More Piroplasmosis In The US
For a country that is "piroplasmosis-free," the US sure has a lot of piroplasmosis. The Texas Animal Health Commission has reported that this bloodborne disease, caused by Theileria equi, has been confirmed on a ranch in south Texas. The farm is quarantined and testing is under way to determine the scope of the problem. They are presumably also looking at ticks in the area to see if the types of ticks that are able to transmit the infection are present, and trying to figure out where the infection came from.
This is one of a couple of recent outbreaks of piroplasmosis in the US. The source of infection in these outbreaks is typically not found, but careful testing and quarantine of animals is usually effective at containing the disease. Unfortunately, positive horses can be infected for life, and are therefore usually euthanized. Long-term isolation or shipping infected horses to a country where the disease is endemic are other options.
Interestingly, I've not seen any comments about whether this outbreak could be linked to the recent outbreak is Missouri, where some infected horses were taken out of quarantine and have disappeared. It's certainly logical to consider that one of the fugative horses may have been smuggled into Texas and been the source of this latest infection. Hopefully this is a small, contained outbreak that doesn't result in widespread death of horses and economic disruption. Hopefully the source is identified promptly and measures are taken to reduce future problems. Only time will tell.
