RABIES THREAT IN HORSES.

Real-Life Examples of a Real-Life Threat Although rabies is a rare disease in domestic animals, due to its uniformly fatal nature, encounters remain as vivid memories. These are two real-life examples from my own experiences. Case 1: Human Exposure We had a "down horse" emergency case due to arrive at the John Thomas Vaughan Large Animal Teaching Hospital at Auburn University. Prior to arrival, the owners told us that the previous day, the horse was at a 4-H show being ridden by a young girl, and he seemed a little off: slightly colicky in the morning and then lame in the afternoon. The following morning the horse was ataxic (incoordinated) and their regular veterinarian recommended referral to Auburn. The owners set out on the four-hour drive to our hospital, but two hours prior to arrival the horse went down in the trailer. The owner called us to say that the horses' condition had deteriorated and he was now biting viciously at his extended foreleg; he also notified us that he did not think the horse was worth saving and that he was going to return home to humanely shoot the horse and bury it on the farm. Rabies is a risk with any horse that has progressively neurologic signs, and though rare, this case was concerning. We strongly recommended continuing to the university, but the owner was concerned about expensive care with a poor prognosis. My fears turned to the daughter. Even if the horse was ultimately euthanized, there was a risk the daughter could have been exposed if the animal tested positive for rabies. A drop of saliva while bridling the horse could easily inoculate a small cut on a finger. To my relief the owner agreed to continue to Auburn to have the horse euthanized and a post-mortem performed. On arrival the horse was still down on the trailer, tongue lolling and biting at anything that moved. We were able to heavily sedate the horse and carefully access a rear leg vein to humanely put him to sleep. All our veterinarians and technicians are vaccinated for rabies, but it was still quite frightening and risky, so we minimized the number of people involved. We performed a post-mortem exam immediately, which confirmed our biggest fear: The horse was positive for rabies. We notified the state health department, and they were able to ensure all individuals that had contact with the horse--people in the horse's barn and at the show, the referring veterinarian, and the owner and his daughter--received post-exposure hyperimmune plasma and a long series of vaccines against rabies. Case 2: Rabies vaccines: Important for horses, dogs, and even the barn cat A friend of mine has several horses and visits her farm daily with her daughter and grandson. One evening while pulling a few flakes of hay from the hayshed, the daughter felt something brush against her face and then over her arm. A flashlight revealed a small bat that was awkwardly fluttering over the hay bales. My friend chased off the barn cat who was very interested in this new, wildly moving "cat toy" and managed to kill the ailing bat with a single whack of a nearby shovel. The daughter then noticed a small scratch across her arm. They washed the wound carefully and wrapped the deceased bat in several plastic bags. Meanwhile the old one-eyed barn cat was outside happily enjoying his evening game with the grandson. My friend called me for advice. As a veterinarian I am not allowed to give medical advice, but I ensured that they had washed the scratch with water and disinfectant and suggested they pack some ice packs around the bat's packaged remains and head to the emergency room. Luckily they still had the dead bat available for rabies testing and it was delivered to the Alabama State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory first thing the next morning, where testing confirmed the bat was positive for rabies. The daughter was given rabies hyperimmune plasma and post-exposure vaccines. She told me that over the next two weeks, every time she received one of the vaccines the scratch on her arm would redden and hurt for several hours. She was convinced the bat had inoculated her with the rabies virus. The county rabies veterinary officer was notified of the positive rabies test, and we recommended that all the horses and the barn cat be revaccinated immediately and carefully observed for any possible signs of disease. Fortunately, the cat had not come in contact with the bat; an exposed cat with overdue vaccines, such as this one, would have to be euthanized or quarantined for many months. Initially my friend was reluctant to spend the money to vaccinate the old barn cat. He had lived happily on the farm for many years and, although she never really owned him, he certainly thought he owned the farm. I walked her through the facts: Rabies is endemic in America, and obviously there were rabid bats on the farm. The individual most likely to contact a sickly bat would be the old barn cat, and the cat was always around the valuable horses and was the 4-year-old grandson's playmate. The old barn cat certainly needed to be vaccinated, even as a means of protecting others potentially more valuable than he. Are all your horses, dogs and barn cats up-to-date on rabies vaccines? story source (The horse.com)

RABIES AND DOG MEAT.

Rabies is very deadly but can be prevented by vaccination,and in case of exposure to the rabies virus from infected animals post exposure prophylaxis is important.The story below outlines the risk of processing animals such as dogs,cats and bats for consumption.

 Eating dog meat is common in many Asian and African countries, but research conducted as part of the South East Asian Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Network has discovered a potentially lethal risk associated with preparing dog meat: rabies. 

In research published today in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, Dr Heiman Wertheim and colleagues from the National Institute of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Hanoi, Viet Nam, report on two patients admitted to hospital showing signs of rabies infection. Neither patient was thought to have been bitten by a rabid animal in the preceding months. Rabies is a very serious – and in nearly all cases fatal – disease. 

It is estimated to kill over 30,000 people each year in Asia, and the number of cases in China and Viet Nam is increasing. Symptoms include agitation, severe spasms, fever, fear of water and inability to drink liquids, and eventually death. Humans are usually infected after being bitten by an infected animal such as a dog or bat.

 When the researchers investigated whether the patients had come into contact with infected animals in the preceding months, they found that both had been involved in preparing and eating animals which may have been infected. In the first patient’s case, he had prepared and eaten a dog that had been killed in a road traffic accident; rabid dogs were known to inhabit the neighborhood.

 The second patient had butchered and eaten a cat that had been sick for a number of days. In both cases seen by Dr Wertheim and colleagues, it is thought that infection occurred during the slaughtering, and not by eating the meat as the meal was shared by others who did not become infected.

 In Asia, it is believed that eating dog meat enhances health and longevity. It is eaten throughout the year in the second half of the lunar month, particularly in the winter months, when it is believed to increase body heat. 

 In Vietnam, dogs with rabies have been detected in dog slaughterhouses and workers at dog slaughterhouses are vaccinated against rabies as part of the national programme for rabies control and prevention. 

However, the private slaughter of dogs is relatively common in the country. Illegal dog and cat meat traders both in Asia and Africa are of particular concern to No To Dog Meat. this area we must focus on to prevent mass rabies outbreak equaling death.

 “We need to alert both the general public and clinicians about the risks around butchering and handling meat,” says Dr Wertheim. “People should not handle animals that may be infected with rabies. 

Rabies can be prevented with a vaccine and people exposed to rabies can be helped with post-exposure prophylaxis, but this needs to be administered as quickly as possible following the exposure. 

Once a person shows symptoms, the disease is almost invariably fatal. “Vietnamese doctors already consider dog slaughtering to be a risk factor for rabies transmission, but it is important that other health care workers and policy makers, both in- and outside Vietnam, are aware of this risk factor.”

 Human health is just as important to ourselves as is animal health. We are creating awareness because we believe that a mass outbreak of food poisoning, rabies or a unique form of (H?N?) mutation forming. Disease is rife as it is within Africa. 

A third world nation that now has the effects of climate change looming we cannot sit back any longer and allow mass disease outbreak and spread to occur.