Equine Influenza is caused by the same viral group as human flu, bird flu and pig flu and there is even a dog variant although this is present in the USA and not in the UK at the moment. As with human influenza there are also subtypes and they have the capacity to change their form and also to ‘fuse’ with other flu virus’ forming potentially new and deadly variants. The equine industry is aware of the considerable threat of influenza and there are two surveillance systems that monitor the global disease situation. In 2008 the UK was disease free but Australia had an outbreak. Horses are now jet setters as we saw in the Olympics. Race horses regularly travel between continents and disease movement is becoming increasingly more common. Modern vaccines are relatively safe and reliable and usually contain inactivated virus from several different past outbreaks. When you read, Kentucky, Ohio, Prague, Newmarket, they refer to past major equine flu outbreaks of different strains of the influenza virus. The good news is that the equine flu virus strains are reasonably removed from the human strains and so less likely to ‘fuse’ and cause a human pandemic than with the avian strains. Equine flu is every part as contagious as the human variant and has similar symptoms with occasional mortality but equally importantly, disastrous effect on equine performance and also the cancelling of equine events for many months. Past outbreaks in the UK have resulted in competitions closing throughout England for whole summers. Modern vaccination protocols have largely prevented this happening in recent years. We would advocate that all Guernsey horses should be vaccinated with particular relevance to competing horses or those that ‘socialise’ as they are the high risk high value animals on Guernsey and for a relatively small fee your horse can be protected against a disease which has been on the Island in the past.
Vaccination protocols for influenza will normally require
Check with your own equine body as the FEI and Horse Racing Authorities have differing requirements.
Reactions to modern vaccines are rare and there are no stipulations that an owner should not ride their horse after vaccination although most vets will advise cautious, gentle use, only.