Equine Piroplasmosis Confirmed in Ireland

by Fran Jurga | 9 September 2009 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com


This statement has been published by the Irish government after a highly unusual disease situation was discovered on a Thoroughbred stud farm there:

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has today confirmed the occurrence of Equine Piroplasmosis (EP) in a number of Thoroughbred horses in an equine facility in county Meath.

Piroplasmosis is a tick-borne protozoan disease of horses, mules, donkeys and zebra. It is caused by blood parasites - Theleria equi and Babesia caballi and gives rise to anaemia and jaundice in affected animals. The disease is not readily contagious and has no Zoonotic implications and therefore no public health concerns arise.

A notifiable disease in Ireland since July 2009, it has not been officially reported in this country before although it is understood that a previous incursion did take place. The disease is present in Mediterranean countries but is not present in the US, Canada, the UK or Australia.

The facility in question has been served with a movement restriction notice and epidemiological investigations are underway to establish the origin of the disease and the extent of the spread, if any, to other locations.

The Department has been in contact with industry representatives who have been informed of the situation. A meeting with industry representatives has been arranged to discuss the implications for animal movement and the measures appropriate to address the threat posed by the disease.

(end of statement)

Note: the statement contains an error. EP has been found in the United States, this year in Missouri and last year in Florida. EP is a highly-feared disease and is often the reason why horses from certain Mediterranean countries cannot be directly imported into other countries. EP is also a deciding factor is where major competitions are held, since many people fear that an outbreak would possibly strand horses in a country for quarantine reasons, or infect them directly.

EP in Ireland is particularly chilling because the island nation is a huge exporter of horses. Flat and jump racing horses from Ireland routinely get on ferries and travel to England, Scotland or even France to race, especially during the winter months, and foxhunting in Ireland is a tourist season in and of itself. The most high-profile Thoroughbred trainer in Europe, Aidan O'Brien, is headquartered at Ballydoyle near Tipperary and travels from there to race all over the world.

As the world shrinks, equine diseases are becoming global, not local. EP in Ireland? A sign of the times, and not a good one.

Australian Vet Killed by Hendra Virus After Trying to Save Infected Horses Lives

by Fran Jurga | 2 September 2009 | The Jurga Report

I hate to write to this story. I hate to have to tell you this. Again.

A young Australian veterinarian has died in a Queensland hospital after spending two weeks in a coma. He is the second veterinarian in as many years to die from the Hendra virus transmitted by a sick horse.

Alister Rodgers (inset photo, left) was treating horses infected with the highly contagious Hendra virus at a stud farm in Queensland, and in spite of treatment with anti-viral drugs when the diagnosis of the horse was made, became ill and spent two weeks in a coma. He died yesterday.

Along with Alister Rodgers, three exposed stud farm workers of varying ages were also treated with anti-viral medication. All four, and the stud farm owner, were kept under close observation in a hospital and later released except for Rodgers. Only he became ill.

According to the Equestrian Queensland branch of the Equestrian Federation of Australia, the stud farm will now be under quarantine for months. No horse movement can take place until the quarantine is lifted. Also, because of the threat of HeV to human health, minimal interaction is taking place with horses and only basic husbandry can be done.

"A supportive horse community is a strong horse community," says EQ in their appeal. They would know, after getting through the Equine Influenza outbreak in Australia last year; EQ hopes to raise money to help the farm meet its payrole and feed its horses.

The deadly Hendra Virus (HeV) has not been widely documented outside of Australia. It is carried by a specific type of fruit bat and, for some reason, reappears almost annually in horses in the Australian state of Queensland. It is named for a suburb of Brisbane, where it was first discovered and killed a horse trainer.

Click here for general information about how Hendra virus affects horses and humans.

Click here to read about last summer's outbreak of Hendra virus in Queensland.

Click here to read about the death almost exactly one year ago of Queensland vet Ben Cuneen who was also treating an infected horses when he contracted the virus. The veterinarians there really are at great risk.

I don't think this story is getting nearly enough publicity. This is a tragic loss of a young professional's life. This disease is like something out of a horror movie and I hope that the Australia medical and biotechnology experts will soon unravel its mystery and protect both horses and humans from future threats.

Greenheads at the Farmers Market: Horse Flies Among Us

by Fran Jurga | 1 September 2009 | The Jurga Report

Greenhead flies can make life miserable for horses and humans around here. (Painting of greenheads attacking a kayaker by Sam Holdsworth from Boston Globe)

Around here, we hate mosquitoes as much as anyone else, but we hold a place in our guts for greenhead flies. These evil insects rise up from the salt marshes for a month each summer. They scare away the tourists. Or eat them alive.

These flies don't bite or sting, they chomp. And it hurts enough to cause a reflex in horse and human and, believe me, no fly spray will keep them away. Around this time of year I start seeing riders with broken wrists and collarbones because they tried to ride anyway. You can't blame the horses: it hurts when a greenhead bites!

I suppose the only good thing about greenheads is that you can always blame one for why you fell off or why your horse is behaving very badly. If there's a picture of you riding in a frame that would have had you expelled from pony club, you can just delete it and say, "Oh, I remember that day! The greenheads were absolutely swarming..." (Surely they were swarming somewhere?)

Even when not ridden, horses show the ill-effects of greenheads: they stamp their shoes right off their feet; most people simply have to keep their horses in or else turned out in fly sheets and leg wraps at night but even that really isn't enough. They look like ghost horses in the moonlight as you drive by paddocks in August.

If you live near the marshes, farriers don't want to come and re-tighten shoes or replace a lost one. They know how dangerous it is to work on a horse when biting flies are around, even though they carry jet-speed fans to keep regular flies away.

And this year, they say, is the most benign crop of greenheads in years. A light year.

One local artist has dedicated his entire creative life to depicting the greenheads as some sort of ghastly ghoul, reminiscent of the death-breathers in Harry Potter stories. There's a film about them now too. It's a local obsession.

I'm lucky to live on a peninsula that is technically an island and the greenhead flies are pretty much on the other side of the estuary from us. They can't quite fly across the river (yet) so things are a little less desperate over here.

But something happened the other day at the farmers market that really made me stop and think. As the farms were setting up, they unloaded crates of fruit and vegetables from big panel trucks.

Then my jaw dropped. I watched in horror as the back on one truck opened and out flew a swarm of hungry greenhead flies, hitchhikers from a farm on the other side of the bridge...and now set loose into the pristine fly-free zone on my side of the bridge.

Soon everyone at the farmers market was flinching and slapping and swatting. And swearing. There aren't supposed to be greenheads here, and they were not pleased.

Will these escapees set up a colony? Is the island doomed? I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I definitely thought about how insect-borne diseases could easily move around the country in horse vans or hay trucks or even a nice organic orchard's apple truck.

I had just witnessed a perfect illustration of how disease can spread, even in the presence of a city block of organic produce. It was a sobering illustration of what I write about all the time in this blog: the spread of the midges carrying African horse sickness into northern Europe, the cloak of West Nile virus all over the USA, the connect-the-dot epidemiology of disease outbreaks like foot and mouth disease and EVA.

I think I'll make an appointment for a flu shot.

CEM ALERT: Three Stallions in Indiana Test Positive for Contagious Equine Metritis

Testing results announced today confirmed that three Northern Indiana stallions are positive for contagious equine metritis (CEM). The stallions were tested as a result of being exposed to a positive Quarter horse stallion while they were kept at a breeding facility in Kentucky.

Alerts have spread to 20 states and Canada as a result of semen from the infected Kentucky stallions being shipped to mare owners for artificial insemination. The Indiana announcement is the first to confirm positive test results for CEM outside of Kentucky and will undoubtedly lead to the investigation of horses they have been with and mares who have been either bred to them or received their semen by AI.

Contagious equine metritis is a transmissible, exotic venereal disease in horses. It usually results in infertility in mares and, on rare occasions, can cause mares to spontaneously abort. Infected stallions exhibit no clinical signs but can carry the CEM bacteria for years. CEM is commonly transmitted during sexual intercourse, but also may be transmitted indirectly through artificial insemination or contact with contaminated hands or objects.

Testing on the remaining horses that were housed at the Kentucky facility continues as an ongoing investigation. Concerned Indiana horse owners should monitor the state animal health website: www.in.gov/boah.

The first cases of CEM in the United States were diagnosed in central Kentucky in 1978. Another outbreak occurred in Missouri in 1979.

Video Insight: Strangles Signs, Treatment and Prevention

by Fran Jurga | 4 December 2008 | The Jurga Report on Equisearch.com



An enterprising group of veterinarians has launched vetstoria.com, an online community for horse owners seeking access to video-based education on horse diseases and health concerns.

As a sample, I am posting for you an important description of the disease we call "Strangles". This time of year many horses are changing barns (or owners) and coming in from long summer turnout. Barns, blankets and buckets combine with new stalls, new trailers, new handlers to increase the risk of highly contagious diseases like strangles.

I have witnessed strangles firsthand, and more than once, and I can testify that this is a disease that you do not want your horse to experience. My horse was at a boarding barn on the farm of a horse dealer, and lots of horses came and went. We always assumed that the strangles outbreaks were related to some horse that had shipped in, but we never really knew. It could have been spread in so many ways, but it is also possible that a resident horse was a carrier and only occasionally shed the bacteria.

It seemed like the innocent boarder horses went through a ritual of falling victim to the disease. The owners were devastated. It was heartbreaking to watch the horses endure the disease, particularly when it advanced into bastard strangles.

Take the time to watch this video and learn the signs of strangles. Talk to your veterinarian about how to prevent the disease, and if vaccination is something you should consider.

Thanks to Vetstoria.com's vets for making this video available.