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Equine surveillance

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Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance (EIDS)

The Equine Epidemiology Team, formerly based at the Animal Health Trust (AHT), Suffolk, were retained by the UK Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry following AHT’s closure in July 2020. The team is now established as Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance (EIDS) at Cambridge Vet School, University of Cambridge. EIDS continues to deliver surveillance activities and has a close relationship with industry and Government bodies, collaborating with numerous stakeholders to report national and international disease outbreaks on a daily basis. They are available to assist UK-based equine vets in the diagnosis, management and prevention of equine infectious diseases (contact equinesurveillance@vet.cam.ac.uk).

Monitoring and surveillance of equine infectious disease is vital to ensure the health and welfare of horses and maintain our equine industry. A summary of their surveillance initiatives are as follows:

  • Quarterly, national laboratory data and disease outbreak information are collated into the Equine Disease Surveillance Report, in partnership with BEVA and APHA. The report contains information about the current notable outbreaks that equine vets should be aware of, news updates and an informative ‘focus article’ discussing a relevant topic. The report also contains surveillance data obtained by the International Collating Centre (ICC) and testing data from around 30 UK-based laboratories. This report is published on the EIDS website and in the Veterinary Record.
  • The Horserace Betting Levy Board funded Equine Influenza Surveillance Scheme enabling free of charge PCR testing for suspect cases of flu has been reinitiated. The laboratory testing is conducted on behalf of EIDS and HBLB by Rossdales Laboratories. Veterinary surgeons in the UK can sign up for the scheme at https://equinesurveillance.org/fluenrol/ and submission forms are available on the EIDS website.
  • The Tell-Tail alert service, supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, is still in place. Vets can sign up to receive UK outbreak reports by text message on: all notifiable equine diseases, equine influenza, EHV-1 neurological and EHV-1 abortion/neonatal death, as well as monthly updates on equine strangles, at the Tell-Tail website.
  • The International Collating Centre (ICC) is a national and international surveillance reporting system that alerts email subscribers to outbreaks on an almost daily basis. An interactive website is available and a quarterly summary report is also produced and emailed to subscribers. Vets can support ICC reporting of laboratory confirmed UK-based infectious disease outbreaks by providing details of outbreaks to the Equine Epidemiology Team either by completing the EIDS Outbreak Information form or by discussing the outbreak with the veterinary epidemiologists (Tel: 01223 766496).
  • Laboratories confirming diagnoses of equine viruses (such as equine influenza, EHV-1, EHV-4, EHV-3) are encouraged to submit positive samples to the Viral Isolate Library, which is now based at Rossdales Laboratories. These sample submissions enable further investigation on viral genomics and strain variation. The Viral Isolate Library Sample Submission form should be completed, printed and submitted with samples.
  • The veterinary epidemiologists at EIDS are also able to provide a free outbreak advice service to all veterinary surgeons dealing with suspect or confirmed infectious disease occurrences in the UK. They will be able to discuss all aspects of outbreak management with you; from diagnostic sampling and control measures to clearance testing and prevention of future outbreaks. The group can either be contacted by email at: equinesurveillance@gmail.com or by telephone on: 01223 766496.

Surveillance of Equine Strangles (SES)

The Surveillance of Equine Strangles (SES) project, based at the Royal Veterinary College and funded by the Horse Trust, shares information about strangles. It includes information based on the regional geography of vet practices making diagnoses, the demographics of horses being confirmed with infection, diagnostic testing and the types of samples being submitted for lab testing. Users can look at the time course of diagnoses over longer time periods to highlight seasonal trends, and view the most important reported clinical signs.
For further information, see the SES website.

Equine Grass Sickness

An equine grass sickness (EGS) surveillance scheme was established in spring 2008 to facilitate the investigation of changes in geographical distribution and incidence of the disease in Great Britain. Data gathered by this scheme is collated in a strictly confidential database. Having up to date reports from across the country helps to provide an accurate representation of numbers of EGS cases nationwide and an insight into the potential risk factors for disease. Reporting cases to the Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF) can be done by either the attending veterinary surgeon or the owner, at this website.

The Moredun Foundation and The Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF), with generous support from the British Horse Society, have recently launched a nationwide biobank to gather samples relevant to EGS research, submitted samples can include horse-related samples obtained by a vet, and/or environment related samples. For further details on this initiative, if you are an owner please visit Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF) website and if you are a vet please visit Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF) website. Contact details for free sampling kits and other information are available on the website.