186 Dead Horses From a "Cruel" & "Devastating" Virus
BANGKOK, Thailand -- For the first time in Thailand, a
rapidly
spreading "cruel" and "devastating" virus has
killed least 186 horses
by attacking the animals' lungs,
causing fever and death within hours.
Thailand's security
forces on April 16 guarded checkpoints on highways
to
stop horses being transported across the country, and
quarantine
animals infected with the African Horse
Sickness (AHS) virus.
"Effective immediately, and until
further notice, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's
Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service's
Veterinary
Services is placing restrictions on the importation
of
equine from Thailand, based on the diagnosis of
African Horse Sickness
in multiple equine species of
different ages and sexes," the U.S.
department announced
on March 31.
A 60-day quarantine was required. The New
York Animal Import Center,
located in Rock Tavern, New
York, is the only quarantine location
accepting horses
from AHS countries.
"Any semen or embryos from countries
affected with African Horse
Sickness is prohibited," the
department said on its website.
Thailand's health
officials established a disease control center
with
deployment teams to test suffering horses, and spray
insecticide in
barns and stables.
A hotline was created
so people could inform authorities about any
illegal
transportation of horses.
International veterinarians
usually take a blood sample from a live
horse, or a
spleen specimen at post-mortem, to confirm AHS.
Most of
the 186 horses died at the epicenter where the AHS
virus
killed 162 horses in northeast Thailand's Nakhon
Ratchasima province,
also known as Korat.
The first
death was reported during March in that province's Pak
Chong
district, said Department of Livestock Development
director-general
Sorawit Thanito.
An additional 13
deaths occurred in Prachuap Khiri Khan province 50
miles
south of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand, plus five in
Chon
Buri, three in Ratchaburi, two in Phetchaburi and
one in Chaiyaphum
provinces, the government-owned Thai
News Agency reported on April 6.
"This disease has just
occurred in Thailand. We've never had it in the
past,"
Mr. Sorawit said.
"We have to investigate how this virus
got to Thailand," he said,
Reuters reported.
Thailand
was deleted from the "AHS-Free Country" list by
the
Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health on
March 27 after Mr.
Sorawit reported the first 42
deaths.
"Unofficial sources report these to be race
horses," said the
International Disease Monitoring unit
of Britain's Department for
Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs on March 31.
Thailand now faces difficulties
exporting horses and other equines to
the European Union
and elsewhere -- including for competition in
horse
races, shows and other events.
No horses from
Thailand legally traveled to the United Kingdom
after
December 2019, the monitors said.
The disease can
attack horses, donkeys, mules and zebras, plus camels
and
dogs, according to the England-based Pirbright Institute
which
develops "novel vaccines for viral diseases of
livestock, and is
actively working on a promising vaccine
candidate for AHS."
There is no known cure or reliable
vaccine. Non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs can
alleviate pain or reduce fever.
"It can be spread through
the blood, and infects namely the lungs,
spleen and other
lymphoid tissues," the institute said.
Symptoms can
include fever, a loss of appetite, and swelling
around
horses' eyes, lips, cheeks, tongue and neck.
The virus is infectious but not contagious from horse to horse.
It requires transmission by tiny, two-winged flies which resemble gnats.
"AHS is spread by biting midges --
Culicoides -- and dogs can become
infected by eating
contaminated horse meat," the Pirbright
Institute
said.
Culicoides can also give horses severe, non-fatal skin diseases.
In the past, most of the world's
AHS cases appeared in sub-Saharan
Africa but also in the
Middle East, Pakistan, India and Morocco, Spain
and
Portugal.
Madrid and Lisbon contained its 1980s outbreaks
after severe losses
and elsewhere the disease has also
been controlled.
"For several centuries, the devastating
African Horse Sickness has
been a cruel scourge to horse
owners," said the National Institutes of
Health (NIH)
based in Bethesda, Maryland.
AHS has "a 70% mortality
rate," it said. "The geographic distribution
of the midge
vector broadens with global warming and climate
change."
In the mid-1800s the virus killed almost 70,000
horses within 10 years
in South Africa.
The most deaths
occurred during 1959-63 across the Middle East
and
Southwest Asia, killing more than 300,000 horses, the
NIH said.
That outbreak was halted thanks to experimental
vaccines and the huge
toll of dead horses, which limited
the number of surviving
susceptible
animals.
***
Richard S. Ehrlich is a
Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California,
reporting news from Asia since 1978 and winner of
Columbia
University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He
co-authored three
non-fiction books about Thailand
including "'Hello My Big Big Honey!'
Love Letters to
Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing
Interviews,"
"Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since
1946," and "60 Stories of
Royal Lineage." Mr. Ehrlich
also contributed to the chapter
"Ceremonies and Regalia"
in a book published in English and Thai
titled, "King
Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy
in
Perspective." Mr. Ehrlich's "Sheila Carfenders, Doctor Mask
&
President Akimbo" portrays a 22-year-old American
female mental
patient who is abducted to Asia by her
abusive San Francisco
psychiatrist. His newest nonfiction
book is "Rituals, Killers, Wars. &
Sex. -- Tibet, India,
Nepal, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka &
New York"
available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086Y7D48L
His online sites are:
https://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com
https://flickr.com/photos/animists/sets