African horse sickness
01.07.2025 11:32:41 27004
African horse sickness (AHS) is a viral (vector-borne) disease of horses and other equids, characterized by fever, respiratory and circulatory damage with hemorrhagic diathesis, edema, and high mortality.
Horses and zebras are most susceptible to the disease, mules are less so, and donkeys are not affected. Foals are more susceptible, but young animals from immune sows are resistant for the first 5-6 months. AHS is primarily observed in the summer, especially during the hot and rainy season.
Bloodsucking woodlice and mosquitoes can transmit the pathogen, while birds, mammals, and insects serve as reservoirs of infection in nature. The pathogen, entering the body through the skin via insect bites, multiplies at the site of entry, penetrates blood-rich organs and tissues, and is then distributed throughout the body via the bloodstream.
The incubation period is 5-7 days. The disease can occur in several forms:
- febrile – characterized by a hyperacute course, elevated temperature, intermittent fever, muscle fibrillation, and conjunctivitis, with death occurring within 5-7 days;
- pulmonary – characterized by an acute course with pneumonia, high body temperature, and respiratory depression and damage;
- cardiac (edematous) – characterized by a subacute course, cardiac damage, and edema in the head, neck, abdomen, and extremities; mixed – characterized by respiratory and circulatory disorders in the heart and lungs.
If AHS is suspected (or if the diagnosis is confirmed), measures are taken in accordance with veterinary regulations for the implementation of preventive, diagnostic, restrictive, and other measures, as well as the establishment and lifting of quarantines and other restrictions aimed at preventing the spread and eliminating outbreaks of African horse sickness.
For preventive purposes, systematic control of arthropod vectors of the infection is carried out.
State Institution "Mendykarinsky District Territorial Inspectorate of the Veterinary and Sanitary Inspection of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan," Borovskoye village, Altynsarin Street 83, tel.: 2-40-64, 2-42-67.