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Why
Coggins? by Dr. Les Mathew, DVM
Equine
Infectious Anemia (Swamp Fever) was, for many years, a
dreaded disease of horses. There is not a vaccine or effective
treatment and before 1970 there was no practical test to
identify the carrier horses. Some infected horses, became ill,
developed a fever, lost weight and eventually died a lingering
death. Others appeared to recover but retained the virus in
their blood for life. These carriers, spreading the disease
through biting insects and reused needles, were the greatest
danger. In an early effort to identify infected animals, a
technique call horse inoculation was used. This involved
taking blood from a suspicious horse and injecting it into a
healthy horse.
In the 60's,
Dr. Leroy Coggins, a virologist at Cornell University, was
assigned the problem and successfully developed the test that
now carries his name. This involves a blood sample, collected
by an accredited veterinarian and sent to an official
laboratory along with a standard form showing a color sketch
of the horse. State law requires annual negative tests for
horses attending show, rodeos, trail rides and other events
where out of state horses are present. Postive horses are
quarantined under state supervision.
EIA should not
be confused with another blood borne viral disease,
Encephalitis (Sleeping Sickness). This differs in that they
have a vaccine, the carriers are birds and there is no spread
from horse to horse.
Dr. Les
Mathews, DVM presently lives in the Kingstree, South Carolina
where he planned to retired but the horses and vet practice
that he loved kept pulling him back. He spent most of his
career, (20 years) practicing in the Ocala area of Florida.
