Equid Blog : Horse Health & Diseases : University of Guelph : Ontario Veterinary College : Equine Infectious Diseases

Last year, there was a large equine influenza outbreak at the Crawford County Fair in Pennsylvania. In response to that, a mandatory influenza vaccination policy was implemented. However, registrations for this year’s fair have dropped by 1/3 from 457 to 310. One horse owner says “It’s because of the shots.”

This is a pretty unfortunate response by horse owners. Mandatory vaccination is an entirely reasonable component of an infection control program that should be more widespread. Shows are optimal environments for transmission of disease. Huge numbers of horses get sick ever year from infections acquired at shows and outbreaks are not exactly rare.

One horse owner explains her decision not to show as “It’s the expense, plus there’s the risk of an adverse reaction to the shots.” That’s code for “It’s the expense.”

Vaccines are pretty cheap, especially when you consider how much money is spent on the horse and showing each year. People often spend huge amounts on boarding, (largely unnecessary) supplements, tack and other supplies, along with the costs of registering and traveling to shows. Concerns about adverse reactions are often used to justify non-vaccination, but it’s usually just an excuse. Adverse reactions to vaccines are quite rare and typically minor. Adverse reactions to intranasal influenza vaccination are extremely rare to non-existent.

Hopefully this fair sticks with this policy. They should be commended for taking a responsible action and more fairs should be doing the same thing. Personally, this is a fair that I’d want to show at. The vaccination requirement means there’s less chance of a horse acquiring influenza. Also, weeding out people who are too cheap or otherwise unwilling to use good preventive medicine strategies should decrease the pool of horses that are carrying other infectious diseases. Those people can organized their own vaccine-free show (the biohazard games).

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A mandatory influenza vaccination policy at the Crawford City Fairgrounds (Pennsylvania), implemented this year following an outbreak of influenza at the facility in 2008 is being met with disdain.

Among the complaints:

"A two-day horse show is different than an eight-day fair exhibition.'" Two days is lots of time to transmit infectious diseases.

"If a horse is sick and can’t perform, people won’t bring them to a show." Unfortunately, that's not the case. Also, not all horses that are shedding infectious diseases look sick.

"All these requirements will not guarantee healthy horses." Absolutely true. But, with infection control, we are trying to reduce the risk and incidence of diseases. We know we'll never eliminate the risk.

"There’s no sense giving a shot that will do more damage than the disease." Influenza vaccination is very safe. While adverse effects can occur with any vaccine, influenza vaccines are quite low risk.

"Potentially, requiring a 30-day vaccination for each show will cost horse exhibitors and 4-H members in horse clubs too much money." The cost of vaccination is dwarfed by other costs of participating in such events. People spend a lot of money on board, feed, tack, supplements (many of which are useless), trailering and many other items. In the grand scheme of things, vaccines don't add much to the total yearly cost.

No one knows whether mandatory vaccination against influenza ought to required for all horse shows as an infection control precaution. However, given the fact that outbreaks can occur, that all events involving mixing of large numbers of horses pose a high disease risk, and that vaccination is relatively cheap and effective, it seems like a logical requirement to me.

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Following an influenza outbreak that sickened at approximately 70 horses last year, the Crawford Country Fair in Pennsylvania is requiring influenza vaccination for all equine participants this year. This year, all horses must be vaccinated between 6 months and 15 days prior to the fair. Vaccination against such an infectious disease is a sound recommendation to be sure, although the six-month window might be a little long. I'd prefer to see the horses vaccinated closer to the time of the fair, in order to maximize the protective effect during the highest-risk period.

The fair board is also requiring a certificate of veterinary inspection for each horse at the fair, issued within 30 days prior to opening day. I'm not sure that this kind of inspection will do much in terms of preventing sick horses from participating in the fair, as most infectious diseases (including influenza infection) don't last for 30 days.

• If a horse is clinically healthy 30 days before the fair, it certainly doesn't mean the animal won't be infectious at the time of the fair if it is exposed to a virus (or other pathogen) in the interim.
• If a horse has influenza 30 days before the fair, there's not much chance it will still be shedding the virus by the time of the fair.

While I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that regular veterinary examination is important for infectious disease control, but the time frame in this case just won't do much for control of influenza. If the fair board really wanted to reduce the risk of sick horses attending, they'd have to require inspection much closer to the date of the fair.  However, such a requirement could turn into a logistical nightmare, since a large number of horses would need to be evaluated by a small number of veterinarians over a short period of time. Furthermore, if someone competed at many fairs during the year and they all had similar requirements, a horse might have to undergo a weekly exam before each event, which could be cost-prohibitive.

Despite the limitations, this is still a good, proactive step on the part of the fair board, and similar precautions ought to be considered elsewhere. We need to stop simply accepting that some horses will get sick following fairs and that outbreaks will happen, and realize that there are practical measures that we can do the reduce (although not eliminate) the risks. One of the best things that could be done would be to require examination of all horses upon arrival at a show or event. The examination could be done by a veterinarian or veterinary technician.  At a minimum,  requirements could include that horses have no signs of respiratory disease, diarrhea or fever. Horses with these problems could then be immediately send home, greatly reducing the risk of disease transmission to other animals at the event. Yes, it would take some effort and money, but it really wouldn't be that hard to do, and could be a very useful preventive measure.  Compared to the cost and headache of quarantining and treating sick animals when an outbreak does occur, the idea really sells itself.

I'm not trying to be negative about the approach taken by this particular fair board. I think their awareness of the need to do things to reduce the risk of infectious diseases at their event is great. 

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