An ongoing effort is needed to alert North American owners to the risks that mosquito-borne diseases pose to their horses and the need for vaccination, writes Peter Timoney, Gluck Equine Research Center. He says the two most common causes of brain inflammation in North America are Eastern Equine Encephalomyelitis (EEE) and West Nile Encephalitis (WNE) viruses.
Despite the AAEP recommendations to horse owners to vaccinate their horses against EEE and WNE, regrettably many fail to do so.
The vast majority of equine cases of EEE and WNE either have no history of vaccination against the particular virus or else the vaccination history is incomplete.
Source: Equine Disease Quarterly, July 2018. Link.
There is need for an ongoing concerted effort, utilizing all avenues of communication including social media, to alert horse owners of the dangers of these two vector-borne diseases and of the importance of vaccination as an effective means of prevention and averting the losses that continue to occur every year in unprotected horses.