The Threat of Rabies in Horses

The Threat of Rabies in Horses

Horses and the Risk of Rabies

Horses and the Risk of Rabies

RABIES IN HORSES.

Equine rabies is a feared and fatal disease, but there are ways horse owners can reduce the risk of their animals becoming infected.Rabies is fatal to all mammals. Rabies--caused by a lyssa virus that affects mammals' nervous system and salivary glands. It has six genotypes, all of which have different host ranges and pathogenicities. Rabies is everywhere,but more prevalent in underdeveloped countries than others.There are some countries reported free of the virus include Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. ROUTES OF INFECTION IN HORSES. 1)Horses contract rabies from other infected animals. The horse will contract the rabies virus, when bitten by another rabid animal or have a wound contaminated with saliva or blood from an infected animal. 2) Wildlife exposure and interaction. The sylvatic cycle of the rabies virus is maintained by the wildlife community,thus when there is an interaction especially through fights,bites or consumption of infected carcass,the virus spreads. The animals that usually harbour the virus are skunks,foxes,bats,wild dogs and livestock. SIGNS OF RABIES.The signs at onset are nonspecific and include ;depression,inappetence, and Ataxia.The signs become more pronounced as the infection progresses and these are 1) hypersensitivity tu sound and touch. 2) pruritis 3) increased libido 4)twitching. Rabies is rapidly progressive and uniformly fatal with death from cardio-respiratory failure or misadventure within 10 days .People exposed to blood or saliva from a rabid horse has a risk of contracting and therefore dying of rabies,although the chances of infection from a horse to a human are small ;all prevention protocols should be observed. BIOSECURITY IN CASES OF RABIES.1) If any animal is suspected,there must be isolation of subject and restriction of handlers to the box. 2)The use of gloves,face mask and protective clothing. Vaccination is still the best means of protection.Vaccinate all horses.

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)

PREVENTION OF SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF ZIKA VIRUS.

Men who have traveled to an area with ongoing Zika virus transmission should consider abstaining from having sex with their pregnant partners or should “consistently and correctly use condoms” for the duration of the pregnancy, researchers cautioned. The recommendations came days after the CDC confirmed the virus had been spread through sexual contact.In two separate reports, the CDC published interim guidelines for the prevention of sexual transmission of Zika and updated interim guidelines for health care providers caring for pregnant women and women of reproductive age with possible exposure to the primarily mosquito-borne virus. The linkage between Zika and microcephaly is stronger with each passing day, In addition, the linkage between Zika and Guillain-Barré syndrome also appears stronger the more we learn because it’s new and can be so severe, it’s scary, especially for women who are pregnant or considering pregnancy. The CDC continues to urge the use of condoms and safe sex practices to protect against the virus.Men with pregnant sexual partners who are living in areas where Zika is active or who have traveled to those places should either abstain from sexual activity or correctly use condoms during all oral, anal and vaginal sex, according to the recommendations. Men who are living in or have recently traveled to an active Zika area who are concerned about transmitting the disease to their non-pregnant partners also should consider the same precautions. The couples considering sex should take into account that most Zika infections do not have symptoms and any illness is usually mild. The CDC noted that Zika might persist in semen even after it is no longer detectable in blood. Zika testing in men is recommended to establish diagnosis of infection in groups including pregnant women. However, testing for men for the purposes of assessing their risk for sexual transmission is not recommended. Serologic testing is recommended within 2 to 12 weeks for pregnant women without symptoms who have returned from traveling to areas with ongoing Zika transmission. Testing is recommended within the first week for pregnant women with clinical illness consistent with Zika. story source;Helio infectious disease news.

How blue and green clay kills bacteria.

Since prehistoric times, clay have been used by people for medicinal purposes. Whether by eating it, soaking in a mud bath, or using it to stop bleeding from wounds, clay has long been part of keeping humans healthy. Now scientists have discovered the two key ingredients that give some natural clays the power to kill even antibiotic-resistant microbes. A new discovery by Arizona State University scientists shows exactly how two specific metallic elements in the right kinds of clay can kill troublesome bacteria that infect humans and animals."We think of this mechanism like the Trojan horse attack in ancient Greece," said Lynda Williams, a clay-mineral scientist at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE). "Two elements in the clay work in tandem to kill bacteria." She explained, "One metallic element -- chemically reduced iron, which in small amounts is required by a bacterial cell for nutrition -- tricks the cell into opening its wall. Then another element -- aluminum -- props the cell wall open, allowing a flood of iron to enter the cell. This overabundance of iron then poisons the cell, killing it as the reduced iron becomes oxidized." A chance discovery of a medicinal clay from Europe caught Williams' attention and put her on the track. A French philanthropist with clinical experience in Africa told her about a particular green-hued clay found near the philanthropist's childhood home in France. The philanthropist, Line Brunet de Courssou, had taken samples of the clay to Africa, where she documented its cure for Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating skin disease, in patients in the African country of Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). The research include testing dozens of samples, Williams and her team identified a blue-colored clay from the Oregon Cascades that proved to be highly antibacterial. The research reported in the paper shows that it works against a broad spectrum of human pathogens, including antibiotic-resistant strains such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The colors of the clays reflect their origins, Williams said. The greens and blues of antibacterial clays come from having a high content of chemically reduced iron (Fe2+), as opposed to oxidized iron (Fe3+), which gives the familiar red color of rust (Fe-oxide), often associated with many clays. Reduced clays are common in many parts of the world, typically forming in volcanic ash layers as rocks become altered by water that is oxygen-deprived and hydrogen-rich. source; science daily.

Natural clay deposit may hold keys to defeating hospital infections.

Researchers have uncovered potent antimicrobial activity in a natural clay deposit found on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. The research shows that the clay can kill members of the ESKAPE group of bacterial pathogens, the culprits behind some of the deadliest and most antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infections. Researchers have uncovered potent antimicrobial activity in a natural clay deposit found on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. The research, published this week in mBio, an online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, shows that the clay can kill members of the ESKAPE group of bacterial pathogens, the culprits behind some of the deadliest and most antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infections. Kisameet clay, named for a nearby bay, has been used by the indigenous Heiltsuk First Nation people for several centuries to treat both internal and skin ailments. In the 1940s, doctors in Vancouver used the clay to successfully treat a variety of ailments such as ulcerative colitis, duodenal ulcer, arthritis, and burns. But, after antibiotics became widely available, the natural remedy was largely forgotten. The ESKAPE group of bacteria includes pathogens such as MRSA, as well as those that cause pneumonia, urinary tract infections and septicemia. These bacteria were identified as the leading problems in hospital-acquired infections because they are resistant to most antibiotics and are extremely difficult to treat. Davies and his graduate student Shekooh Behroozian wanted to determine if the clay harbored activity that could fight microbes in the lab. "When we started, we thought it was folk medicine, but it turned out to be much more than that," says Davies. Using a collection of 16 bacterial strains mostly from local hospitals, Behroozian tested a diluted suspension of the clay for antibacterial activity against the strains. Incubating the bacteria with the clay suspension for 24-48 hours, the team showed that the clay had a strong antibacterial activity that killed all 16 strains. Both water-based and solvent-based extracts of the clay also exhibit antibacterial activity. Extracts also killed Candida albicans, a pathogenic yeast, and prevented the formation of biofilms produced by two ESKAPE members, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.The exact mechanisms of how the clay kills bacteria and yeast are unknown, says Davies, largely because clay is a complicated mixture. Kisameet clay is about 24% by weight clay minerals, which are aluminum silicates with metal ions interspersed through their layers. Like soil, the clay also contains a complex microbial community. The clay's physical, chemical, and microbial properties are likely to contribute to its antimicrobial activity and may do so synergistically. Story source;Papers from American society for microbiology.