The titles of numerous news stories in Florida papers during a few weeks in October shared some common words–Eastern equine encephalomyelitis. The disease has been responsible for several human deaths recently in Florida, and while in Orlando for the American College of Veterinary Surgeons’ annual meeting, the hotel at which I was staying was closing the pool early at night and taking extra precautions against the mosquito population. Eastern equine encephalomyelitis is one of many diseases to which horses and humans share susceptibility.







MICHAEL A. BALL, DVM


Horses and humans are considered “dead end hosts” for the enchepalomyelitis disease as blood levels in them generally are not high enough to infect a feeding mosquito.


An important point is that although humans are susceptible to the virus that causes Eastern equine encephalomyelitis, the disease is not directly contagious to humans from horses. So, these diseases to which horses and people share susceptibility can be divided into two groups. The first group is diseases that can be transmitted to humans directly from an infected horse, and the second is diseases from which both people and horses can suffer, but the disease is not directly contagious from horse to human

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.