EEE Vaccination Question

[goodhors]

I guess the question is have you vaccinated for EEE?

We just got a report in the news about EEE being found in 3 horses in the State of MI. This is the encephalitis that can be transferred to humans if horses are not vaccinated.

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/...3-Michigan-horses-confirmed-with-encephalitis

I think it has been a while since anyone died, but the victim in the 1970's was just a couple miles from my farm at the time. Kid had played with an unvaccinated pony, caught the disease. He lingered for a while but was unresponsive for much of the time.

I am huge on vaccinating for the Es, that death was scary when I was a kid.

Anyway, just a warning about the Eastern Encephalitis being present and scattered around the State of MI.

 

[Bunnylady]

According to this article, EEE and WEE require a mosquito vector to spread from one host to another; they cannot be caught by direct contact. It also seems to be saying that an infected horse isn't even an indirect threat, because the virus doesn't build up to a high enough level in the blood of a horse for the mosquito to transmit it to another animal. VEE, a form that so far is almost exclusively seen in South and Central America, does seem to have the potential to build up to a level that even some direct horse-to-horse infection can occur.

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=14452

EEE/WEE don't use horses as their primary hosts. There are other animals in the area that these diseases get around in; the risk to a human is the same whether they live on a huge horse breeding farm or if there isn't a horse within 5 miles.

From what I understand, that means that the child you mentioned didn't get the infection from the pony, he and the pony were infected separately by mosquitoes that picked it up feeding from birds in the area. He was just as much at risk if he hadn't had the pony in the first place. The only way the pony was involved in the child's illness was if the mosquitoes bred in the pony's water trough, or perhaps through the fact that the pony being outside, it brought the boy out to where the mosquitoes could get to him.

You aren't protecting yourself from EEE/WEE when you vaccinate your horse, because people can't catch it from horses. To protect yourself, you need to limit your own exposure to mosquito bites. Vaccinating your horse does protect you from the cost of treating the disease, and the risk of losing a valued friend. Around here (mosquito central), we vaccinate twice a year. Your veterinarian can tell you what is the proper vaccination schedule for your area.

 

[patandchickens]

I used to have it done every other year or so when I lived in the States, and had them done again oh maybe 4 years ago. It may be time for me to do it again sometime soon IMO.

Anyone contemplating doing it this year should do it RIGHT NOW, as it takes a month or three for most of this type vaccine to produce good immunity in the horse, and the *end* of mosquito season isn't *that* far off.

Note however that whether to vaccinate your horse for the encephalitis complex is not realistically a human-health issue (the way rabies *is*). Yes, humans can contract the disease -- but they are not going to get it from HORSES, they are going to get it the same way the horses do, from the wild reservoir of the disease in bird populations. Mosquitos bite infected birds, then bite a horse or a human, who (rarely) contracts the disease. There are so vastly more infected birds out there that if you DID get it, statistically speaking it ain't gonna be from a mosquito who was carrying it from an infected horse, it's gonna be from a mosquito who was carrying it from infected *birds*. (Same with West Nile and any other mosquitoborne disease shared by humans and horses)

(e.t.a. - ...as Bunnylady said while I was typing )

Pat

 

[w c]

In my area, vaccination for 'all the 'E's' is considered vital and must be done on a regular schedule. I would never pass it up, and never have.

 

[LauraM]

In my area, vaccination for 'all the 'E's' is considered vital and must be done on a regular schedule. I would never pass it up, and never have.

Same here.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Mine are.

BTW, 3 horses in Ogemaw county have been diagnosed with Potomac Horse Fever. They've all recovered, but for anyone on the way to the east end of Shore to Shore may want to keep this in mind