 |
| Credit OIE |
#14,012
Yesterday, in Senegal: Media Reports Of Large Equine Influenza Epizootic, we looked at reports of a large and ongoing outbreak of Equine Influenza (serotype pending) in the West African nation of Senegal.
At the time of that posting, the OIE had only been notified of two outbreaks (see April 6th Immediate Notification), which began in late March.Since then, the OIE has published Follow-up report No. 1, which adds 275 additional outbreaks reported from 10 regions of the country, and reports more than 2,700 animals (donkeys and draught horses) lost.
The serotype is still pending, and up until now more than 37,000 animals are reported infected. Case fatality rates are running over 7%, and there are over 800,000 animals listed as susceptible in these 10 regions.
Equine influenza is not considered a human health risk, but H3N8 has jumped species (to dogs in 2004), and has been shown experimentally capable of infecting pigs (see J.Virol.: Experimental Infectivity Of H3N8 In Swine).In 2016, in Epizootics, Host Ranges, and Conventional Wisdom, we looked at the (admittedly sparse) scientific and historical evidence that suggests that equine influenza may have infected humans in the past, and could possibly do so again someday.
We'll obviously be very interested in the serotype, once that is established (presumably clade 1 or 2 of H3N8). Meanwhile, since Senegal doesn't require - or even promote - equine influenza vaccines for their livestock, this outbreak could continue for some time.
There are also concerns that - given porous borders in West Africa - that this epizootic could spill over into neighboring countries. As it stands now, this is one is shaping up to be one of the largest equine influenza outbreaks in recent memory.For a recent, and quite comprehensive review of what we know about Equine Influenza, I would recommend the following from Frontiers in Microbiology.
Front Microbiol. 2018; 9: 1941.
Published online 2018 Sep 6. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01941
PMCID: PMC6135912
PMID: 30237788
A Comprehensive Review on Equine Influenza Virus: Etiology, Epidemiology, Pathobiology, Advances in Developing Diagnostics, Vaccines, and Control Strategies
Raj K. Singh,1 Kuldeep Dhama,2,* Kumaragurubaran Karthik,3 Rekha Khandia,4 Ashok Munjal,4 Sandip K. Khurana,5 Sandip Chakraborty,6 Yashpal S. Malik,7 Nitin Virmani,5 Rajendra Singh,2 Bhupendra N. Tripathi,5 Muhammad Munir,8 and Johannes H. van der Kolk9,*
