Lack of exposure to equine infectious anemia and equine viral arteritis in horses in israel

Equine viral arteritis (EVA) and Equine infectious anemia (EIA) are OIE-listed diseases. EIA has never been diagnosed in Israel, whereas eight horses were EVA-seropositive in 2008. Each year horses are imported to Israel from Europe and North America where both viruses were reported in the past. Furthermore, semen is imported from different European countries and from North America. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of both EIA and EVA in a population of healthy horses in various geographical locations in Israel. Sera samples were collected from 296 healthy horses from 20 farms across Israel. Commercial ELISA kits were used to determine exposure to these viruses. All samples were seronegative to EIA. All but two samples were seronegative to EVA by ELISA. The two seropositive samples were further analyzed using virus neutralization test (VNT) and were found to be negative. The results of this study indicate that, in 2015, both viruses were not prevalent in the Israeli horse population, despite importation from endemic areas. These findings further support the need to maintain the pre-importation tests that are required in order to protect the Israeli horse population from these pathogens.