Vaccinating horses is one of the most effective ways to prevent equine influenza. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

Vaccinating horses is one of the most effective ways to prevent equine influenza . However, even that’s not fool-proof. During a Partner Sunrise Session at last year’s American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention, held in San Francisco, California, two veterinarians described optimal equine influenza vaccine responses and concerns regarding antigen interference.

Vaccine Efficacy

Tom Chambers, PhD, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, in Lexington, and Mark Crisman, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, equine technical services veterinarian with Zoetis and adjunct professor at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, addressed whether veterinarians should give vaccines individually (either one at a time on a single day or several individual vaccines administered at separate sites on the same day) or as part of combination vaccines.

Products in the latter group, also referred to as multivalent vaccines, contain vaccines against several diseases. For example, some combine the vaccines considered by the AAEP to be core (rabies, tetanus, West Nile virus , and Eastern and Western equine encephalitis ) meaning every horse should be vaccinated against them every year, as well as the risk-based vaccines (influenza and equine herpesvirus ) in a single syringe