Equine Infectious Anemia

1
Equine Infectious Anemia

• Andrea Jensen
• Emily French

2
Discovery History
3
Horsey AIDS? NOT
4
Lentiviruses

• Retrovirus Family
• Single Strand () RNA virus
• Contains 2 copies
• Can infect non-dividing cells
• Contains regulatory proteins
• Latent or active viral states
• Spread by blood and other bodily fluids
• Long lived virus leading to reservoir for
  persistent infection
• Virus type present in many vertebrate species

5
The next 30 minutes of your life

• Transmission
• Pathology
• Testing and Control
• Vaccine research, EIAV/FIV
• What does it mean to Me?

6
Transmission

• Vicki 15 min of fame

7
Viral Life Cycle
8
Primary Pathology

• Mature RBCs destroyed by immune system
• Maturation of RBC precursor cells prevented

9
Other EIAV Symptoms

• Depression
• Fever
• Enlarged Lymph Nodes
• Weakness
• Weight Loss
• Anorexia
• Edema
• Nasal Discharge
• DEATH

10
How EIAV Stacks Up

• HIV generally fatal

• FIV is Kitty AIDS

• EIAV has 30 mortality

11
So now you know..

• What EIAV is and what it means for the horse.

But what are we doing about it?

• Mandatory Testing
• Federally Mandated Control Measures
• Vaccine Research

12
Current Testing

• Agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID or Coggins)
• Competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay
  (cELISA)

AGID / Coggins
cELISA
13
Control Measures

• Life-long quarantine
• Slaughter
• Research
• Euthanasia

14
What this means is

• 70 of horses that contract EIAV would
• effectively manage the infection.
• But..
• 100 of horses who have a positive Coggins Test
• will die as a result of the test.

15
Vaccines

• No.
• Yes.
• Well, Maybe

16
Why do we even care?

• Vaccine Research
• Therapeutic Vectors
• Immune System

17
The End