The Drill on Equine Encephalitis

Trouble For Horses (And You)

Once bitten by an infected black-tailed mosquito ( Culiseta melanura) , the virus has an incubation period of 3 to 7 days. during this period the virus is not infectious. It causes severe brain and nervous system inflammation. It is the owner’s responsibility to look for certain progressive clinical signs. These include biphasic fever (usually on day 2 and day 6), stiffness, and changes to behavior. Behavioral changes can look like hypersensitivity to touch, aggression, wandering, and constant chewing.  However, the most important sign of them all is head pressing.
If any of these signs are being shown, contact your veterinarian immediately. Your veterinarian can give a proper diagnosis from the signs and a blood test. This allows them to see if there are any antibodies fighting against the virus. Once the horse is given the proper diagnosis of Equine Encephalitis, he or she will give treatment.  Treatments include intravenous fluids (dehydration) and anti-inflammatory medications for the brain swelling. This virus comes with a serious risk of fatality. The death rates are as followed: WEE at approximately 50%, VEE death toll variant at 20% to 80%, and EEE has the highest death toll of them all at 90%.
Humans and other animals like mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians are also susceptible to the virus. One bite of an infected mosquito and humans start to develop onset symptoms. These symptoms can include fever, headache, and body aches but often go untreated. This leads to the development of more serious symptoms like disorientation, seizures, paralysis. Severe cases have resulted in brain damage caused by brain inflammation, coma, and death. As in infected horses, there is no cure for Equine Encephalitis in humans and other animals, only treatment with fluids and anti-inflammatories.

Solutions To Prevent 

To reduce the chances of your horse receiving any variation of the Equine Encephalitis virus, follow precautions for mosquito control:

•     Eliminate mosquito breeding grounds – which can occur in any source of water that sits for more than 4 days
•     Reduce exposure to mosquitoes with insect/mosquito repellent
•     Avoid turnout for horses during dawn and dusk hours when mosquitoes are biting
•     Turn on fans or open windows in the barn with stalled horses to create a breeze

Most of all, vaccinate your horse annually to help prevent it from receiving this dangerous virus. Zoetis™ has a vaccine that protects your horse from 5 fatal viruses: EEE, WEE, Rabies, Tetanus, and West Nile. This vaccine is only from your horse’s veterinarian.