Equine herpes virus

MrA

MrA

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Feb 8, 2012
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Anyone got any concerns of this becoming a widespread problem?

Vets are already offering 'special offers' for the vaccine.

I know someone with a horse currently at Liphook following major surgery and she's been told its likely she won't be able to visit until at least the 21st. Better that than risk spreading anything but still very hard I can imagine.

Her boy is also kept at a yard nearby to us and I guess by her visiting liphook when the infected horse was there and then visiting her yard there is a very slim chance that it could turn up there. Very slim to impossible I would imagine?

Anyway just interested in your general musings
 
I read some comments yesterday on another forum and some people seem to just carry on regardless. Theres also alot of back stabbing.
Actually i dont think the chance is slim. Ive seen how people disinfect and how easy it is to miss bits and for cross contamination to occur. When foot and mouth was about the council closed all the public footpaths to the hill. But people were so naive that they ripped down the baracades just so they could walk there dog. Or do there daily walk theyve done for years. All the news reports and requests to general public made no difference to some people.
This last 10 months has been a nightmare for us with the TB. When someone comes along after a little injection that the government says we have to do and says its failed and has to go its heartbreaking. Then you get reams of paperwork telling you about disinfection and reducing the risk of transmitting the disease to the rest of your herd. When you start actually examining cross contamination you realise that its nearlly impossible to prevent.
It sounds awful not to be allowed to see your animals for a few weeks but i think its probably for the best.
When i was on a yard i ended up being the only livery there but the yard owner on several occasions allowed people from other yards to bring there horses for stays. Id turn up at the yard to find a horse in the field next to mine. Not having been told. Of course the first thing the horses do is go and greet each other. Some of the horses that came over were kept on yards where there were 40 horses. Who regularly went to other yards for lessons and competing. If they had been carrying anything they would have just infected my horse. There are reasons that animals should not allowed to be put in direct contact with other when they are brought in. If people respected this biosecurity more we would reduce the risks of trasmitting disease further.
 
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It isn't something I was aware of - but now I will have a read up on. I should imagine it's quite worrying if you are on a large yard?
 
chunky monkey said:
I read some comments yesterday on another forum and some people seem to just carry on regardless. Theres also alot of back stabbing.
Actually i dont think the chance is slim. Ive seen how people disinfect and how easy it is to miss bits and for cross contamination to occur. When foot and mouth was about the council closed all the public footpaths to the hill. But people were so naive that they ripped down the baracades just so they could walk there dog. Or do there daily walk theyve done for years. All the news reports and requests to general public made no difference to some people.
This last 10 months has been a nightmare for us with the TB. When someone comes along after a little injection that the government says we have to do and says its failed and has to go its heartbreaking. Then you get reams of paperwork telling you about disinfection and reducing the risk of transmitting the disease to the rest of your herd. When you start actually examining cross contamination you realise that its nearlly impossible to prevent.
It sounds awful not to be allowed to see your animals for a few weeks but i think its probably for the best.
When i was on a yard i ended up being the only livery there but the yard owner on several occasions allowed people from other yards to bring there horses for stays. Id turn up at the yard to find a horse in the field next to mine. Not having been told. Of course the first thing the horses do is go and greet each other. Some of the horses that came over were kept on yards where there were 40 horses. Who regularly went to other yards for lessons and competing. If they had been carrying anything they would have just infected my horse. There are reasons that animals should not allowed to be put in direct contact with other when they are brought in. If people respected this biosecurity more we would reduce the risks of trasmitting disease further.
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This ^^^^ with big shiny knobs on.
Some people can be utterly selfish where bio security is concerned and have no thought about the impact their action could have on others, especially those who’s livelihood depends on good bio security.
 
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The bigger problem is that the place where cases have been found is, I believe, a competition centre so how many horses have been exposed before it was identified? Done is done, but now there's potentially a lot of spread and so people are going to have to be very aware - ideally anyone who's been there within the possible infection time should be isolating their's and everyone it's come in contact with, but realistically that isn't going to happen.

I believe this one can be airborne which makes containment harder, though I don't know how long the virus can survive outside the horse - that's important when considering things like farrier visits, vets etc.

Being sensible it can be hard to enforce strict biosecurity on a yard. Say A takes her horse out competing every weekend, it's hardly practical how the yard I'm on is set up for her horse to not have contact with others on the yard - tie up points, neighbouring fields, staff handling multiple animals, shared arena, shared fields - and so biosecurity is always at risk. But then these viruses are always around to some degree, and a healthy immune system can be one of the best preventatives. Vaccines are available for EHV, but I believe that if the horse has already been exposed it increases the risk of neurological problems which can be fatal - for that reason when there was an outbreak near where I used to be before the vets recommended not vaccinating animals as a knee jerk reaction, but to consider it when the outbreak was past.

Full marks to Crofton Manor for being so up front about the problem and cancelling all events, this could have been a whole lot worse if they'd kept it quiet.
 
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carthorse said:
Another case reported by Abingdon RDA
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I don’t think that is true. Abingdon RDA have closed (like most other centres) but they don’t have the virus. There is apparently a confirmed case in Oxfordshire but there are some reports that this is a false alarm.

I am just pleased that the news came out this week as I was due to go to Crofton Manor to groom for a friend this morning!

It seems the whole horse world has come to a standstill. It doesn’t effect me and my horse really as I hack on private land on our yard and since my lorry died I don’t go anywhere. But this is going to be so expensive to venues who run shows plus the impact on instructors/farriers etc. I hope it passes really quickly.
 
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carthorse said:
I hope it is wrong @Mary Poppins , and the case that was reported at a Wantage stud has turned out to be a false alarm when the blood test came back. Still I'd rather people were acting by saying they had a case and then saying false alarm rather than trying to hush it up so it spreads. That was a close call for you and your friend!
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I know! I wasn't planning on bring my horse with me, but I would have gone straight to see him on the way back and there would have been a very small chance of the virus being on my clothes. I would be a blind panic if this news came out a week later.
 
Three cases in sway and brockenhurst, too close for comfort. We have horse boxes going up and down the lane to the yard along the way. Advised not to hack, so I think I'll leave it for a week or so, and see how the land lies.
 
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The risk must be there for so many cases to crop up in a relatively short amount of time, and for Liphook to close its doors it's got to be pretty significant. I don't mean it negatively but can you imagine the revenue they are loosing, it must be a significant risk for them to justify closing.
My mob have no physical contact with other horses and I always try to isolate for 2 weeks on arrival of a new one, but Dan foiled that plan after a week when he arrived and has just done the same again with indie (Dan got out last night). Jess has been the more at risk one for secondary infection from things because of gates/fences etc. when we go away camping, I'd be cautious of that at the moment.
But as with the rampant flu last year, if people are sensible, and reduce risk then hopefully as few as possible will get it.
 
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The potential problem with EHV is that it's airborne and we've had so much seriously windy weather, so if you're unlucky you can have great biosecurity yet still end up with it. I don't know how long it can live outside a host though, if it's only something like an hour then that should help reduce the spread compared to if it's days.

I think it's a case of be sensible and offer up a few prayers for good measure.
 
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Huggy said:
Three cases in sway and brockenhurst, too close for comfort. We have horse boxes going up and down the lane to the yard along the way. Advised not to hack, so I think I'll leave it for a week or so, and see how the land lies.
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Are these confirmed cases? How did you find out about them? Is there a central body keeping track?
 
Unfortunately, we have the added risk of the forest ponies - it's entirely possible for a pony/ponies to wander and pass it on in no time, over such a short distance. I pass within 10-20 feet of them almost every time I hack out. It may be a false alarm, but the verderers are apparently advising no hacking too.
 
Our local bridleways are closed now as the land on some of them are privately owned and they are protecting their horses. Not to meet up or visit any other yards and not to hack out.
 
Huggy said:
View attachment 101238
My friend messaged me with this - think it may have been in fb
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I have seen that as well, but this seems to be hearsay rather than confirmation of confirmed cases. I wondered if anyone was keeping track of them in one place? I know that it is not a notifiable disease but how do we tell how bad the situation really is?
 
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There is a Strangles, EHV and Equine Influenza FB group which posts daily updates.

As with the flu there seem to be cases popping up all over. They can't all be related, so is the tragic situation at Crofton just making us hyper aware of a disease that is always around anyway.

I don't fully understand the disease and its implications, but I read that the strain at Crofton was particularly bad, whereas a vet in Yorkshire posted that they had treated a horse that showed only very low levels of the virus.
 
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