FReepmail me to get on or off
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Ping me if you find one I've missed.
Needs an "Equine Catastrophism" ping too.
Posted on 03/26/2007 6:55:33 PM PDT by blam
Horses at risk from virus that can kill in four hours
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 2:27am BST 27/03/2007
A deadly virus that kills horses is poised to arrive in Britain as a result of climate change, scientists warned.
African horse sickness, which is spread by the Culicoides midge, kills 90 per cent of horses that catch it. The disease causes bleeding, breathing difficulties, colic and death within four hours of catching the virus.
The Government-funded Institute for Animal Health (IAH) described the virus as "probably the worst horse disease on the planet".
It could devastate the £4 billion-a-year horse industry according to the Horse Trust charity. A single case would mean imports and exports from Britain being banned for two years.
The Culicoides midge "can be transported on wind" for hundreds of miles, according to Professor Philip Mellor of the IAH.
As the climate gets warmer, the Horse Trust says the disease would have a greater opportunity to establish itself. The disease can pass to midges in Britain, spreading it even more rapidly.
There were outbreaks between 1987 and 1991 in North Africa, Spain and Portugal. Thousands of horses either died or had to be put down.
Dr James Wood, from the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium, warned that the vaccines are unlicenced in Europe: "There is no modern control for this infection. That is one reason why we should be worried."
A spokesman from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said surveillance suggested that the virus was confined to Africa but they would "keep this assessment under review".
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Ping me if you find one I've missed.
How long can a virus survive outside a host? Wouldn't it have problems spreading if it wiped out it's carriers?
Love the climate change plug! LOL
Attention! Everyone be very scared! - or not... Nevermind, isn't really here [yet].
So - is it a story [in Britain] or not?
Someone needs to photo shop it to make it Al Gore!
English horses have been getting sweet itch (note: this is not the same disease as the Horse sickness) from native species of Culicoides since we've had horses. The article could do with being a bit clearer about the species of midge. Culicoides Imicola would be my guess.
I don't think it has a damned thing to do with climate change. But if it's already in Portugal, then there's certainly risk of it spreading.
Could spread here to the US, for that matter. Let's just hope it doesn't.
Horses in America are complete safe. Congress has already acted to make it unlawful for funny little foreigners to eat American horseflesh.
This'll be next.
Leni
The 1918 flu virus was found, still viable, in a dead body exhumed a few years ago.
Avian Influenza virus, also known as Bird flu, can survive thirty days in bird poop.
horsie ping
I thought I had just vaccinated mine for everything, and I mean everything.
Is the Equine Flu contagious? Do I need to start using my bird flu supplies?
This has absolutely nothing to do with climate change. It has everthing to do with horses being shipped all over the world without proper inspection for disease.
Exactly the same reason we are at health risks from illegal aliens.
These liberal scientists never miss a chance to throw in global warming or climate change, when none of them even have a clue as to what is going on.
You can never vaccinate your horses for everything. Whenever you get them completely up-to-date on the latest bug, horses will think of a new disease to cost you money. And if a month ever goes by that you don't spend as much money on them as usual, they'll cost you twice as much the following month just so you have an opportunity to show them how much you love them. They are also careful to do this when you're short of cash. They listen intently so they can determine the most financially difficult time to get sick, lose a shoe, break the tree on the saddle, or develop some mysterious lameness that no one can diagnose.
Horse who are shipped anywhere are in fact inspected for disease. In many states they can't even step into a horse trailer without health paperwork.
This disease has an incubation of four hours so they aren't spreading it very far in a day's travel... and at any rate, it sounds like they get it from some kind of bug bite, not from contact with sick horses.
Mine can only go about 45 miles. Then it's "papers please"
HIV can last about 6 weeks in a syringe full of blood.
Hep B can last 6 months in same.
One of the Apollo Moon missions brought back pieces from an unmanned lander that was inadvertently contaminated with staph "at the factory". An examination found and revived the bacteria that had spent several years, exposed, on the Moon.
Wouldn't it have problems spreading if it wiped out it's carriers?
Carriers, or hosts? I think the problem with honey bees disappearing is a mite that can be carried by other creatures, like the bumble bee, but doesn't attack them.
Here's a link to a podcast on transgenic mosquitoes that might be part of a solution to spreading malaria in the coming years.
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