West Nile Virus Related

[CharmedMinis]

Last night on our local news (New Mexico) there was a story about 2 horses up near the Colorado border who had been diagnosed with West Nile.

The main point of the story was that these 2 horses had been vaccinated, and the news people had been given reports that scientists are afraid that the virus is mutating.

Has anyone else heard anything about this???

 

[justaboutgeese]

Unless you have owned a horse that has had the initial shot plus the booser and kept up the vaccinations yourself the horse might or might not be immune. If a person buys a horse and is told its been vaccinated for WNV and for example its been two years or the horse never recieved a booster it is possible for the horse to recieve the shot and not be fully protected. The moral is when you buy an animal give the shot and the booster yourself to insure the animal is protected. Afterall horsetraders have been known to tell people all sorts of things.

 

[Bess Kelly]

Haven't heard that specifically but, any virus can mutate. This is why the flu vaccines are issues year after year for people.

 

[Marty]

Yes there is a lot of noise going on about this. It's been in the news lately too. CBS ran a story on it not long ago.

Here is a link to one of the articles:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no12/04-0647.htm

 

[Lisa-Ruff N Tuff Minis]

I dont know about it mutating although it makes sense. But.... this isn't the first time that a fully vaccinated horse has gotten WN some have even died from it being fully vaccinated- vaccines are not a guarantee for anything

 

[Pepipony]

There is a Yahoo group called EquineWNV. If you dont know, these groups are email based, though you can go no mail. You can find it at yahoogroups.com. Anyhow, they have some great info, how to vaccinate, how not to, what to do etc.