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RE: [SPAM] [RC] EIA - heidi

I stumbled upon this website and thought the archive 'stories' were 
pretty cute, especially the sore back story.  As I started reading more 
of them I came upon the EIA one and was somewhat surprised.  I'm 
reluctant to believe the claim that coggins tests are primarily done 
just for the revenue especially since if that was the case there would 
be many other tests 'they' could do to generate revenue and 'they' 
don't.  If any of you have a few extra minutes I'd be curious to hear 
what you have to say about this story.  Specifically that horses do not 
die from the infection and can lead perfectly normal lives.  If that is 
the case why is it SO regulated, other then the authors claim that it is 
for money.
The site doesn't try to sell you anything, I hadn't even noticed it was 
a saddlery site until I looked at the address so don't dismiss it for 
that reason.

This is relevant to endurance since coggins test results are required by 
every ride manager I assume.


You are right that Coggins testing is not done just for revenue.  EIA is
a serious disease in some parts of the country.  Testing is a very
imperfect tool, since a horse may test negative today and contract the
disease tomorrow, but even imperfect tools are better than no tools. 
There is no vaccine for EIA, and not apt to be any time soon, because
the virus changes its antigenicity regularly.  That is why the horse
can't get rid of the infection, either.

Yes, horses can and do die of EIA.  And just as there is no vaccine,
there is no cure.  Some horses do live seemingly normal lives as
carriers, but one never knows when the disease might become active
again.  

As for being required by ride managers, that is usually only the case in
areas where the disease is endemic.  There was mention on Ridecamp
awhile back of one ride in CA that requires Coggins tests--that is the
only one that does in the western part of the country that I'm aware
of.  The disease is far more common in the east and the south, so you
are more apt to encounter the requirement to be tested to enter an
event there than out here.  Some states (TX comes to mind) require
managers of equine events to check for Coggins tests.  In other parts
of the country, you don't need a test unless you are crossing a state
line.  (And in a few instances, there are exemptions to that, too.) 
But the problem differs in frequency from state to state.  Out here, a
state may find a positive only once every several years.  Texas, on the
other hand, runs 400-500 positive cases per year, so it makes sense for
their regulations to be much stiffer.

Heidi


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