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If a horse owner has ever drawn a Coggins test, they are dealing with a disease caused by a fly bite. Find out about EIA, or equine infectious anemia, with information from a veterinarian in this free video on horses and fly diseases.
I'm Dr. Gary Garcia of Keystone Equine Associates in Odessa, Florida outside of Tampa, and we are going to talk a little bit about some fly diseases. And all you horse owners if you have ever drawn a Coggins test you are dealing with a fly disease there. EIA, which is what you draw your Coggins test for stands for Equine Infectious Anemia. It is a retrovirus so like all retro viruses once you have it you have it for life. And the Coggins test is just named for the developer of the test back many years ago when the disease was first prevalent in the United States. It is pretty much eradicated for the United States now, but we are on the surveillance program so every horse in the United States should be getting a Coggins test yearly. The disease is spread, it is a viral disease like I said, spread by biting flies so house flies, deer flies, black flies they can all mechanically transmit the virus from horse to horse by biting one horse, and moving to another. So this is a horse to horse transmission. EIA you know causes, it can cause fever, it can cause anemia as it is named for, quite a bit of jaundice, lethargy. It is not lethal to many horses, but many horses remain in the carrier state so if you have a horse that has ever tested positive for EIA those horses have three outcomes. One is euthanasia, the second would be donation to a research facility for EIA, and third would be a specific farm designated for EIA horses, and that there is no other horses in the immediate area. Again this is Dr. Gary Garcia of Keystone Equine Associates in Odessa, Florida. We urge you to contact your local equine veterinarian for further information and questions. Or you can log onto our website at keystoneequine.com. Thank you.
Specialty: Horse Health
