Case study #08

You are a horse veterinarian in the province of Huelva. One of the stud farm owners you work with contacts you to urgently examine a mare showing neurological signs.

It is August, and the mare is in the field with other horses and several sheep. No other similar cases have been reported among the animals in contact with the mare. Upon arriving at the farm, you observe that the mare is showing signs of ataxia.

Video 1: Mare showing signs of ataxia (source: VISAVET)

Given this situation, with no known recent history of trauma and seeing that the mare's clinical condition is not critical, you proceed to outline the immediate actions to be taken

The official services contact us to inform that a positive result has been obtained in the serology performed using IgM capture ELISA on the affected mare. Additionally, mortality has been observed in crows in the locality where the farm is located, and one of them tested positive for the same agent using real-time RT-PCR.

As complementary information, it is worth mentioning that several positive cases were detected in birds and one positive case in a person in the province of Huelva, where the farm is located, in the previous year.