Equine Influenza

[Dragoness]

I dont think the vaccine is as simple as people believe. Not only does it have to be administered by a vet, but its a course of needles, not just one. Of course everyone in the performance/racing industry would do it, but would joe blow down the street? nope. Along with the fact that the virus is mutating constantly, therefore the vaccine you have given to your horse may not protect it anyway. AND.... if people were to start vaccinating now, (its a live vaccine, which causes the horse to show symptoms of EI) it would then be impossible to tell which horses actually had EI and which were just showing symptoms due to the vaccine.
We have never had an outbreak in Aus before, so of course noone is going to have had their horses vaccinated, it would be like telling every person in Aus to get vaccinated against malaria 'just in case', it would never happen.

Cheers

 

[Horsy]

Amen, Dragoness.

At my agistment center, there was this huge debate about how it got in and how irresponsible people are and rah, rah, rah. Having big fights over this isn't going to turn back time and stop it from happening. It's here and all we can do is try to protect our own horses from EI and obey the movement restrictions. It'll be over when it's over.

 

[shamous1]

True

I dont think the vaccine is as simple as people believe. Not only does it have to be administered by a vet, but its a course of needles, not just one. Of course everyone in the performance/racing industry would do it, but would joe blow down the street? nope. Along with the fact that the virus is mutating constantly, therefore the vaccine you have given to your horse may not protect it anyway. AND.... if people were to start vaccinating now, (its a live vaccine, which causes the horse to show symptoms of EI) it would then be impossible to tell which horses actually had EI and which were just showing symptoms due to the vaccine.
We have never had an outbreak in Aus before, so of course noone is going to have had their horses vaccinated, it would be like telling every person in Aus to get vaccinated against malaria 'just in case', it would never happen.
Cheers

If a human gets a vaccine it is generally done by a Doctor. If an animal needs a vaccine it is generally done by a Vet (pretty obvious). Quite often several courses of medicattion are needed to be administered, if you love your animal - you get it done.

Backyard horse owners would not have had to worry about it unless knobbies had done their job properly. If any animal is at risk they get quarantined - when problems arise it usually when procedures are not followed and breakdown.

The vaccine would have to be administered after all the effects of EI have subsided, which is also obvious.

We have not had an outbreak of EI before because our Quarantine process was followed. We have it now due to the simple fact that there have been major flaws in quarantine over the past few months. This will all come out fairly shortly.

As far as vaccinations are concerned we get them for a wide range of things and it is a precaution.