EIA in Tennessee (Equine Infectious Anemia)

[Marty]

It is amazing how many people do not know what the coggins test is for. Its for EIA. There has been horses in west Tennessee who have come up positive. For those that do not know, there is no prevention and no cure. The carriers often show no symptoms and go on to live a normal healthy life.The positive reactors can get very sick and show any number of symptoms, and trust me it can get ugly. After the vet gets a positive, usually the State will come and take two more tests to be sure so there is actually a total of three taken, and they will take the best two out of three. Your choice is to put the horse down or quarantine him forever. It is caused by biting insects who bite the infected horse or if the positive horse bites another horse.

 

[Minimor]

Here a very common cause of the virus spreading through a herd is the use of common needles. Seems like common sense to use a new needle on each horse when giving vaccines --but a number of people still use one needle to vaccine multiple horses. It has happened several times in the past 20 years just in this part of the country.

 

[targetsmom]

I had 2 horses quarantined in 1973 during an EIA epidemic and it was a horrible experience. I had left them at a boarding barn while I was on vacation and returned to find a friend's horse had died from EIA and all the rest were in quarantine. This was not that long after the Coggins test was developed.. The state vet had already stepped in and conducted the first round of testing all the horses on the property and the testing continued for WEEKS (I think every 2-3 weeks, with repeat tests on each positive) until ALL the horses were negative. I believe between 17 and 20 horses were put down and buried on the farm, because as Marty says, you don't have many choices if your horse tests positive. After weeks of this I was finally allowed to ride/pony my horses home where they would not be in contact with any other horses. The vet came to my property for final tests, which were negative, so both my horses survived. What really bothers me is that 40 years later there is still no treatment or better prevention for this horrible disease. And the very horses that are put down because they test positive COULD actually be immune to the disease.

Some people put screens on their stalls and kept their horses inside which may have helped.

 

[chandab]

I read somewhere quite some time ago, something to the effect of why bother creating a vaccine, when they have the test, its required, and they have a "solution" to those that test positive. I'm sure most horse owner's wouldn't agree. I don't recall where I read it as its been many years, and perhaps research is being done to create a vaccine for EIA. Any one know if any research is being done?