How faster diagnosis protects South African horses Researchers at Onderstepoort have refined the PCR assays used to detect African Horse Sickness virus, improving diagnostic sensitivity and speed. For South African breeders and equestrians in endemic and control zones, faster confirmation of AHS status means quicker decisions about movement, treatment and herd management. African Horse Sickness remains…
The current pandemic has led to a broader understanding of the importance of herd immunity, but is herd immunity also a concern for our horses and how exactly do we go about creating it? What is herd immunity? Herd immunity occurs when a significant portion of the herd has been vaccinated against, or developed immunity to,…
A huge thank you has to go to Simon Burn and the Midfeeds' team for organising last night's excellent talk with Dr Ockert Botha on the topic concerning all horse owners across the country at the moment - African Horse Sickness. The talk had a full house with grooms, stable managers and interested horse owners…
A ban on the direct movement of horses into the Western Cape’s African Horse Sickness (AHS) Controlled Area zones comes into effect on Monday (1 February 2016). Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities, said the movement restrictions meant that all horses entering the province’s AHS Controlled Area would spend 14 days at a stop-quarantine facility. "We need…
The AHS vaccination is your horse's primary protection against African Horse Sickness [dropcap]A[/dropcap]s horse owners, it is our responsibility to ensure that horses are vaccinated every year and that any movement of horses into the Western Cape African Horse Sickness (AHS) controlled area complies with policy requirements. Apart from mitigating the risks of horses getting the…
Researchers in Pretoria have conducted a study of the complete genome sequences of plaque selected isolates of each of the 3 virus strains included in a South African commercial trivalent African horse sickness attenuated live virus vaccine.
