EEE in Michigan

[goodhors]

Well things are not going well in Michigan. Mostly we are hoping for some severe temp drops to hit the mosquito population.

Two horses have been put down with Vet diagnosed EEE within 15 miles of me. Not quite right in the AM, Vet stopped by later in the day, horse was staggering, had gone neurological and was put down. I presume they sent in samples on them. But gone within 8 hours or less! Very scary!! There was a third horse with it further south, 20 miles. I know for sure one was not vaccinated, not sure on the other two.

Here is the most recent posting by the State;

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/emergingdiseases/2010EEEequine_329047_7.pdf

There are LOTS of dead horses, but not all have been counted on the western side of the State. Just died and got buried. No necropsy or Vet visit. Quite a few folks "know someone" who lost a horse and didn't report it or have the Vet out to save expense with an already dead horse.

This was Monday's article in the news, at least no more people are reported.

http://m.wwmt.com/wwmt/db_12230/con...contentguid=adn2Keyj&detailindex=1&pn=0&ps=10

Health folks are still pushing horse vaccination for EEE and some articles saying to rebooster if shots were given early in the year. Drug makers still say one shot is good, not pushing reboostering. Reports say some of the dead animals were vaccinated.

Just kind of pins and needles around here if you have a horse. And people are all recommended to wear long sleeves and come inside when the mosquitos come out in the evening.

I did just read that Ohio is getting some cases of EEE, three at last notice. Next year should be pretty exciting!

 

[w c]

I am sure when a problem like this strikes that accurate picture is very very hard to come by. I am also sure a lot of people will be casting doubts on the vaccines and generally spreading terror and anxiety.

Some cases will be those who tried to give their own vaccines - it is not so easy to get that right. A vet tech once explained to me that it is not so easy to vaccinate right, every type of vaccine has different receptor sites and not so easy to give them correctly.

Bottom line? Vaccinate. Get rid of standing water around your farm thru excavation/drainage/pasture management/avoid overgrazing and causing holes to form in pasture by not overstocking in wet weather, keep drainage good at gates with rock drainage underneath, etc. Remove manure and get manure piles hauled away. Get rid of old tires, junk to remove mosquito habitats, put up screens in barn and keep horses in behind screens at night. Use fly/mosquito repellants. We use 1.) fly predators 2.) a long lasting sweat proof (spot-type) repellent on horses and 3.) a spraying system in the barn that sprays every 15 minutes. Management works.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Three horses in our area have been diagnosed with Potomac Horse Fever. All have recovered (one even went on to win a state championship!)

Some years back when I was working at a small ranch in SE Gladwin county, 12 horses within a 10 mile radius came down with Potomac and 3 died. The vet said that vaccines helped only slightly against Potomac since they are protozoa not viruses.

 

[goodhors]

The thing with vaccines, is that the disease mutates. That is the difficulty with Potomac. Vaccine is for old strains, while new stuff is what horses get and die from. Local horses that got Potomac were not so lucky. ALL vaccinated, STILL died. Potomac is a bad one, also goes on a fast progress thru the horse.

Unfortunately, with Michigan The Land of Lakes and Rivers, swamps and wetlands, you just can't get it dry because you want to. Lots of water everywhere! Not just bad drainage or sloppy farm practices. I think our County is almost the DRIEST one in the State! Still have LOTS of water areas, just not lakes or recreational rivers.
So unless the mosquitos are sprayed for, they have plenty of places to reproduce despite your best efforts. And it has been raining pretty often the last 2 weeks, so every puddle, wet dirt, can reproduce bugs. Pastures are looking a lot better, green and growing again for what that is worth!!

I am wondering if the EEE vaccine being used is still an old formula and the disease has mutated a bit, so shots may be less effective. Like the Flu shot you can get each year. Never the SAME flu, though it can have all the same signs as the last 10 years flu did. I learned to give horses shots back when the first wave of EEE hit northern areas. Vet just showed us how to give shots, gave us vaccine, needles and syringes, so we went around and did all our friends and our own horses. Vet was older, already run ragged, no more hours in the day! She figured better us than nothing done at all!! It appeared to work, no EEE cases in our local area of the county, though other cases were across the county.