Equine notifiable diseases Flashcards
Why is it important?
Animal health
* Potential for widespread/significant welfare impact
Public health
* Zoonotic disease
* Equids as sentinel species
Economy
* Ease of trade with ‘disease free’ status
* Naïve population may lead to huge losses with new disease introduction
How is African horse sickness transmitted? What clinical signs are associated? What is the fatality rate?
- Vector borne (Culicoides)
- Swelling and redness around the eyes
- Frothy nasal discharge, coughing
- Pyrexia
- Swollen face
- 50-95% fatality rate
What equine diseases are notifiable in the uk?
- African horse sickness
- Anthrax*
- Aujeszky’s disease
- Contagious equine metritis
- Dourine
- Epizootic lymphangitis
- Equine viral arteritis
- Equine viral encephalomyelitis*
- Equine infectious anaemia
- Glanders and farcy*
- Rabies*
- Vesicular stomatitis
- West Nile virus*
*zoonosis risk
How is equine infectious anaemia transmitted? What clinical signs are associated? How is it treated?
Transmitted by:
* Horse flies
* Semen
* Vertically
* Iatrogenically
- No cure, highly contagious, potentially fatal
- All horses affected become lifelong carriers
Variable clinical signs: acute/chronic/sub-clinical forms
* Intermittent pyrexia
* Anaemia
* Weight loss
* Oedema
* (jaundice, tachycardia, thrombocytopaenia, petechiae, epistaxis, collapse, death…)
Treatment
* No treatment, no vaccine
* Affected horses will be euthanised following disease confirmation
- All others on premises need two negative tests 90 days apart
What pathogen causes glander and farcy syndromes? How do they present? How is it transmitted?
Burkholderia mallei infection
* Glanders: lungs, nostrils, lymph nodes
* Farcy: skin lesions
Transmitted by contact with wounds, inhalation, ingestion
How should you report a notifiable disease?
- Phone DEFRA rural services
- It is not your job to undertake diagnostic testing, enforce outcomes etc
