The chances your horse is going to die from Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA)
are slim and none.

The chances your horse is going to die from a Coggins test are very good.

Why?

Money!

EIA is a viral disease characterized by a hemolytic anemia, depression,
intermittent fever and sometimes edema.

Do horses die from it? Sometimes, but rarely.
I asked dozens of veterinarians if they had ever seen a horse die of EIA.
None had. I’ve been a horseowner and trainer for more than 40 years, and
I’ve never even seen a horse seriously ill from EIA.

Ask the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) how many horses die from EIA
and the answer is "we don’t have any idea." Yet it is the Code of Federal
Regulations, Diseases in Horses, which provides individual states the
opportunity to adopt a quarantine or euthanize (slaughter) means to
eradicate the disease.

And most states are doing just that---quarantining and killing useful,
apparently healthy horses which test positive for EIA. Has there been
eradication of the disease over the last 30 years? Of course not!

Why?

Money!

Is there an EIA epidemic? No.

Is the disease easily transmitted? No.

Is Equine Infectious Anemia infectious? Not as horsemen normally think of
when using the word infectious. EIA must be transmitted by a
vector--biting insect or unsterile injection technique.

What are the chances an infected horse is going to infected another horse?

About 1 in 6,000,000 if both horses are close together in the middle of a
swarm of flies who are constantly being interrupted while trying to feed on
the blood of the positive horse. A fly which has not finished feeding on
the infected horse, has blood on it, then bites the uninfected horse may
possibly, but not likely infect the healthy horse.

What happens if the horse gets EIA? He probably lives a long and useful
life sometimes becoming a little anemic, sometimes a little depressed,
sometimes running a fever. He may experience the symptoms numerous times
during his lifetime, but the owner will most often not even notice. In
fact, USDA surveys find the problem so insignificant that more than 50 per
cent of horseowners didn’t even know of EIA, although nearly all
horseowners had heard of the Coggins test.

If the horse develops an acute case of EIA he will, within a period as
short as 30 days, run a high temperature, experience depression, weakness
and a rapid pulse. Other signs of the disease include discharges from the
nose and eyes, heavy perspiration and colic. The horse will recover or die
within five to six weeks.

How many horses die and how many survive acute EIA? Impossible to tell,
as most acute cases are euthanized, never given a chance to recover.
Horses with subacute or chronic cases often suffer some weight loss and
depression with a fever. They usually recover and appear normal until
another attack, frequently brought on by stress. While these horses are
usually anemic, most often they live useful lives, and do not die from EIA.

However, once they test positive, they are most frequently slaughtered.
(Quarantine regulations are usually impossible for the average horse
owner.)

Most Coggins positives are "inapparent carriers" which don’t show any
signs, and don’t seem to be infective to other horses. In fact, it is not
known under what conditions such a horse could become infective.
Inapparent carriers never die from the disease, but always die from the
euthaniza solution.

So if the disease isn’t a major threat to the life of horses, isn’t easily
transmitted, and isn’t keeping horses from living long and useful lives,
why are we killing them?

Money. Testing for EIA (primarily the Coggins test) is a $314 million
dollar business in the United States. Veterinarians probably net about $10
per test, and testing laboratories net about $10 per test. No individual
is getting rich, but it is easy, it’s fast, and it is income.

Expect more testing. Now every state requires a Coggins test if you are
going to transport a horse into the state. Do the states check on every
horse which enters the state. Of course not.

Does more testing mean more money for the labs and vets? Sure. Does it
mean government agencies will have to put on more staff and have bigger
budgets? You bet!

Do you think state agencies which admit off the record there is little
threat to horses and the problem is insignificant will say so on the
record? Not on your life. (Arizona has put down about 3 positive horses
per year for the last 10 years. There is no record of how many horses died
of EIA, probably because none did.)

Do you think veterinarians will call for an end to the unnecessary
slaughter of horses?

Having asked the questions, I hope a lot of horsemen, a lot of
veterinarians and a lot of laboratories get mad. But before the vets and
labs yell, they better come up with some cold, hard figures.

When the horsemen yell because they are tired of having government kill
their horses, maybe the noise will wake up the politicians who have allowed
this disaster in the first place. (Politicians write bad laws, then fail
to correct them because they are too lazy, too self-serving, too ignorant
of the facts and too unwilling to do their job. Unfortunately for horses
and horsemen, it will take politicians (if you can get them to do the right
thing) to put a stop to the bureaucrats--state veterinarians and
agricultural departments--who are building their empires and retirement on
a no-fact crisis.

Isn’t that the way so many make their money--cry crisis, grab the bucks.
Horsemen, you’d better start riding today; one of these days your horse
could be marked for death--Coggins positive.