{"id":4663,"date":"2011-04-14T02:37:58","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T19:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/?p=4663"},"modified":"2011-04-14T02:37:58","modified_gmt":"2011-04-13T19:37:58","slug":"equine-piroplasmosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/industry\/equine-piroplasmosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Equine Piroplasmosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/strong>Learn about this horse disease and how to prevent it.<\/p>\n

The American Quarter Horse Journal<\/strong> — It is a disease that lurks in a horse\u2019s blood, with tiny protozoa attacking red blood cells. Equine piroplasmosis is common in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, including parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, but is considered a foreign disease in the United States, and efforts are underway to keep it that way.
\nCurrently racetracks in 11 states require negative piroplasmosis tests before horses are allowed onto the backside. Beginning July 1, all horses entering the grounds for any AQHA world championship show will also be required to present a negative certificate dated within six months.
\n\u201cAs the industry leader, AQHA needs to be vigilant and establish testing requirements to ensure any case of equine piroplasmosis can\u2019t be traced back to an AQHA event,\u201d said Tom Persechino, AQHA executive director of competition and breed integrity. \u201cWe\u2019re encouraging all exhibitors to contact their veterinarians to schedule these tests. If the tests are completed around the second week of July, that horse will be eligible to show at the youth, select and open\/amateur world without requiring another test.\u201d<\/p>\n

EP<\/strong>
\nEquine piroplasmosis is a blood-borne protozoal infection. There are two different protozoa involved, named\u00a0Babesia caballi\u00a0and\u00a0Theileria equi.
\n\u201cThe parasite attaches to the red blood cells, the body recognizes there\u2019s something wrong with that blood cell so it takes it out of circulation,\u201d explained New Mexico State Veterinarian Dr. Dave Fly. \u201cThis bug\u2019s growing on the blood cells, the spleen and liver are grabbing those blood cells trying to take them out so you go into what is called a hemolytic crisis. Animals can die, or they survive the acute phase and come out the other end as a chronic carrier.\u201d
\nEP is transmitted from horse to horse through blood contact.
\n\u201cThere are three populations of EP that we\u2019re concerned with right now in the U.S.,\u201d said Oklahoma State Veterinarian Dr. Becky Brewer-Walker. \u201cThey include the natural transmission via ticks and a small percentage of horses imported into the United States prior to changes in required testing protocol. However, the area of greatest concern is iatrogenic spread, or by people. We are seeing a spread of the disease to a large extent in Quarter Horse racehorses and some Thoroughbreds. These cases are almost all due to risky practices and poor biosecurity, disease spread horse to horse by the management of the people.\u201d
\nSymptoms of the disease vary widely. A case can be so mild the symptoms are never even recognized, or the horse can develop a fever and appear \u201coff.\u201d More severe symptoms include anemia, jaundice and even death. This is why testing for the disease is so important.
\nIf a horse is positive, the only options currently available are permanent quarantine or euthanasia. Positive horses are still allowed to be bred via artificial insemination.<\/p>\n

Prevention<\/strong>
\nEP is easy to prevent if caution is used to prevent blood transmission between horses. Here are tips to prevent your horses from falling prey to this disease:
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Use commercial products to spray for ticks around the barn and pastures and lessen the population. Inspect horses regularly for ticks to remove them before they bite.
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don\u2019t reuse needles, syringes or administration sets.
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ensure that dental floats, tattoo equipment and other common equipment that might transfer blood is scrubbed and cleaned before and after each use.
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If your horse is with a trainer, make sure he or she is following proper biosecurity protocols.
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Test your horses. The tests are simple blood tests, similar to a Coggin\u2019s test. A test needs to be done for each protozoa, for a total of two tests. For a list of approved labs, visit\u00a0APHIS<\/span>.
\n\u2022\t\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Know the rules before you go. Before traveling, make sure you know what the testing requirements are at your destination. Don\u2019t just check a website \u2013 call for the most up-to-date information.
\nThe United States is currently considered EP-free. Recent natural outbreaks have been thoroughly researched and controlled to prevent native tick populations from becoming a reservoir for the disease, but it is possible that, without proactive measures, the disease could gain a foothold. If that happened, and the United States were to lose its EP-free status, there would be many more testing regulations required, including for horses being exported for competition, sale or breeding. This would place an added burden on the horse industry as a whole.
\nAQHA and the American Quarter Horse industry has chosen to be proactive to keep the horse population healthier and make sure the disease remains foreign to the United States.
\n\u201cI would like to see this go away, and I applaud the Quarter Horse industry for taking a stance,\u201d said Dr. Fly. \u201cI do believe we\u2019re in a position where if this country takes a stand and starts looking, we can push this disease back out of this country and not let it get established. But it\u2019s going to take some work on everybody\u2019s part. If we don\u2019t, we\u2019re going to wake up one day and be living with it, just like Europe, and I think that\u2019s a huge travesty.\u201d<\/p>\n

AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications. For more information on\u00a0The American Quarter Horse Journal\u00a0or\u00a0America\u2019s Horse, visit\u00a0AQHA Publications<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn about this horse disease and how to prevent it. The American Quarter Horse Journal — It is a disease that lurks in a horse\u2019s blood, with tiny protozoa attacking red blood cells. Equine piroplasmosis is common in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, including parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aqha","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4663"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4665,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4663\/revisions\/4665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}