The West Nile virus is transmitted by mosquitoes between birds, but also to humans, horses, and other mammals. For a long time, it only occurred on the African continent. However, since 1999, the West Nile virus has also spread to the US. In 2018, it was detected for the first time in birds and two horses in Germany (Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt). Since then, infections have occurred in the summer and fall months. Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony are particularly affected. However, more and more cases are now also occurring in Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bavaria. West Nile infection is a notifiable animal disease.
The West Nile virus multiplies in birds. It spreads through blood-sucking mosquitoes, mainly among wild birds. However, infected mosquitoes also transmit the virus to humans, horses, and other mammals. These, however, offer poor conditions for the virus to multiply. They are referred to as dead-end hosts. The virus is not transmitted further from these hosts. Due to the seasonal increase in insect activity, infections usually occur in summer and fall. They are particularly common in years with hot, humid summers.
In most cases, the infection does not cause any visible symptoms in horses. However, in eight to ten percent of cases, fever and severe neurological symptoms occur. These include, among other things:
One quarter to half of neurologically affected animals die. In rare cases, horses develop a general illness with fever but no neurological symptoms.
Since West Nile virus infections are largely asymptomatic, they usually go undetected. If neurological symptoms occur, your vet will perform a general and neurological examination of your horse. The vet will take blood samples to detect the virus or antibodies against the virus. These samples will be sent to official laboratories for testing. Diseases with similar symptoms, such as Borna, tumors, or liver disease, will be ruled out through further tests.
West Nile disease is a notifiable animal disease. Therefore, the official veterinarian must be notified as soon as the disease is suspected. There is no medication against the West Nile virus itself. Your veterinarian will treat infected horses with anti-inflammatory drugs and other measures to alleviate the symptoms. It is important to keep the horse in a quiet environment in the stable.
The most effective protection is vaccination. It does not prevent infection, but it reduces the duration and severity of the disease. The Standing Committee on Vaccination in Veterinary Medicine (StiKo Vet) recommends vaccinating all horses kept in or transported to areas already affected by West Nile virus or in the immediate vicinity. On January 6, 2025, Stiko Vet updated its guidelines for vaccinating horses based on the current outbreak situation. The vaccination recommendation was extended to the entire North German lowlands. In the medium term, the goal is to vaccinate all horses in Germany, as the West Nile virus continues to spread. Therefore, please check the Friedrich-Löffler-Institut (=FLI) website regularly for the latest information on the spread of the virus and the StIKo Vet website for the latest vaccination recommendations.
As the virus is not transmitted from horse to horse, it is not necessary to vaccinate the entire herd. After the initial immunization, individual animals are very well protected. Vaccination takes place in the spring before the start of the mosquito season. Depending on the vaccine, horses can be vaccinated from the age of five or six months. Two vaccinations are required for basic immunization, with an interval of three to six weeks between vaccinations. Depending on the vaccine, protection begins two to three weeks after the second vaccination or four weeks after the first vaccination. The West Nile vaccination must be refreshed annually before the start of the mosquito season.
Your vet can send you a vaccination schedule via petsXL. You will then automatically receive notifications when it is time to make another appointment.
You can also protect your horse from mosquitoes with fly sheets and insect repellents (see related article). Do not put horses in high-risk areas on pastures near water, as insects breed particularly well there. Remove any standing water in the stable area.
"My horse isn't too fat." That's what many horse owners think – and they're wrong. Assessing a horse's weight isn't easy, and horse scales aren't usually available on site. With a little practice, you can use body condition scoring to assess your horse's nutritional status yourself.
Feline asthma, or cat asthma, is a chronic respiratory disease that, like asthma in humans, is triggered by an allergic reaction. Typical signs of feline asthma include severe coughing or wheezing. Young to middle-aged cats are most commonly affected.
X-rays have long been the most commonly used imaging technique. An X-ray machine is now standard equipment in a veterinary practice. These invisible rays were discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who received the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901 for this technology, which has been used worldwide ever since.
Laryngeal whistle syndrome, also known as hemiplegia laryngis or recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN), describes the paralysis of one side of the laryngeal muscles caused by a disorder of the nerve responsible for controlling them. The disease manifests itself through a typical sound during inhalation, which is why riders often say that the horse has a "tone." Large horses are particularly affected, with geldings and stallions more commonly affected than mares.
Liver disease has a complex effect on metabolism. Symptoms are nonspecific and only appear when 70% of the liver is no longer functioning. This means that liver disease is only detected once it is at an advanced stage.
Some breeds that have been bred by humans to achieve a desired appearance suffer from serious health problems: breathing difficulties, joint damage, eye problems, or limited ability to communicate – the list of diseases and affected animal breeds is long. But what exactly is torture breeding?
A doping scandal in dressage riding brought this condition to the attention of riders and owners a few years ago. But what exactly is this condition? More and more horses, especially sport horses, are now affected by this neuromuscular disease, the causes of which are still largely unknown. It is considered incurable and can severely impair a horse's performance. Large, heavy horses between the ages of 4 and 7 are particularly at risk, as are horses with naturally high muscle tone. Male horses are more commonly affected than mares.
This disease, also known as endothelial dystrophy, is a change in the cornea of the eye and is similar to Fuchs' dystrophy in humans. This disease causes damage to the endothelial cells that form the innermost layer of the cornea.
The word distichiasis comes from Greek and means "two rows." In this condition, an extra row of eyelash-like hairs (distichia) grows out of the sebaceous gland openings at the edge of the eyelid. Since these misplaced, hard hairs grow toward the eyeball, they cause permanent irritation and damage to the cornea. Another form of distichiasis is ectopic cilia. These are scattered hair follicles that grow out of the inside of the eyelid as individual bristly hairs or as a whole tuft of hair, standing perpendicular to the cornea and causing permanent irritation to the eye. Ectopic cilia are most commonly found on the upper eyelid in dogs and very rarely in cats.
For people who have always been around dogs, talking to their four-legged friends is probably easy and almost second nature. But at the beginning of the relationship, it is important to immerse yourself in the dog's world and meet it where it is coming from. So you have to learn its language—not the other way around.
A hernia is a bulge in the abdominal wall through which the peritoneum and intestines can protrude. Perianal hernia, also known as perineal hernia, is a condition that occurs in 90% of older, unneutered male dogs, in which fat and abdominal organs protrude under the skin in the perineal area (the area between the anus and the external genitalia).
This eye disease, also known as Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA), is a hereditary condition affecting Collies, Shelties, and some related breeds. It is a congenital developmental disorder of the back of both eyes that can lead to visual impairment or even blindness.
