Subclinical Exposure Rate to West Nile Virus

If you’ve had equine cases of West Nile virus (WNV) pop up in your county, most of the equids in the area probably were exposed to the disease or even infected by the time those infections occurred. That is why it’s extremely important to vaccinate horses at least two months before the WNV season.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

If you've had equine cases of West Nile virus (WNV) pop up in your county, most of the equids in the area probably were exposed to the disease or even infected by the time those infections occurred. That is why it's extremely important to vaccinate horses at least two months before the WNV season, according to Maureen Long, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, assistant professor of large animal veterinary medicine at the University of Florida. She presented rough data regarding 2001 Florida exposure rates at the 2003 American Association of Equine Practitioners' Convention.

"Even on a very small geographic level, there is no prediction on where you're going to see infection," said Long.

"Little is known about the occurrence of subclinical exposure in horses (how many horses have been infected, but don't show clinical disease)," she and colleagues wrote in the study. "Without this data, little inference can be drawn regarding the asymptomatic to symptomatic ratio and the need for vaccination once disease has occurred in the herd."

Long wanted to determine the rate of subclinical exposure in horses in the face of the 2001 outbreak of WNV in Florida. That year, 492 cases of WNV clinical illness were confirmed, with a 33% mortality rate. Also, researchers wanted to measure the IgM response in horses receiving the killed virus vaccine. IgM is a protective protein manufactured by lymphocytes (types of white blood cells). This response can also be used to detect recent exposure to a disease

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Stephanie L. Church, Editorial Director, grew up riding and caring for her family’s horses in Central Virginia and received a B.A. in journalism and equestrian studies from Averett University. She joined The Horse in 1999 and has led the editorial team since 2010. A 4-H and Pony Club graduate, she enjoys dressage, eventing, and trail riding with her former graded-stakes-winning Thoroughbred gelding, It Happened Again (“Happy”). Stephanie and Happy are based in Lexington, Kentucky.

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
280 votes · 280 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!