SEROEPIDEMILOGICAL STUDIES ON EQUINE INFLUENZA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BIOSECURITY APPLICATIONS IN EQUINE FARMS IN EGYPT

Equine influenza virus (EIV) is caused by two main strains of influenza A (equi-1 and equi-2) and is considered the most important cause of epizootic respiratory disease of equine because it is highly contagious and has the potential to disrupt major equestrian events. Equine influenza (EI) can be controlled by vaccination but it has been demonstrated repeatedly in the field that antigenic drift impacts on vaccine efficacy so the bio risk regulations is urgently needed and appropriate bio risk management strategies should be developed established and implemented in the control programs to deal with this possibility. In this study a total number 357 of different equidea species were examined for the presence of clinical signs of Equine Influenza including fever, harsh, dry cough and mucopurulent discharge. Serum samples (n=357) were collected from the examined equidea from ten Egyptians governorates classified into three regions, Upper Egypt (Beni Suef - Fayoum - Qena- Luxor), Central region (Cairo - Giza) and Lower region (Alexandria - Kafr El-Sheikh - El Beheira - Gharbia). ELISA was conducted on the sera samples to detect antibodies against EIV, where58% of samples were tested positive for ELISA against EIV from 95% unvaccinated equidea. Biosecurity measures were applied on farm from the central region against another farm with no biosecurity measures application for a period from 2014 till 2016 and the result was decreasing the percentage of the clinically suspected cases (from 33% till 10%) in the farm which apply the biosecurity measures and the other one still show increasing in the new clinically suspected cases (from 46% to 50%)