African Horse Sickness in Thailand: Deaths Pass 500
As African horse sickness (AHS) continues to spread across Thailand, horse owners seek vaccines and Cambodia works to protect horses on its Thai border. | Photo: World Horse Welfare
As African horse sickness (AHS) continues to spread across Thailand, more than 500 horses are now reported dead, up 38 since last week.

The Thai government instituted a vaccination program in mid-April—a few weeks after laboratory analyses first confirmed the presence of AHS in the country—following the importation of 4,000 vaccines. The objective was to test all horses within a 50-kilometer (31-mile) radius (the “protection zone”) of outbreak areas and vaccinate those testing negative, said Nuttavadee Pamaroon of Thailand’s Department of Livestock Development (DLD) in Bangkok. In mid-April Thai officials had identified six outbreak areas, including the initial outbreak in a stable in the Pak Chong district of Nakhon Ratchasima province, 180 km (120 miles) northeast of Bangkok.

The disease—spread from equid to equid via Culicoides midges—continues to move east, west, and south of Pak Chong, having killed 501 horses and now affecting eight provinces, most recently Saraburi and Phetchaburi, according to the Thai Equestrian Federation (TEF). The organization has reported that the number of horses within the protection zone has increased beyond 4,000.

All horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules within a 100-kilometer radius of a disease site (locations with cases) must be placed under tight netting while awaiting vaccination and for 28 days after vaccination (in case the live attenuated virus becomes active in a vaccinated horse). Netting must be sufficiently tight to prevent any midges, which measure only 1 millimeter long, from passing through. While equestrian centers have managed their own netting projects, the DLD recognizes the government’s responsibility to provide supplies to owners of its country’s working equids, said Pamaroon

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