All horses entering the United States from Canada must be negative for Equine Infectious Anemia on a test taken within 180 days of entering the US.
Now, Equine Canada’s Health and Welfare Committee is reminding Canadian horse owners that all individuals involved in the Canadian horse industry should be vigilant about monitoring and testing for EIA, commonly referred to as 'swamp fever.'
No cure exists for EIA, nor is there a vaccine that will prevent an animal from becoming infected. However, the EIA test is consistently reliable in detecting the presence of antibodies regardless of whether the infection is acute, chronic or unapparent.
Horses should be tested whenever there is potential for them to be cohabitating and intermingling with other horses. This includes, but is not limited to, boarding and breeding stables, race tracks, horse shows and other events where horses come together for competitive or recreational purposes.
Equine Canada strongly recommends that all horse owners have their horses tested regularly for EIA. Proof of a negative EIA test is an entry requirement for many competitions, and other activities involving the movement and co-mingling of horses including border crossings.
This current program consists of two components. Under the first component, horse owners voluntarily pay to have their horses tested when they are identified by the industry (i.e. movement into shows, point of sale, etc.).
Testing is conducted by private veterinary practitioners and EIA private laboratories accredited by CFIA for that function. The second component of the program is the mandatory response, for which the CFIA is responsible.
Each time an EIA positive horse is discovered, it must be reported to the CFIA and disease control measures are implemented. The premises on which a reactor is discovered is declared an infected place and all susceptible animals must test negative to be allowed to move off the property. Horses in contact with the reactor within 30 days of the sampling date are also tested.
All EIA test-positive horses are retested and reactors with clinical signs are ordered destroyed. Owners of horses that are confirmed positive for EIA without clinical signs must choose whether to either keep the horse in a permanent quarantine or have it destroyed. In the later case, the CFIA orders the horse destroyed and pays compensation. The government's part of the program is delivered at no charge to owners.
For more information and data on the number of cases in your province or region, please refer to the following links on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) website. Contact your veterinarian for advice on how to best protect your horse(s) against EIA.