite control guidelines written by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) encourages the preservation of anthelmintic efficacy by reducing treatment frequency, using targeted deworming, and implementing environmental management practices. While there is knowledge regarding parasite management practices of affluent horse farms in the United States, surveys rarely explore the rural and underserved regions. The purpose of this study was to observe the management practices of horse farms in rura...
Metz MBC, Olufemi OT, Daly JM, Barba M.There is some evidence that West Nile virus (WNV), which causes encephalomyelitis in equids, is an emerging disease in Europe. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyse seroprevalence studies of WNV in equids in European countries between 2001 and 2018. Two electronic databases, PubMed and Scopus, were searched for relevant publications published from 2001 to 2018 using predetermined keywords. A total of 1,484 papers were initially found. After applying the eligibility criteria, 39 papers were finally included in the systematic review. Analysis of 28...
Fehér OE, Fehérvári P, Tolnai CH, Forgách P, Malik P, Jerzsele Á, Wagenhoffer Z, Szenci O, Korbacska-Kutasi O.West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging pathogen in Hungary, causing severe outbreaks in equines and humans since 2007. The aim of our study was to provide a comprehensive report on the clinical signs of West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND) in horses in Hungary. Clinical details of 124 confirmed equine WNND cases were collected between 2007 and 2019. Data about the seasonal and geographical presentation, demographic data, clinical signs, treatment protocols, and disease progression were evaluated. Starting from an initial case originating from the area of possible virus introduction by migrator...
Braverman Y.The biology, veterinary importance and control of certain Nematocera are described and discussed. Culicoides spp. (family Ceratopogonidae) transmit the arboviruses of bluetongue (BT), African horse sickness (AHS), bovine ephemeral fever (BEF) and Akabane. Some other arboviruses have been isolated from these species, while fowl pox has been transmitted experimentally by Culicoides. These insects are vectors of the parasitic protozoans Leucocytozoon caulleryi and Haemoproteus nettionis, and the parasitic nematodes Onchocerca gutturosa, O. gibsoni and O. cervicalis. They also cause recurrent summ...
Abrahão JS, de Souza Trindade G, Pereira-Oliveira G, de Oliveira Figueiredo P, Costa G, Moreira Franco-Luiz AP, Lopes Assis F, Bretas de Oliveira D....In August 2014, an outbreak of oral exanthematous disease in equids was reported in Brazil, affecting 11 donkeys and 3 mules. Objective: To investigate if Vaccinia virus (VACV) was the aetiological agent in this outbreak. Methods: Investigation of clinical cases using serological, molecular and phylogenetic approaches. Methods: To analyse the presence of neutralising antibodies against VACV, samples were submitted in triplicate to a plaque-reduction neutralisation test (PRNT ). On the basis of previous studies which detected VACV DNA in sera, we submitted extracted DNA samples to different pol...
Slivinska K, Víchová B, Werszko J, Szewczyk T, Wróblewski Z, Peťko B, Ragač O, Demeshkant V, Karbowiak G.A survey was undertaken to assess the prevalence of Theileria equi and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in some regions of Ukraine, Poland and Slovakia. Using a specific PCR assays, blood samples from 215 horses were tested. The prevalence of T. equi and A. phagocytophilum infection was 13.95% and 1.4%, respectively. BLAST analysis showed the isolates closest to the T. equi 18S rRNA and A. phagocytophilum msp4 gene sequences in GenBank with a similarity of ≥99%. No significant association was found between the T. equi PCR positivity and the age or sex of the horses. There was a significant associat...
Davis R, Giguère S.To determine and compare sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and predictive values of measurement of serum total protein concentration by refractometry as well as 5 commercially available kits for the diagnosis of failure of passive transfer (FPT) of immunity in foals. Methods: Prospective study. Methods: 65 foals with various medical problems and 35 clinically normal foals. Methods: IgG concentration in serum was assessed by use of zinc sulfate turbidity (assay C), glutaraldehyde coagulation (assay D), 2 semiquantitative immunoassays (assays F and G), and a quantitative immunoassay (assay H)....
Müller K, König M, Thiel HJ.The tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), also known as early summer meningo-encephalitis, is a geographically limited virus infection transmitted mainly by ticks. The importance of TBE is largely underestimated. The causative agent TBE-Virus (TBEV) is grouped into the genus Flavivirus of the virus family Flaviviridae. Clinical disease including fatal outcomes has been described for men and dogs. With regard to horses only a limited number of case reports is available. In a study performed at the Institute of Virology, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen serum samples from the German endemic region of M...
Grobbel M, Lübke-Becker A, Alesík E, Schwarz S, Wallmann J, Werckenthin C, Wieler LH.A total of 417 isolates of Escherichia coli collected from five animal species/organ system combinations from swine [urinary/genital tract (UGT) incl. mastitis metritis agalactia syndrome], horses [genital tract (GT)] and dogs/cats [respiratory tract (RT), UGT and gastrointestinal tract (GIT)] were analysed quantitatively for their susceptibility against different antimicrobial agents by determination of minimum inhibitory concentrations. Regardless of which animal species the strains originated from, resistance appeared most frequently against sulfamethoxazole (18-59%), tetracycline (14-54 %)...
Gonzalez-Obando J, Forero JE, Zuluaga-Cabrera AM, Ruiz-Saenz J.Equine influenza is a highly contagious disease caused by the H3N8 equine influenza virus (EIV), which is endemically distributed throughout the world. It infects equids, and interspecies transmission to dogs has been reported. The H3N8 Florida lineage, which is divided into clades 1 and 2, is the most representative lineage in the Americas. The EIV infects the respiratory system, affecting the ciliated epithelial cells and preventing the elimination of foreign bodies and substances. Certain factors related to the disease, such as an outdated vaccination plan, age, training, and close contact ...
