West Nile Virus Vaccine in Horses

Learn how vaccination can help protect horses from this potentially deadly zoonotic disease.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

West Nile Virus Vaccine in Horses
A vaccine for the virus is available for horses, and veterinarians highly recommend owners have their equids vaccinated. | Photo: iStock

The image of a cowboy riding off into the sunset on a palomino pony after a long hard day of rescuing a damsel in distress has reached the point of a cliché. A cowboy’s partner will forever be his trusty horse, and as long as his horse is healthy, he can continue riding off into the sunset. But what happens when a cowboy’s horse is infected by a deadly virus? Will there be a happy ending to that story?

West Nile virus is defined as zoonotic, which means it can be transferred between animals and humans. The virus is mosquito-borne and spreads through intermediate hosts like blue jays and black birds. For this reason, the virus is more common in the summer or fall when birds are migrating from the north. Both humans and horses can be infected by West Nile; however, they are both considered “dead-end” hosts, meaning they cannot transmit the disease to others.

West Nile virus first infected horses in 1999 with a case in New York. Since then, the United States has seen more cases of West Nile in horses as well as humans. The year 2012 was the most deadly for humans with 286 deaths nationwide

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
277 votes · 277 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!