Study: Cowpox Behind Mare’s Late-Term Abortion

Equine cowbox infections are extremely rare, with only two other cases ever reported.
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Researchers have determined that a German Warmblood mare aborted her foal in the third trimester due to a rare infection with cowpox. The foal’s entire body surface, including membranes, showed multiple reddish-brown papules about a half-inch in diameter and larger papules covered in crust. The mare was apparently asymptomatic (showing no signs).

“Indeed, this is a rare case,” said Donata Hoffman, PhD, of the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health Institute for Virus Diagnostiques, in Greifswald, Germany.

Despite its name, the reservoir hosts—the animals that carry and transmit the virus—for cowpox are not cows, but voles (small mouselike animals) and other wild rodents, Hoffman said. Occasionally, domestic cats can become infected with cowpox by consuming infected voles. Equine infections are extremely rare, with only two other cases ever reported, she said. Horses might acquire the virus by eating grass or hay that has been contaminated with infected rodent droppings or urine.

In 1999, a 7-year-old Arabian horse died from complications of a cowpox virus infection that caused multiple papules all over its body. And in 2001, a premature foal was born with weakness, low body temperature, and gasping respiration, but no lesions. However, laboratory analyses confirmed an infection of the cowpox virus. Both cases were reported in Germany, and the cowpox disease is currently limited to continental Europe, Hoffman added

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Passionate about horses and science from the time she was riding her first Shetland Pony in Texas, Christa Lesté-Lasserre writes about scientific research that contributes to a better understanding of all equids. After undergrad studies in science, journalism, and literature, she received a master’s degree in creative writing. Now based in France, she aims to present the most fascinating aspect of equine science: the story it creates. Follow Lesté-Lasserre on Twitter @christalestelas.

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