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.
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...
Daly JM, Newton JR, Wood JL, Park AW.Mathematical modelling of infectious disease is increasingly regarded as an important tool in the development of disease prevention and control measures. This article brings together key findings from various modelling studies conducted over the past 10 years that are of relevance to those on the front line of the battle against equine influenza.
Mendez D, Judd J, Speare R.To identify the perceived barriers to Hendra virus (HeV) management by private equine veterinarians in Queensland. Methods: An exploratory qualitative study of private equine veterinarians registered and working in coastal Queensland. Methods: A questionnaire that included eight open-ended questions about the management of HeV was used in face-to-face in-depth interviews with 21 veterinary personnel working in equine or mixed private practice between Far North and South-East Queensland in 2009-10. The qualitative data was entered and analysed thematically using QSR's International's Nvivo 9 qu...
Ghosh S, Taniguchi K, Aida S, Ganesh B, Kobayashi N.Equine group A rotaviruses (RVA) are a major cause of severe diarrhea in foals. The whole genomes of only six common and three unusual equine RVA strains have been analyzed so far. To date, there are no reports on whole genomic analyses of equine RVAs from Asian countries. We report here the whole genomic analyses of three common (strains RVA/Horse-tc/JPN/BI/1981/G3P[12], RVA/Horse-tc/JPN/HH-22/1989/G3P[12] and RVA/Horse-tc/JPN/CH-3/1987/G14P[12]) and an unusual (RVA/Horse-tc/JPN/OH-4/1982/G6P[5]) equine RVA strains isolated from diarrheic foals in Japan. Strains BI, HH-22 and CH-3 shared a la...
Muniz E, Lobo Ladd AA, Lobo Ladd FV, da Silva AA, Kmit FV, Borges AS, Teixeira R, da Mota LS, Belli CB, de Zoppa AL, da Silva LC, de Melo MP, Coppi AA.Ileocolonic aganglionosis (ICA) is the congenital and hereditary absence of neurons that constitute the enteric nervous system and has been described in various species including humans - Hirschsprung's disease - and horses - overo lethal white syndrome (OLWS). Hirschsprung's disease affects circa 1 in 5,000 live births. At best, this disease means an inability to absorb nutrients from food (humans). At worse, in horses, it always means death. Despite our general understanding of the functional mechanisms underlying ICA, there is a paucity of reliable quantitative information about the structu...
McCluskey BJ, Pelzel-McCluskey AM, Creekmore L, Schiltz J.Vesicular stomatitis is a viral disease primarily affecting horses and cattle when it occurs in the United States. Outbreaks in the southwestern United States occur sporadically, with initial cases typically occurring in Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona and subsequent cases occurring in a northward progression. The viruses causing vesicular stomatitis can be transmitted by direct contact of lesioned animals with other susceptible animals, but transmission is primarily through arthropod vectors. In 2012, an outbreak of vesicular stomatitis in the United States occurred that was caused by Vesicular...
Ziegler U, Angenvoort J, Klaus C, Nagel-Kohl U, Sauerwald C, Thalheim S, Horner S, Braun B, Kenklies S, Tyczka J, Keller M, Groschup MH.West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne viral pathogen of global importance and is considered to be the most widespread flavivirus in the World. Horses, as dead-end hosts, can be infected by bridge mosquito vectors and undergo either subclinical infections or develop severe neurological diseases. The aim of this study was to detect WNV specific antibodies in horses in Germany as an indicator for an endemic circulation of WNV. Sera from more than 5,000 horses (primarily fallen stock animals) were collected in eight different federal states of Germany from 2010 to 2012. Sera were screened by a...
Durand B, Lecollinet S, Beck C, Martínez-López B, Balenghien T, Chevalier V.Live animal trade is considered a major mode of introduction of viruses from enzootic foci into disease-free areas. Due to societal and behavioural changes, some wild animal species may nowadays be considered as pet species. The species diversity of animals involved in international trade is thus increasing. This could benefit pathogens that have a broad host range such as arboviruses. The objective of this study was to analyze the risk posed by live animal imports for the introduction, in the European Union (EU), of four arboviruses that affect human and horses: Eastern and Western equine enc...
Bailey KE, Gilkerson JR, Browning GF.Equine rotaviruses were first detected in foals over 30 years ago and remain a major cause of infectious diarrhoea in foals. During this time, there has been substantial progress in the development of sensitive methods to detect rotaviruses in foals, enabling surveillance of the genotypes present in various horse populations. However, there has been limited epidemiological investigation into the significance of these circulating genotypes, their correlation with disease and the use of vaccination in these animal populations. Our knowledge of the pathogenesis of rotavirus infection in foals is ...
Malik P, Singha H, Goyal SK, Khurana SK, Kumar R, Virmani N, Shanmugasundaram K, Pandey SB, Kant R, Singh BK, Singh RK.Equine infectious anemia (EIA) is a retroviral infection of horses. Horses infected by EIA virus (EIAV) become inapparent carriers that remain asymptomatic for the remainder of their life span and serve as infection source to other horses. In this study, agar gel immunodiffusion test and ELISA were used to investigate the presence of antibodies to EIAV in equines. A total of 67,042 equine serum samples from 19 states and two union territories were tested during April 1999 to September 2012. The results revealed that none of the animals were positive for antibodies to EIAV from 1999 to December...
Legrand LJ, Pitel PH, Marcillaud-Pitel CJ, Cullinane AA, Couroucé AM, Fortier GD, Freymuth FL, Pronost SL.The Réseau d'Epidémio-Surveillance en Pathologie Equine (RESPE, the French epidemiological network for equine diseases) is a network for epidemio-surveillance of major equine diseases based around sentry veterinarians in France. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of RESPE to efficient surveillance of equine influenza virus (EIV) in France. Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study. Methods: From November 2005 to October 2010, epidemiological and phylogenetic studies were performed on 1426 nasopharyngeal swabs received at the Frank Duncombe Laboratory. Detect...
Barbic L, Vilibic-Cavlek T, Listes E, Stevanovic V, Gjenero-Margan I, Ljubin-Sternak S, Pem-Novosel I, Listes I, Mlinaric-Galinovic G, Di Gennaro A....We report the first serological evidence of Usutu virus (USUV) infection in horses in Croatia. During 2011, 1380 horse serum samples from healthy animals were collected from six northern Croatian counties. All samples were first screened for West Nile virus (WNV) immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Sixty-nine WNV ELISA-reactive samples were further tested for WNV antibodies by a virus neutralization assay (VN assay) and plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT), and USUV by a VN assay and tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) antibodies by PRN...
Na W, Kang B, Kim HI, Hong M, Park SJ, Jeoung HY, An DJ, Moon H, Kim JK, Song D.Equine influenza virus (EIV) causes a highly contagious respiratory disease in equids, with confirmed outbreaks in Europe, America, North Africa, and Asia. Although China, Mongolia, and Japan have reported equine influenza outbreaks, Korea has not. Since 2011, we have conducted a routine surveillance programme to detect EIV at domestic stud farms, and isolated H3N8 EIV from horses showing respiratory disease symptoms. Here, we characterized the genetic and biological properties of this novel Korean H3N8 EIV isolate. This H3N8 EIV isolate belongs to the Florida sublineage clade 1 of the America...
Soares IR, Silva SO, Moreira FM, Prado LG, Fantini P, Maranhão Rde P, da Silva Filho JM, Melo MN, Palhares MS.This study reports the first evidence of infection by Leishmania infantum in Equus caballus in Americas and the first mixed infection of L. infantum/Leishmania braziliensis on this mammalian species in the world. The diagnoses was based on presence of parasites in lesions and bone marrow aspirates, their identification by using specific primers for L. infantum and L. braziliensis complexes and also serological methods IFAT and ELISA. The analysis of the PCR products suggested mixed infection in three animals. Further studies involving equine leishmaniasis are carrying out in order to clarify t...
Dzięgiel B, Adaszek L, Winiarczyk M, García-Bocanegra I, Carbonero A, Dębiak P, Winiarczyk S.The aim of this study was to conduct a comparative analysis of the 16S rRNA gene fragment nucleotide sequences for Anaplasma phagocytophilum strains detected in the blood of horses from various parts of Europe. The study comprised 234 horses that had had contact with ticks. Using PCR, the genetic material of A. phagocytophilum was identified in the blood of 42 animals. The sequences of the 16S RNA gene amplicons that were obtained from our A. phagocytophilum isolates had 100 % similarity with each other and 96.4-100 % similarity with Anaplasma spp. sequences selected from those available i...
Xie J, Liu G, Tian Z, Luo J.Several approaches have been developed for diagnosis of Theileria equi infection in horses and donkeys but all of them have limitations in practice. Due to numerous strengths including easy operation, cheapness and high sensitivity and specificity, LAMP has been already extensively used for surveillance of a number of diseases. We here set up a LAMP assay based on 18S rRNA gene for T. equi diagnosis. The approach was specific enough to differentiate T. equi from other evolutionary-related protozoa. Moreover, it was sensitive enough that LAMP was capable of detecting as much low as 10 copy targ...
Chinikar S, Shah-Hosseini N, Mostafavi E, Moradi M, Khakifirouz S, Jalali T, Goya MM, Shirzadi MR, Zainali M, Fooks AR.This study was undertaken to determine the seroprevalence of West Nile virus (WNV) in human and equine sera in Iran. Blood samples were tested from 300 human samples and 315 equine samples in five geographic zones of north and central parts of Iran between 2010 and 2012. All samples were tested for the immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody to WNV by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Of all samples, 4 (1.3%) human and 9 (2.8%) equines were considered to be seropositive for WNV. These results suggest circulation and exposure of the human and equine populations to WNV in Iran.
Pan L, Zhang L, Fan D, Zhang X, Liu H, Lu Q, Xu Q.Q fever is the most widespread zoonosis, and domestic animals are the most common sources of transmission. It is not only difficult to distinguish from other febrile diseases because of the lack of specific clinical manifestations in humans, but it is also difficult to identify the disease in C. burnetii-carrying animals because of the lack of identifiable features. Conventional serodiagnosis requires sera from the acute and convalescent stages of infection, which are unavailable at early diagnosis. Nested PCR and real-time PCR require equipment. In this study, we developed a Loop-Mediated Iso...
Yang N, Mu MY, Yuan GM, Zhang GX, Li HK, He JB.Toxoplasma gondii is an important zoonotic pathogen infecting humans and almost all warm-blooded animals. The most common sources of human infection are ingestion of tissue cysts in raw or undercooked meat. However, limited information is available about T. gondii infection in horses and donkeys in China. In the present study, we report the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in horses and donkeys in Liaoning province, northeastern China. Methods: Serum samples were collected from 711 and 738 slaughtered horses and donkeys, respectively, in 13 regions of Liaoning province. The modified agglu...
Tamin A, Rota PA.Hendra virus (HeV) and Nipah virus (NiV) are the causative agents of emerging transboundary animal disease in pigs and horses. They also cause fatal disease in humans. NiV has a case fatality rate of 40 - 100%. In the initial NiV outbreak in Malaysia in 1999, about 1.1 million pigs had to be culled. The economic impact was estimated to be approximately US$450 million. Worldwide, HeV has caused more than 60 deaths in horses with 7 human cases and 4 deaths. Since the initial outbreak, HeV spillovers from Pteropus bats to horses and humans continue. This article presents a brief review on the cur...
Vittecoq M, Lecollinet S, Jourdain E, Thomas F, Blanchon T, Arnal A, Lowenski S, Gauthier-Clerc M.In recent years, the number of West Nile virus (WNV) cases reported in horses and humans has increased dramatically throughout the Mediterranean basin. Furthermore, the emergence of Usutu virus (USUV) in Austria in 2001, and its subsequent expansion to Hungary, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Germany, has given added cause for concern regarding the impact of the spread of flaviviruses on human and animal health in western Europe. Despite frequent detection of WNV and USUV cases in neighboring countries, no case of WNV has been detected in France since 2006 and USUV has never...
Rushton JO, Lecollinet S, Hubálek Z, Svobodová P, Lussy H, Nowotny N.An unexpectedly high infection rate (26.1%) of tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) was identified in a herd of 257 horses of the same breed distributed among 3 federal states in Austria. Young age (p<0.001) and male sex (p=0.001) were positively associated with infection.
Wangdi C, Picard J, Tan R, Condon F, Dowling B, Gummow B.Determine leptospiral serodiversity, serodominant serovars and prevalence in the horse population of Northern Queensland (NQ), Australia, with special focus on the Atherton Tableland and Townsville-Burdekin regions. Methods: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: Serum samples from 429 horses originating from 172 horse-owning properties in NQ were collected at regional horse shows and veterinary clinics. Samples were analysed using a microscopic agglutination test. Owners were interviewed on potential risk factors associated with leptospirosis. Results: Of the 172 properties that submitted samples, ...
McFadden AM, Pearce PV, Orr D, Nicoll K, Rawdon TG, Pharo H, Stone M.To summarise investigation and laboratory data collected between 2001 and 2011 to provide evidence that equine arteritis virus is not present in the horse population of New Zealand. Methods: Analysis was carried out on results from laboratory tests carried out at the Ministry for Primary Industries Animal Health Laboratory (AHL) for equine arteritis virus from horses tested prior to being imported or exported, testing of stallions as part of the New Zealand equine viral arteritis (EVA) control scheme and testing as part of transboundary animal disease (TAD) investigations for exclusion of EVA....
Mendez D, Judd J, Speare R.To identify the perceived barriers to Hendra virus (HeV) management by private equine veterinarians in Queensland. Methods: An exploratory qualitative study of private equine veterinarians registered and working in coastal Queensland. Methods: A questionnaire that included eight open-ended questions about the management of HeV was used in face-to-face in-depth interviews with 21 veterinary personnel working in equine or mixed private practice between Far North and South-East Queensland in 2009-10. The qualitative data was entered and analysed thematically using QSR's International's Nvivo 9 qu...
Tirosh-Levy S, Gelman B, Zivotofsky D, Quraan L, Khinich E, Nasereddin A, Abdeen Z, Steinman A.Equine encephalosis virus (EEV) is an orbivirus transmitted by species. Most infected horses show mild clinical signs and mortality is usually very low. EEV is closely related and similarly transmitted to other, more pathogenic and economically important, orbiviruses such as African horse sickness virus (AHSV), bluetongue virus (BTV) and epizootic haemorrhagic disease viruses (EHDV), and may serve as an indicator for possible transmission of the latter. Israel has been reported to be endemic for EEV since 2001. This study was initiated to re-evaluate the current seroprevalence and risk factor...
Gysens L, Vanmechelen B, Maes P, Martens A, Haspeslagh M.Infection with bovine papillomavirus (BPV) types 1 and 2 results in the most common skin tumor of horses, termed equine sarcoid. The persistent and recurrent nature of this tumor stands in contrast to the regressive nature of BPV-1/- 2 induced cutaneous papillomas in cattle. The circulation of horse-specific BPV-1/- 2 variants within equine populations has been suggested as a possible explanation for the difference in clinical presentation of BPV-1/- 2 infection between horses and cattle. In order to investigate this hypothesis, we identified 98 complete BPV-1/- 2 genomes using a Nanopore ...
Llano HAB, Soares RM, Acevedo-Gutierrez LY, Rodas JD, Polo G, Borges-Silva W, Jesus RF, Gondim LFP.Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora spp. are related protozoa that can cause equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). The present study aimed to determine the frequency of antibodies to these parasites in 649 equids (351 horses, 267 donkeys, and 31 mules) from six departments in the North and Northwest of Colombia. For this purpose, the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was used for detecting antibodies against S. neurona and Neospora spp. with a cut-off point of 1:20 and 1:50, respectively. A binomial logistic regression model was selected to predict variables associated with exposure. ...
Donahue JM, Sells SF, Bolin DC.To identify Actinobacillus spp isolates recovered from fetuses and pericardial fluid from horses affected with mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS) and determine whether these bacterial species are the same as those isolated from clinically normal horses. Methods: Isolates of actinobacilli recovered from 18 horses with pericarditis and 109 fetuses aborted by mares affected by MRLS. Procedures-Actinobacillus spp isolates were identified to the level of species or subspecies by use of conventional phenotypic tests and biochemical and enzyme test kits. The 16S rRNA gene from selected isolates w...
Jones RL.Equine clostridial enterocolitis is being recognized with increasing frequency. It has been identified in foals with diarrhea, antibiotic-associated enterocolitis, or nosocomial enterocolitis. The sporadic occurrence of clostridial enterocolitis, the variety of types of clostridia involved, and the difficulty of experimentally reproducing the disease suggest that it is a poorly defined multifactorial syndrome. The risk factors associated with susceptibility to colonization and progressive infection are largely based on anecdotal observations and extrapolation from human studies. Quantitative s...
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...
de Lemos ER, Machado RD, Coura JR, Guimarães MA, Chagas N.In order to obtain information on Brazilian spotted fever, a study in domestic animals was performed in the County of Pedreira, State of São Paulo, Brazil, where 17 human cases had been notified. Serum samples obtained from animals were tested by indirect immunofluorescence for detectable antibodies to spotted fever-group rickettsiae. Seropositivity was revealed in 12 (36.4%) of 33 dogs and seven (77.8%) of nine horses from the endemic area. For comparison, blood samples from dogs and horses from non endemic area were tested and four (12.9%) of 31 dogs and three (27.3%) of 11 horses were posi...
Mondal SP, Cook RF, Chelvarajan RL, Henney PJ, Timoney PJ, Balasuriya UB.Strains of equine arteritis virus (EAV) differ in their virulence phenotypes, causing anywhere from subclinical infections to severe disease in horses. Here, we describe the in silico design and de novo synthesis of a full-length infectious cDNA clone of the horse-adapted virulent Bucyrus strain (VBS) of EAV encoding mCherry along with in vitro characterization of the progeny virions (EAV sVBSmCherry) in terms of host-cell tropism, replicative capacity and stability of the mCherry coding sequences following sequential passage in cell culture. The relative stability of the mCherry sequence duri...
El-Sayed SAE, AbouLaila M, ElKhatam A, Abdel-Wahab A, Rizk MA.In the present study, we conducted an epidemiological survey of Theileria equi, with sequencing analysis of the PCR product using blood-DNA samples collected from donkeys (n = 149) reared in different Egyptian provinces in Lower Egypt (Menoufia and Mersa Matruh) and middle Egypt (Giza). All animals were tested for the presence of T. equi parasite using species-specific PCR assay targeting the Equi merozoite antigen-1 (EMA-1). Nine- (6.04%) samples were positive for T. equi. The highest positive rate for infection was detected in Giza zoological garden (10.16%). Egyptian EMA-1 gene sequence e...
Aziz KJ, Al-Barwary LTO.Equine piroplasmosis is a major tick-borne disease that can lead to serious health problems and economic losses in horse industry. The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of and in different species of Equus namely (Horse, mule, donkey and pony) by Giemsa stained blood films and competitive ELISA. Methods: This study was conducted at various geographic areas of Erbil governorate. A total of 349 blood samples from equine (209 horses, 62 mule, 57 donkey and 21 ponies) were collected to estimate the prevalence rate of and by using Giemsa stained blood smear and competitive ELISA. ...
Read AJ, Arzey KE, Finlaison DS, Gu X, Davis RJ, Ritchie L, Kirkland PD.An outbreak of equine influenza (EI) occurred in Australia in 2007. During the laboratory support for this outbreak, real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays and a blocking enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (bELISA) were used as testing methods to detect infection with the virus. The qRT-PCR and bELISA tests had not been used for EI diagnosis before, so it was not known how soon after infection these tests would yield positive results, or for how long these results would remain positive. To answer these questions, nasal swabs and blood samples were collected d...
Nemoto M, Ryan E, Lyons P, Cullinane A.The molecular epidemiology of equine group A rotaviruses (RVAs) in Ireland from 2011 to 2015 was investigated. Of 438 diagnostic specimens submitted from foals with enteric disease, 102 (23.3%) were positive for RVA using an immunochromatographic assay. G genotypes were determined for 76 equine RVAs, of which 68 (89.5%) were G3 and eight (10.5%) were G14. Of 18 RVAs (12 G3 and six G14) characterised by P genotyping, all were P[12]. G3P[12] and G14P[12] were the most prevalent genotypes of RVA in foals in Ireland, similar to other countries and consistent with previous studies in Ireland from 1...
Farkas R, Képes G.A survey was carried out in three stud farms with grazing animals, in order to gather data on the prevalence and clinical manifestation of, and the fly species involved in, traumatic myiasis of horses in Hungary. This parasitic disease was recorded in each farm. On the whole, 9.0% (14) of the inspected horses were infested with fly larvae. The affected horses had one infested lesion only, located at the mucosa of the vulva or the vaginal vestibule. The clinical symptoms depended on the age of infestation. Wohlfahrtia magnifica (Diptera: Sarcophagidae) was the only myiasis-causing fly species i...
Mota RA, Junior JWP.Glanders is an infectious disease that causes serious damage to the equine production chain in countries where it occurs endemically and poses a risk to public health. This study aimed to conduct an integrative review of the advances in the knowledge of glanders in Brazil over the last three decades since its re-emergence. Documentary research was conducted for the period between the years 2000 and 2022. SCOPUS and PUBMED databases were used to search for scientific articles, dissertations, and thesis, in addition to the Brazilian Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertations (BDTD). A total of ...
Stucchi L, Ferrucci F, Bullone M, Dellacà RL, Lavoie JP.Oscillometry is a technique that measures the resistance (R) and the reactance (X) of the respiratory system. In humans, analysis of inspiratory and expiratory R and X allows to identify the presence of tidal expiratory flow limitation (EFLt). The aim of this study was to describe inspiratory and expiratory R and X measured by impulse oscillometry system (IOS) in horses with severe asthma (SEA) when in clinical remission ( = 7) or in exacerbation ( = 7) of the condition. Seven healthy, age-matched control horses were also studied. Data at 3, 5, and 7 Hz with coherence > 0.85 at 3 Hz and >...
Bermúdez SE, Espinosa JD, Cielo AB, Clavel F, Subía J, Barrios S, Medianero E.We present the results of a study on myiasis in Panama during the first years of a Cochliomyia hominivorax eradication program (1998-2005), with the aim of investigating the behavior of the flies that produce myiasis in animals and human beings. The hosts that registered positive for myiasis were cattle (46.4%), dogs (15.3%), humans (14.7%), birds (12%), pigs (6%), horses (4%), and sheep (1%). Six fly species caused myiasis: Dermatobia hominis (58%), Phaenicia spp. (20%), Cochliomyia macellaria (19%), Chrysomya rufifacies (0.4%), and maggots of unidentified species belonging to the Sarcophagid...
Struchen R, Hadorn D, Wohlfender F, Balmer S, Süptitz S, Zinsstag J, Vial F.Clinical observations made by practitioners and reported using web- and mobile-based technologies may benefit disease surveillance by improving the timeliness of outbreak detection. Equinella is a voluntary electronic reporting and information system established for the early detection of infectious equine diseases in Switzerland. Sentinel veterinary practitioners have been able to report cases of non-notifiable diseases and clinical symptoms to an internet-based platform since November 2013. Telephone interviews were carried out during the first year to understand the motivating and constrain...
Rosanowski SM, Cogger N, Rogers CW, Stevenson MA.New Zealand has never experienced an equine influenza (EI) outbreak. The 2007 outbreak of EI in Australia showed that in a naïve population EI spreads rapidly and substantial efforts (in terms of movement restrictions, mass vaccination and post-vaccination surveillance) were required to achieve eradication. To control EI, it is essential that animal health authorities have well-defined strategies for containment, control and eradication in place before an incursion occurs. A spatially explicit stochastic simulation model, InterSpread Plus, was used to evaluate EI control strategies for the Ne...
Corona A, Cherchi R.Bacteriological surveillance is little applied in management of equine frozen semen but it is quite important to verify the microbial contamination in order to find out the chance of transmission of pathology to the mare in AI. Authors describe a qualitative and quantitative analysis for bacterial contamination on long time (3-17 years) equine frozen semen stored in liquid nitrogen. The semen checked, produced in Italy and in another Europe country, was cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen inside sealed plastic straws. One hundred and ten straws were checked out for pathogenic and no pathogenic ba...
Brightwell G, Brown JM, Coates DM.Rt-PCR probes targeted to different gene sequences of VEE (Venezuelan equine encephalitis) virus strain TC-83 were assessed for their sensitivity, specificity and non-specific cross-reactivity. A generic VEE virus amplimer (VNSP4F2/VNSP4R2), targeted against nsP4 was identified, which was sensitive (detected at least 10 pfu) and robust (worked over a wide range of salt concentrations and annealing temperatures). An E2 amplimer designed against TC-83, (VE2F/VE2R), identified VEE strains TRD (1AB), P676 (1C), 3880 (1D) Everglades (2) vRNA whilst a second E2 primer pair designed against strain 68...
Knox A, Zerna G, Beddoe T.Horses play an important role throughout the world, whether for work, culture, or leisure, providing an ever-growing significant contribution to the economy. The increase in importation and movement of horses, both nationally and internationally, has inevitably allowed for the global equine industry to grow. Subsequently, however, the potential for transmission of fatal equine bacterial diseases has also escalated, and devasting outbreaks continue to occur. To prevent such events, disease surveillance and diagnosis must be heightened throughout the industry. Current common, or "gold-standard" ...
Earle-Richardson GB, Jenkins PL, Scott EE, May JJ.Agriculture ranks as one of the most hazardous industries in the nation. Ongoing injury surveillance is key to identifying and preventing major sources of injury. Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the total number and types of injuries identified from community reporting versus two newly available medical data systems. These new systems are important because they are less time consuming and expensive to maintain. Methods: Farm injury case records from 2007 were collected for 10 NY counties from the following sources: ambulance reports, hospital data, and community surveilla...
Arboviruses include mosquitoborne and tickborne agents that persist in nature in complex cycles involving birds or mammals, including humans. Arboviral infection can cause fever, headache, meningitis, encephalitis, and sometimes death. During 1996-1997, health departments in 19 states reported to CDC 286 confirmed or probable cases (eight fatal) of arboviral encephalitis in humans (132 cases in 1996 and 154 provisionally in 1997). Surveillance programs in 18 states detected enzootic arboviral activity in mosquito or sentinel or wild bird populations, and cases of arboviral disease were recogni...
Lord J, Carter C, Smith J, Locke S, Phillips E, Odoi A.Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among veterinary pathogens is necessary to identify clinically relevant patterns of AMR and to inform antimicrobial use practices. Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus and Rhodococcus equi are bacterial pathogens of major clinical importance in horses and are frequently implicated in respiratory tract infections. The objectives of this study were to describe antimicrobial resistance patterns and identify predictors of AMR and multidrug resistance (MDR) (resistance to three or more antimicrobial classes) among equine S. zooepidemicus and R. equi...
The National Reference Center for equine infectious anemia (EIA) validated a commercial ELISA (Eradikit EIAV Indirect ELISA, In3diagnostic, Turin, Italy) employing a chimeric recombinant gag and env peptide for the detection of EIA virus antibodies, following the guidelines of the World Organization for Animal Health. The validation parameters evaluated were: analytical sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp); diagnostic Se and Sp; precision, based on repeatability and reproducibility through the estimation of the standard deviation (SD) and the coefficient of variation (CV); accuracy, estimated...
Odoi A, Carter CN, Riley JW, Smith JL, Dwyer RM.To develop an early-warning automated surveillance-data-analysis system for early outbreak detection and reporting and to assess its performance on an abortion outbreak in mares in Kentucky. Methods: 426 data sets of abortions in mares in Kentucky during December 2000 to July 2001. Methods: A custom software system was developed to automatically extract and analyze data from a Laboratory Information Management System database. The software system was tested on data on abortions in mares in Kentucky reported between December 1, 2000, and July 31, 2001. The prospective space-time permutations sc...
Graham H, van Kalsbeek P, van der Goot J, Koene MGJ.Equine piroplasmosis (EP) is a tick-borne disease affecting horses, donkeys, mules and zebras, caused by the intracellular apicomplexan protozoa and . The geographical distribution of EP is closely related to the distribution of its vector tick species belonging to the genera of and . Since the discovery of ticks in 2007 and the first reported autochthonous cases in the South of the Netherlands in 2012, no data on the (sero)prevalence of EP in horses in the Netherlands have been reported and it remains unclear whether and have been able to establish themselves in the Netherlands. This stu...
Considering the course of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, it is important to have serological tests for monitoring humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. Herein we describe a novel bridge enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (b-ELISA) for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies detection in human and other species, employing recombinant Spike protein as a unique antigen, which is produced at high scale in insect larvae. Eighty two human control sera/plasmas and 169 COVID-19 patients' sera/plasmas, confirmed by rRT-PCR, were analyzed by the b-ELISA assay. In addition, a total of 27 a...
Spence KL, Rosanowski SM, Slater J, Cardwell JM.Exotic diseases pose a significant risk to horse health and welfare. Several stakeholder groups, including primary care veterinarians, share responsibility for maintaining freedom from pathogens that cause exotic diseases. However, little is known about the current state of exotic disease preparedness within the British horse industry. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore equine veterinarians' experiences of, and attitudes towards, exotic disease preparedness in Great Britain. Methods: This is a qualitative interview-based study. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted wit...
