-Caveat Lector- Ran across this item Amelia under Chinese vaccines....made me wonder for read between lines maybe a vaccine caused loss of foals who aborted? So they slaughtered a lot of cattle; however this Chinese company making abortion pill alsd other products which were tanted. This item mentioned horses aborting and also tests that run positive when negative and negative when positive for this one.....also reference to hoof and mouth. The E.I.A. Scare The EIA Scare by Gillian Smith, Saskatchewan Horse Federation Lately, there are few words in any horseman's vocabulary that invoke the passionate response of the initials "E.I.A." Is a positive Coggins test a meaningless death sentence or is it the only way currently available to control a deadly and contagious disease? Finding the answer requires setting aside the sensationalism surrounding Equine Infectious Anemia, and that is not necessarily easy. The idea of euthanizing perfectly healthy horses is enough to make most people squirm and the current confusion and ignorance surrounding the disease only serves to reinforce the notion that Coggins testing is harmful, not helpful. The controversy in Western Canada began to escalate last year, following an eruption of EIA cases and changes in the control regulations set by Agriculture Canada. The new rules stipulated that although EIA would remain a reportable disease and positive horses would be slaughtered or permanently quarantined, in-contact animals would not be subjected to mandatory testing. The level of positive tests appeared to increase accordingly, with a total of 43 horses testing positive in Saskatchewan in 1995, in contrast with one horse in 1994 and zero in 1993. Similar increases were reported across the country, with the exception of Ontario and the Atlantic provinces (where they continued to test large portions of the horse population). The change in regulations and the subsequent increase in incidences has initiated the spread of a rash of misconceptions about the necessity of testing for EIA and the nature of the disease. The Disease Explained Equine Infectious Anemia, or "swamp fever", is not a new disease. It was first found in Manitoba in 1881 and has been diagnosed on every continent. Leroy Coggins developed the first test for identifying EIA in 1970 and the disease became reportable in 1971. Since the 1970s, despite a marked increase in the frequency and range of transportation, the numbers show a decrease in EIA incidence. Ron Rogers of Agriculture Canada in Ottawa states that, "In 1972 we tested 49,114 horses and found 2.9% reactors (1,424 horses)...In 1992, 70,000 horses were tested with only .09% reactors (63 horses) found." Equine Infectious Anaemia is a retroviral disease of horses and other equids that affects the immune system. It is transmitted by blood, mainly via blood-sucking insects, although also through other means such as the re-use of needles and breeding. [A virus is a sub-microscopic agent consisting essentially of a particle of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein and able to replicate only within a living cell. A retrovirus contains a type of nucleic acid called RNA (ribonucleic acid) and has the ability, using a process called reverse transcriptase, to reproduce itself over and over, spreading throughout the animal's system.] The symptoms of EIA vary from horse to horse, but can include one or more of the following: fever and/or sudden temperature fluctuations, depression, decreased appetite, fatigue or reduced stamina, rapid breathing, sweating, rapid weight loss, bloodshot eyes with watery discharge, swelling of legs, lower chest and abdomen, haemorrhages, weakness characterized by wobbly or rolling gait, pale or yellowish mucous membranes, irregular heartbeat and/or weak pulse, colic and abortion in pregnant mares. EIA generally has three forms: Acute, during which the virus is active, multiplying and harming the immune system and other bodily systems. Chronic, during which the horse may cycle between remission and infection. The animal may be thin or in poor body condition and may suffer from recurring bouts of clinical signs, as seen in the acute phase. Inapparent Carrier/Asymptomatic horses can carry the virus but show no apparent symptoms. Although they may never become acute, stress or other diseases can bring on acute symptoms. The Coggins Test The Coggins test, also known as the agar-gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test, was developed by Dr. Leroy Coggins in 1970 and is the most commonly used and accurate method of detecting EIA. The test is consistently reliable and can only be analyzed by accredited laboratories. Positive tests are redone several times, both at the accredited lab and at the Federal lab. According to Dr. Shelagh Copeland of the Provincial Veterinary & Dairy Diagnostic Laboratory, "When a formal positive result on a horse is finally released, the owner can be quite confident the horse tested truly and has antibodies to the EIA virus. The federal investigations then determine if there are underlying circumstances that may cause the horse to have only antibodies to the virus but not necessarily the virus itself. A horse may have only antibodies if it is under approximately six months of age and has only the antibodies from its infected dam's colostrum (first milk) or the horse has had a recent blood transfusion from an infected horse. In these circumstances the horse is retested after a certain length of time by which the antibodies should have been cleared from its system. The initial presence of antibodies does indicate that there is an infected animal out there that needs to be tested such as the dam or donor animal. We do occasionally see what are called non-specific lines on the test which may be from previous illness or possibly vaccination. These non-specific lines, however, are easy to differentiate from the specific identity lines of a horse with antibodies to the EIA virus and do not result in false positives. There is a category called an atypical reactor, where the reaction doesn't fall clearly into either a negative or positive category. Those tests are redone here and then sent to Agriculture Canada. If the test is still atypical, the horse is retested in a few months. I haven't yet seen an atypical reaction since I've been working here. False negatives call for far more concern and Dr. Charles Issel, DVM, PhD, at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center stated that, "False positives are not really a concern. But false negatives are, there have been false negatives identified both in France and Texas." (One French horse tested negative 44 times over a six-year period, then subsequently became sick with EIA and infected other herd members.) Issel is tackling this problem with the development of the "Traceback Program," which means testing horses living near those testing positive and using complex DNA and antibody testing to retest horses with differing results on multiple Coggins tests. The Debate The debate centres primarily on the fate of the inapparent carrier. The Coggins test (or the newer ELISA test) can identify the presence of antibodies to the virus in the bloodstream, but is unable to differentiate between acute, chronic or inapparent/asymptomatic. Current government regulations stipulate that horses testing positive must be removed from contact with other animals and either euthanized or permanently quarantined. While some studies have demonstrated that inapparent carriers pose little threat of transmission to other horses, the problem is first, identifying the inapparent carrier, and secondly determining that the inapparent carrier will not at some point revert to a more infectious state and spread the disease more readily to other horses. There is no definitive test to accomplish that at the present time. A possible alternative for EIA positive but asymptomatic horses has been incorporated in Florida. In the early 1970s, the FRIENDS facility near Ft. Lauderdale, FL began accepting donations of inapparent carriers and then "adopting them out" to people in return for a small fee of monthly board. Adopters are then able to ride the horses on ranch property. A similar project established in Canada would allow inapparent carriers to continue living and could potentially provide a site for research projects. However, the funding and organization needed to form that kind of facility would be considerable. The Elusive Vaccine The one thing that would eliminate the controversy surrounding EIA would be the development of a vaccine against the virus. In 1984, Equus magazine reported that China was using a vaccine for EIA, but that US federal animal-health officials would prevent its importation for two reasons: Because as a weakened version of the live-virus based on a highly virulent strain of the organism, the vaccine would have the capability to revert to the infectious strain and because one of the ingredients, bovine serum, could introduce hoof-and-mouth disease into the population. Hoof-and-mouth disease was eliminated in North America but is still common in parts of China. Researchers in the US also believed that the Chinese vaccine might not be applicable to North American horses, as our horse population here is quite different from the Mongolian type ponies of China, as are the strains of the EIA virus. In any event, collaboration with the Chinese was never very successful and to date a vaccine is not available in Canada or the United States. The answer to the EIA problem lies in research. However, research dollars are scarce and EIA incidence is comparatively low. The link that may bring advancements in knowledge is the connection between EIA and AIDS - both viruses share some common characteristics and some hope the research with horses will ultimately help humans. In the future, that could mean increased funding for EIA related research. Like patients suffering with AIDS, horses who suffer from acute EIA die a painful and miserable death, with owners left to helplessly watch them die. Protection = Prevention There is no effective treatment for EIA. There is no vaccine to prevent it. There is no cure. But the disease can be controlled and at the moment the Coggins test is still a crucial part of that program. The best defense is to follow good management practices and reduce, if not eliminate, the likelihood of transmission and infection. Horse people who refuse to test their horses, or falsify their Coggins certificates (a criminal offence) in order to pass inspections are only contributing to the problem and allowing the disease to perpetuate itself. Horse show officials, event organizers and stable owners can make a huge difference by not only requesting but verifying a current negative Coggins certificate to ensure that 1) the owners do in fact posses a current Coggins certificate for each horse, 2) the horses described on the certificates match the horses in the trailer and 3) the documents have not been altered or tampered with in any way. Conclusions The conclusions on the EIA scare are as follows: some research indicates that the asymptomatic horse poses very little biological threat, but as yet there is no officially accepted method of distinguishing the asymptomatic horse from the chronic or acute carrier, or determining whether or not he will be a potential threat. The fact remains that while the risk may be small, the consequences are not. Dividing the horse industry will not conquer anything, but a united program of testing will stop the spread of EIA. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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