African Horse Sickness

It was great of Carte Blanche to do a story on this and we should commend them for doing this.

Following the show I started thinking that maybe the vaccine approach may be the wrong way to go or maybe the vaccine should be used in combination with other preventitive methods. I am no expert and actually no very little about the sickness but maybe the authorities should be attacking the problem at the source, the insects. I would suggest some sort of non toxic (for horses) topical poison that could kill these insects off. Maybe the correct approach would be to attack the problem much in the same way as malaria is dealt with. Both problems stem from insects so surely this is the place to start.

It would be interesting to get other views on this.

What is obvious is that the current vaccine is outdated and proving to be ineffectual.
There was a Dubai based expert who was rather critical of the current vaccine.
Also a class action pending against the authorities (for not addressing the problem adequatley and damages?).
A uniform strategy involving government (health), local and international experts, racing regulators, nhra, Onderstepoort, vetenary, universities etc needs to be put together post haste to solve this crisis in our racing once and for all.

Agree Cuckoo, but do you agree that they may be taking the incorrect approach and maybe they should be focusing on killing off these insects?

I'm just a layman, Alcaponee, but you are correct, surely an aspect of it (among others) that should be addressed.

I would suggest that good stable management includes identifying possible areas where the midges breed, and spraying with a registeed herbicide, but that eradication of the midges would be virtually impossible (not everyone in the vicinity of stables, paddocks etc would control midges on their properties).

Of course I meant spraying with a registered pesticide, not herbicide!!