Disease Reporting and Surveillance

African Horse Sickness

African Horse Sickness is transmitted by biting midges and flies that occurs regularly in most countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In naive populations of horses, which are the most susceptible equids, mortality may reach 90% in epidemics. The disease, which presents as a pulmonary and/or a cardiac form, is characterized by high fever, depression, and respiratory symptoms. The clinically affected animal has trouble breathing, starts coughing frothy fluid from nostril and mouth, and shows signs of pulmonary edema within four days. Serious lung congestion causes respiratory failure and results in death in under 24 hours.

The introduction of this disease into the United States would have catastrophic implications for the health of our national herd and be insurmountable for the continuity of the domestic horse industry. Horses would be confined to the areas in which they live, live animal export would come to a complete stop, and competitions would be halted nationwide. AHS poses a significant risk to the country, and as such the American Horse Council has long taken a no tolerance stance against the weakening of any regulations that could inadvertently allow this disease to enter the U.S.

The American Horse Council requested a federal review and revocation of Saudi Arabia’s freedom of African Horse Sickness status and encouraged the USDA to solicit industry support before relaxing the status of any other countries in regards to African Horse Sickness pre/post import testing.

The USDA asked the American Horse Council to participant in the development of a diagnostic drill for state and federal animal health officials to use in the identification of African Horse Sickness (AHS) cases in the United States. The US has not had a case of African Horse Sickness outside of laboratory cases and if the US did suffer from an outbreak, it would have disastrous consequences.
The drill was developed and a test drill was run in October of 2021 and was released for Federal and State Animal Health Official use is in early 2022.

Equine Viral Arteritis

The USDA released guidelines for breeding a mare to an EVA shedding stallion. You can review the guidelines here: EVA Uniform Methods and Rules Effective April 19, 2004.

Contagious Equine Metritis

See “Import & Export” below for more details on CEM testing requirements. Contagious equine metritis (CEM) is a venereal disease found in horses caused by bacteria. It is spread during breeding or through contact with contaminated objects. This disease occurs very rarely in the United States and does not affect other livestock or people. However, it is highly contagious among horses and can be difficult to detect and control. Signs of illness in infected mares may not be obvious, and stallions carry the bacteria without showing any signs at all. CEM can have a negative impact on fertility in both mares and stallions. If the disease became widespread in the United States, the horse industry could suffer considerable economic losses.