What Is Equine Influenza?
Equine influenza (EI) is an acute, highly contagious, viral disease which can cause rapidly spreading outbreaks of respiratory disease in horses, donkeys, mules and other equine species. EI is exotic to Australia and would have a major impact on the Australian horse industry if it were to become established here. The disease is not generally fatal to horses however, fatalities may occur in old or infirmed horses or young foals.
Top Equine influenza (EI) is an acute, highly contagious, viral disease which can cause rapidly spreading outbreaks of respiratory disease in horses, donkeys, mules and other equine species. EI is exotic to Australia and would have a major impact on the Australian horse industry if it were to become established here. The disease is not generally fatal to horses however, fatalities may occur in old or infirmed horses or young foals.
“It’s a respiratory disease that is highly contagious and spreads rapidly. Because we don’t have it in this country, none of our horse population – particularly our racing horse population – is vaccinated against it. So if it did enter the country it would spread rapidly and have a high morbidity, which means lots of horses would get infected. They won’t all necessarily die, but some can progress to pneumonia and other complications. Some horses could get quite sick. The majority would just get a fever and cough, but then their performance may be affected for several months afterwards. It would pretty much stop racing in Australia.” What are the symptoms and how is the virus transmitted? “High temperature, coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge. It’s a respiratory disease, so coughing, snorting over other horses (will transmit the virus) and people can be carriers for it as well. It doesn’t live in the environment for a very long time so it’s most commonly horse to horse, but if a horse c
