Clark County Horse Tests Positive for West Nile
Tuesday, July 25th, 2017 -- 10:09 AM
(Wisconsin Ag Connection) -An unvaccinated Standardbred cross gelding from central Wisconsin has become the state's first equine animal to test positive for West Nile Virus in 2017.According to state animal health officials, the Clark County yearling had to be euthanized because of the severe illness it endured from contracting the virus. State Equine Veterinarian Dr. Julie McGwin says the case serves as a reminder that horse owners should vaccinate their animals against the virus, along with Eastern equine encephalitis. Each are mosquito-borne diseases that together have stricken hundreds of horses in Wisconsin in the past decade.
She says horses require two doses of the vaccination initially, and then boosters at least annually. Both WNV and EEE are caused by viruses transmitted by mosquitoes, and both may cause encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. EEE kills about 90 percent of horses that it strikes, and WNV kills in more than a third of all equine cases. Last year Wisconsin had seven confirmed cases of WNV in horses. Such infections normally occurs during the middle- to late summer and remains a threat until the first killing frost.
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