Staff Report
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State Agriculture Commissioner Patrick Hooker announced Friday the state's first confirmed 2010 equine case of Eastern equine encephalitis. The affected horse, which was euthanized, was a 2-year-old gelding kept in Oswego County.
According to the Department of Agriculture, EEE is a rare viral disease of horses and humans that is spread by infected mosquitoes. The department has no reported or confirmed human cases of EEE in 2010.
"New York's abundant water sources and humid climate unfortunately make the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and the EEE virus," Hooker said in the release. "Therefore, we highly encourage horse owners to protect their animals and consider vaccinating for EEE. The EEE vaccine has proven to drastically reduce the incidence of the virus in horses and can be easily administered by a private veterinarian."
Signs of EEE include staggering, circling, depression, loss of appetite and sometimes fever and blindness. Humans cannot become infected by handling an infected horse, nor can a horse acquire the virus from another horse. However, the presence of an infected horse in the area indicates that mosquitoes carrying EEE are present, which can pose a threat to both humans and horses, according to the release.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website notes that EEE outbreaks are common during the summer and fall along the Eastern seaboard, Gulf Coast and some inland Midwestern locations of the United States.
For more information about EEE, visit www.agmkt.state.ny.us/AI/equine/equine.html or www.cdc.gov/easternequineencephalitis.
