EHV-4 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Don’t Hesitate To Vaccinate For EHV With Other Core Vaccines

With the onset of the most serious EHV-1 outbreak Europe has seen in years, horse owners and caretakers are reminded of the necessity of vaccinating horses against the deadly disease. Questions have arisen regarding the best timing of vaccine administration — should the EHV vaccine be given concurrently with other AAEP-recommended core vaccines or should the vaccines be split into multiple doses?

Research suggests that vaccinations for equine influenza virus (EIV) and equine herpesvirus types 1 and 4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) can safely be administered on the same day without compromising the horse's immune response.

Scientists from the Irish Equine Centre in Kildare divided 30 healthy horses into two groups to test the efficacy of the vaccines alone and used in tandem. The first group received the EIV vaccine and then a combination EHV-1 and EHV-4 vaccine two weeks apart. The second group was given both vaccines on the same day. Blood samples were taken from all horses before and after the vaccinations to measure antibody levels to EIV, EHV-1 and EHV-4.

Results showed that the horses vaccinated for both EHV and EIV on the same day had slightly higher antibody response to EIV vaccines than those horses that were vaccinated two weeks apart. There was no significant difference in EHV-1 and EHV-4 antibody response between the two groups.

The study team concludes that administering EIV and EHV-1 and -4 concurrently will not compromise the horse's immune system response.

Stall-Side Test Can Help Determine If A Cough Is Contagious

A coughing horse isn't always an immediate concern, but sometimes his cough can be caused by more than just inhaled dust. A new stall-side blood test can help determine if his cough is caused by a chronic inflammatory condition or infectious disease. If the cough is caused by an infectious disease, it's important to take immediate steps to protect other horses on the farm.

Drs. Molly Vinera, Melissa Mazan, Daniela Bedenice, Samantha Mapes and Nicola Pusterla created a study to test for the significance of the protein serum amyloid (SAA) in the blood of horse's with various respiratory conditions. The presence of SAA is indicative of inflammation; it has been used to evaluate and monitor colic and joint disease treatment.

The research team reviewed records of 167 horses that were sent to clinics for respiratory issues; they then analyzed stored serum samples related to each case. The scientists divided the horses into four groups: horses with equine influenza virus (EIV), horses with equine herpesvirus-4 (EHV-4), horses with strangles and horses with heaves. Serum samples from an additional 40 healthy horses served as controls.

They then used an available stall-side test to determine SAA levels in the stored samples. The results of the test showed that all horses with respiratory issues had higher SAA levels then the control horses. Horses that had equine influenza or other infectious respiratory diseases had significantly higher SAA levels than the horses that had heaves or other noninfectious inflammatory conditions.

The team concludes that these findings suggest that stall-side SAA tests can be a useful first step in diagnosing the cause of equine coughs: It allows for the differentiation between infectious and non-infectious respiratory problems, which can help veterinarians make better treatment and management recommendations.

Read the full study here.

Stall-Side Test For Equine Disease May Assist With COVID-19 Detection

Scientists have discovered a way to use a cell phone's camera to detect respiratory diseases like equine influenza in horses; that same technology could help identify COVID-19 in humans. These easily spread diseases can cause large death tolls, as well as economic loss and disruption of daily life.

One complication to slowing the spread of diseases like these are the is the lack of widely available testing that can offer speedy and accurate results, reports The Horse. This means that communities are unable to make informed recommendations regarding quarantines that can help control the spread of the disease.

Early diagnosis of disease, whether in horses or humans, is key to controlling the spread of disease, notes Dr. Brian Cunningham, an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If obtaining results takes days, whether because of a backlog of samples or lab closures because of holidays, the virus has already spread before a positive result is even given. Adding to the potential delay in diagnosis and implementation of control strategies is that some affected patients may have more than one disease.

Cunningham has developed a testing technique for a variety of equine respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus equi, EHV-1 and EHV-4, and equine influenza. The test uses nasal swabs to detect viral RNA, which is converted to DNA and then amplified in compartments on a silicon chip. Each compartment on the chip can be used to test for a different virus. The chemical reaction it produces replicates billions of copies of the original viral nucleic acid sequence. Fluorescent markers bind to the DNA during amplification, which can be seen on smartphone cameras as green light.

The entire test takes about 30 minutes and can be done stall side, eliminating the need to send samples to a lab and wait, possibly days, for results. With modification, the test could also be used to detect contagious human respiratory viruses like COVID-19.