Horses, just like any other pet, require responsible care. In fact, horses may even require more dedicated and educated of care. Horses are much larger than your traditional domestic pet and they have an entire set of unique medical conditions to be aware of. One of the most important and dangerous of horse diseases to look out for is equine infectious anemia virus antibody.
The equine infectious anemia virus antibody
The equine infectious anemia virus is extremely contagious and life threatening. In fact, one fifth of a teaspoon of blood from a chronic case of EIAV during a feverish episode contains enough viruses to infect 10,000 horses. Understanding the symptoms and knowing how to respond immediately is crucial in this disease.
When horses are exposed to equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), they may develop severe, acute signs of disease and die within 2 to 3 weeks. The disease can quickly spread through an entire group of horses, especially if the symptoms were not identified soon enough and the horses were not separated. The horse disease requires an equine infectious anemia virus antibody test to see if it is carrying the antibodies. The test is sent out to a clinical diagnostics laboratory for reading.
Understanding the symptoms
Perhaps the best way to identify the symptoms is to first become aware of them. Visit with your local clinical diagnostics laboratory to understand what the EIAV disease looks like. If you have any suspicions of disease in your horse, contact the local contract laboratory program immediately for clinical diagnostics laboratory testing. It is also helpful to educate yourself on the EIAV disease in horses. If you educate yourself ahead of time, you will know the minimal symptoms to look for, before it is too late.
EIAV in unapparent carriers
Even with education around the EIAV virus, it can be difficult to spot all signs of the disease. That is because, by far the majority of horses are unapparent carriers, meaning they show no overt clinical abnormalities as a result of infection. They survive as reservoirs of the infection for extended periods, and have dramatically lower concentrations of EIAV in their blood than horses with active clinical signs of the disease. Only 1 horsefly out of 6 million is likely to pick up and transmit EIAV from this horse. For this reason, regular contract manufacturing and clinical diagnostics laboratory tests could be beneficial.
Food safety
Food safety is another concern when it comes to EIAV virus. Although the diseases are transmitted by food, certain foods can attract the horseflies that carry the disease. Additionally, your horse will require specialized diets filled with protein for energy as they recover from the EIAV disease. Food safety should always be practiced, whether it is to prevent this disease, or other common horse spread diseases. Food safety testing is often completed in diagnostic laboratories, but pet owners should also keep up with current horse foods and recalls.
Prevention of EIAV
Absolute prevention of EIAV may not be entirely possible, but you can become aware of the symptoms. Also, by scheduling regular diagnostics visits with your horse vet, you can rule out any unapparent carriers that would then pass the disease onto your other horses. Never ignore abnormal symptoms of your horse and have a horse vet on call at all times, for immediate testing purposes.
Horses are a large responsibility. Not only do they require great amounts of exercise and food, but they also carry specific diseases to their own breeds. The EIAV virus is an extremely dangerous horse infected virus. Prevention is not always possible, but horse owners need to at least be aware of the symptoms and the progression of the disease. They also need to be aware of food choices and choose the best food dishes for their horses.
