AFRICAN HORSE SICKNESS-HOPE

[sywell]

At a recent meeting of the WBFSH in Copenhagen a leading South African Vet gave a more optomistic message on AHS . What can the owner do. Rug your horse. Flyscreens on Stable. Fans in stable. A number of fly protection treatments are available. The contaminated vector which is a small midge which does not like turbulant air so is unlikely to blow across the channel. The current policy by DEFRA would be counter productive as the important thing is to stop horse movement and by saying you will slaughter all horses and give £1 compensation is not going to get co-operation from horse owners as they have a much larger emotional investment in their horses than in many cases the financial one. One only has to look at the failure of the hunting legislation to realise you must get co-operation to succed. There are nine types of AHS and with modern technology the type can be identified in as little as 24 hours and the E.U. carries 100000 doses of live vacine in stock. A Vet can quickly identify a horse with AHS and all animals with AHS would be slaughtered on humain grounds as there is little hope of recovery. The midge needs to feed once a week so keeping a Zebra who can have the disease and not suffer is a useful Judas Goat. Great progress in gene technology is bring a dead vacine nearer so all is not lost. The succesful control and eradication in Portugal in 1989 is a recommended policy for E.U. goverments.

 

[Flicker]

I grew up in South Africa and AHS was a very manageable disease, if the correct precautions and vaccine programmes were followed. I also used to ride a horse in a riding school that had survived the cerebral strain of the disease and come through the other side (the cardiac strain is the more fatal one).

 

[MrsMozart]

I know little of this illness. It scares me and I feel there is little I can do to protect my horses, without turning into a total stresshead and wrapping them in bubble wrap

.

What are the times of year that it strikes, if there are such variants?

So many questions tumbling round in my head! What are the variables that make it more likely to occur? Which is the best website to get the correct and most up to date info?

Ta hun.

 

[Aru]

African horse sickness (AHS)is still exotic to europe.
The reason there has been such a hugh intreast in it lately is because a very sinilar virus of cattle and sheep, ..Bluetongue(BT)...made its way up to the northern part of europe and even in to the uk.
As the same type of flies carry AHS and BT it is compeletey normal for surveillance to increase about this disease.

The other reason its been taken seriously is because of its implications on Equine trade.
I dont know about britain but in Ireland the equine industry is a hugh part of our economy, in 2007 in ireland
Sales of €178 million in Irish thoroughbreds (not including private sales) 
* 67 Irish thoroughbred sales days in 2007, compared to 158 international thoroughbred sales days combined
* 7,500 of just over 12,300 thoroughbreds on Irish market sold (61 per cent)
* 47 per cent of all yearlings (one-year-old thoroughbreds) sold in Europe in 2007 were Irish
Thats not including our approximately 110,000 sports horse's

If AHS hits here, we face the prospect of international markets closing to us for between 3mths to a few years.Depending on our methods of controlling the disease.

Defra
,although you British dont seem to like them for some reason, seem to have pumped hugh resources into this disease and research and they have some very good factsheets out there for this disease there only problem is they have so much information on them its hard to find the basics!

I just did a survey on this disease and its transmission,in relation to ireland not britian, for collage so i can try to answer questions if anyone has questions on about AHS,i also found these links quite helpful.

on spotting and recognising the disease
http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/documents/ahs-howtospot.pdf

On protection of your stock if there is a disease threathttp://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/documents/ahs-mehvp.pdf

HOWEVER this disease at the minute is still not in europe,its floating around some of northern and southern africa but NOT the EU.
The chances of it actually getting to britain and ireland with no warning are very very low.
Its just a case of being aware of these diseases existance and possibility of a threat in the future.
Its not about scare mongering its just about trying to raise awareness of the disease so that if it did come up through europe then british horse owners would be able to recognise the signs of the disease and alert the authorithys quickly so it could be controlled.

There is a vaccine stockpile for all known strains of this disease available to the EU since dec 08.
It is only for use in an emergency situation.Research into other vaccines is ongoing.

While there is talk of a cull that is because this disease is a listed disease in europe,which means like foot and mouth there is a slaughter policy throughout the EU.
However as slaughter is very expensive and very unpopular with the general public the chances of it being applied is actually quite low.
Its thought that if Foot and Mouth returns to britain there wont be another cull as its not economically viable.So chances are AHS will get the same treatment in britain

Yes. the horses who catch the disease will be culled but this will also be on humane grounds as well as control.Vaccination will be used instead of a cull to control it spreading.
As the op said there are ways of helping to prevent you horses catching it if it gets across the channel to the uk.

Sorry for the really long post.....