How West Nile Virus Impacts Your Horse

When an equine illness is so devastatingly dangerous as to threaten the lives of both the horses and the equestrians handling them in an outbreak, understanding what is fact and what’s myth about such illness is tantamount to proper pre-emption and prevention. The West Nile Virus, after taking both equine and equestrian lives, is one such very dangerous disease that is surrounded by myths that need to be put straight.

The Unsafe Vaccine: One such myth about the West Nile Pathogen that not only finished horse riding escapades but horse careers (as well as equestrian careers) concerns the vaccine developed to prevent it. The myth goes that the vaccine itself is deadly, and has caused the deaths of some steeds it was applied to. That’s simply not right. The vaccine developed by Fort Dodge and the Merial vaccine are both effective and safe. The thing is, when a horse is already infected, no amount of vaccination can save it. And that’s what doubtless started the rumour and the eventual myth: an infected pony was immunized and died of the disease.

West Nile is History: Most trainers and owners are happily going for horse riding sessions and shows without realizing the need to vaccinate their horses against the West Nile Virus because they think it’s a thing of the past. While it’s right that the occurrences of West Nile Virus contagion has decreased, many horses are still believed to be carriers of the virus that are either slow in showing symptoms or will never show any. Most animal and horse nationwide associations endorse vaccinating steeds each year particularly those at higher risk due to their mosquito-infested geographical areas.

One Vaccination is All that is Needed: Most trainers may think that a horse vaccinated from the West Nile Pathogen last year is still safe from the pathogen this year. Proof does suggest that some horses can resist the virus now if they were immunized a year back, but without yearly vaccination, a steed (and her owner) can never be really safe from the West Nile Virus. Contracting even a diminished sort of the illness can spell disaster, as this disease due to a virus has no known cure, and when infected, a horse may then go on to develop neurological symptoms, which it might then give in to sooner or later.

Vaccination Against Other Mosquito-Carried Diseases is Satisfactory Protection: Many an equestrian has settled on a vaccination shot of equine encaphilitis and thought it enough to prevent the West Nile Virus from infecting their pony, since both sicknesses are carried by a common culprit: mosquitoes. That isn’t right. The carriers might be the same, but the sicknesses, and their causes, are different. A vaccine for one disease doesn’t protect horses from anything apart from the disease it was intended for.

The West Nile Pathogen is indeed a pathogen that needs to be avoided at all costs, and believing misconceptions about it isn’t going to help. Except for knowing myth from fact, sanitation and hygiene is important, particularly cleaning up water buckets and other containers, and making certain that no stagnating water is around.

Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about horse rugs.