African Horse Sickness

African Horse Sickness is a horrific disease, and if you have seen a horse infected with it, you will *never* not vaccinate them

However, the vaccine does not cover all strains, and some horses with low resistance can still contract the disease. There have also been anecdotal reports (ie. Not proved or confirmed by scientific testing) that horses seem to "go off" in the few weeks immediately after receiving the vaccinations. It's still under debate as to whether this because horses lack fitness due to the reduction in work, or due to the vaccine affecting them physically. Incidentally it is only racehorses that seem to be affected, there have been no reports in other high level equestrian sports here in South Africa, of sport horses' performance being affected after receiving the vaccine.

There is some *very* good news for everyone though - there are TWO new vaccines currently in the 2nd years of Beta testing. The results are looking great for now - we need a high load AHS season to confirm efficacy of these vaccines though. And finding owners willing to test their horses (and NOT give the Onderstepoort Bivalent currently accepted by all official bodies, and recognised by the SA Veterinary Council) has proved quite difficult.

The main difference with this vaccine will be that it will be a "protein synthesised" once off vaccination, and NOT a "live attenuated" vaccine, as is currently the case. It will be similar to the Equine Inflenza vaccine which has clearly kept the virus at bay, but not affected performance in any way.

This has all been *years* in the making, and it cannot be rushed at all, unfortunately. But with so many people wanting to export horses from SA, this is at the very TOP of the priority list! It affects not only the racing industry, but the much larger sport horse industry. I personally cannot wait for the new vaccines! And then once they are the new protocol, punters shouldn't have to worry about this kind of thing!

NHRA requires racehorses to be vaccinated anytime between August and January, once per 12 month cycle. If a horse has had a layoff during that period, especially in the harder winter months, you could probably assume it's had it's AHS vaccinations done!

I hope that helps a tiny bit!