[Current virus diseases in horses. Diseases in foals and respiratory tract infections]

At the moment, horse praxis is confronted by two disease complexes which are difficult to fight against as well in prophylaxis as in therapy, but which get an increasing importance. First they concern virus infections of the foals and second primary virus-caused respiratory diseases. Foals get infected during the embryonal/fetal development, in the perinatal or postnatal period. Normally the infection is caused by latent infected, clinical healthy mares, or in the postnatal period by ubiquitous, normally opportunistic socalled problem-viruses, i.e. equine herpes-viruses 1 and 2, rota-, corona- and adenoviruses. Primary responsible for the virus infections of the respiratory tract are the rhinopneumonitis- and influenza-A-virus, the reo- and rhinoviruses and the arteritis-virus.