African Horse Sickness Fever in Vaccinated Horses: Short Communication

Our investigation has shown that multiple vaccinations with inactivated African horse sickness (AHS) vaccines containing all 9 serotypes and produced at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Dubai, UAE, protect horses from AHS. However, the immunization did not prevent African horse sickness fever (AHSF) in approximately 10% of the vaccinated horses despite high enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and virus neutralizing antibodies. African horse sickness fever is a very mild form of AHS with similar clinical signs. From all 6 horses which had developed AHSF, no virus was isolated from EDTA blood withdrawn during the acute phase of infection. Despite high neutralizing antibodies, serotype 9 was detected by polymerase chain reaction in 4 of them. All 6 horses recovered within 72 hours, after they developed mild clinical signs of AHS.