Equine disease surveillance, April to June 2009.

This research paper reports on disease surveillance in horses between April to June 2009 in the UK, India, and the USA, carrying out different tests and analyses on veterinary samples to infer patterns in horse diseases such as Taylorella equigenitalis, equine influenza, and equine piroplasmosis.

Disease Surveillance in UK and Imported Cases

• DEFRA isolated and confirmed Taylorella equigenitalis (a contagious equine metritis organism (CEMO)) from a subclinically infected non-thoroughbred stallion.
• The stallion, which had entered the UK from mainland Europe a month earlier, was meant for competition and not breeding. It had no known sexual contact with any other horses in the premises.
• Bury St Edmunds’ OIE reference laboratory confirmed the CEMO diagnosis, which had been revealed during pre-export procedures.
• The outbreak was declared resolved in September 2009, and the report mentions there was no involvement of the stallion in any breeding activities since moving to the UK.

Equine Influenza in India

• In June 2009, there were 16 new outbreaks of equine influenza involving about 209 cases in north and north-west India, totalling 38 outbreaks since July 2008.

Other Reported Outbreaks

• An outbreak of equine piroplasmosis that included seven cases was reported in the USA.
• A horse in the USA was diagnosed with vesicular stomatitis (VS) by Competitive Elisa and Complement Fixation Test (CFT), with the serotype classified as New Jersey.

Virology Analysis

• Virological testing results covering April to June 2009 related to equine viral arteritis (EVA), equine infectious anaemia (EIA) and West Nile virus (WNV) were summarized using samples from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency – Weybridge.
• Results reflect 11 EVA virus neutralisation (VN)-positive samples, two of which were export samples, one artificial insemination sample, two overseas samples, two diagnostic samples, and four private requests.
• Ten semen samples, comprising import/export samples or private requests, tested negative for EVA after three passages in RK13 cell culture and were also EVA negative by a one-tube RT-PCR test.
• The 71 agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID; Coggins) tests conducted ended abruptly without the results provided in the abstract.