Par
Jeanne MORCELLET
Published on
Jan 8, 2025 at 8:30 a.m.
It all starts at Le Mans on November 1, 2 and 3, 2024.
The town hosts a competition for amateurs and professionals where ponies and horses from clubs and owners rub shoulders during a large competition which brings together several hundred equines.
14 horses and ponies
The Haras de la Chéchinière has 14 horses and ponies on site. The competition is going well.
The rider-horse couples of the Perche club are fighting to win medals. Nothing but very banal. After the competition, everyone returns to Soligny-la-Trappe (Orne).
Parisian echoes of the epidemic
“A week later, we heard from Parisian clubs with whom we had shared challenges and who were faced with cases of rhinopneumonia. A mare was even dead,” says a rider from the club.
At La Chéchinière everything was fine, no symptoms of any kind and then all our ponies and horses are vaccinated, a directive from the coach
But on Saturday, November 23, Happy was in bed, more or less paralyzed. The pony cannot get up. It's all up in arms. She has no fever, no cough and no broken bones. SO ?
The three forms of the virus
Equine rhinopneumonia (HVE1) is a very common disease in France. It manifests itself in three clinical forms: respiratory, abortive and nervous. The last causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord. The onset of nervous signs may be sudden, without visible prior respiratory signs, and often occurs within the second week after infection. From mild locomotion disorders to paralysis of the limbs, the virus causes fever, ataxia, urinary incontinence… The vital prognosis is very variable.
The results of the test carried out the same day are final, “at 9 p.m., we learned that she was positive and had rhinopneumonie in its form neurologicalthe most grave» explains Samuel Gourmaux, the director of the center. A disaster.
The volatility of the virus
The extreme volatility of the virus is a ticking time bomb. Happy could have contaminated other horses and other horses could have been contaminated at Le Mans.
The same evening, Samuel and his wife Sandrine decide to completely close the club. A radical decision but the only one that sticks.
Because if the best prevention against the HVE-1 virus remains vaccineit cannot protect 100% from the epidemic. However, the vaccinated horse develops the disease less and recovers more quickly.
Above all, the vaccine reduces the contagiousness of the virus.
At Le Mans not all the horses were vaccinated, hence the spread of the virus
And the larger the gatherings of horses, the more they encourage the circulation of contagious diseases.
Finally, a horse carrying the virus may be asymptomatic, like healthy carriers of Covid-19.
Le diagnostic
After the veterinarian's visit, who takes into account the symptoms of the sick horse(s), a diagnosis is made by analysis in the laboratories. As with the PCR tests carried out in the nose during the Covid epidemic, the upper respiratory tract of horses is the site of smears taken by swabs.
PCR analysis is based on a nasal and blood test for respiratory and nervous forms and on tissues (liver, lung of the abortive) for the abortive form.
“Highly contagious and capable of remaining in a latent state in the body, the virus represents a very significant health risk” summarizes the Respect,
the Equine Pathology Epidemiological Surveillance Network.
The association, which has around 1,000 sentinel veterinarians who observe and provide real-time feedback on this or that disease, was the main agent of information and advice during the epidemic.
La Chéchinière lives in slow motion
At the end of November, the club is almost at a standstill.
To save the horses and ponies, as for the episodes of Covid-19we must stay confined at home, in the meadow or in your box and not meeting each other.
In a word, Samuel forbids any interaction between horses, between riders – owners or not – and their mounts.
All equines are tested via a analyse PCRusing a nasopharyngeal swab.
During the first analysis, we counted six positive cases, including two serious ones, Happy and another pony, Altesse
With his wife Séverine, they begin an obstacle course to avoid any further infection. Only one person takes care of a single row of boxes.
Each row has its own foot bath, Samuel and Séverine continually disinfect their hands and their clothes, entrust their dog, who can serve as a vector via her hair, to the parents of the club owner.
€15,000 loss
They take turns taking the horses out to the meadow so that they can walk and snort. The month of December is hellish, punctuated by PCR analyzes on nasopharyngeal swabstress and work.
Preventions and precautions
If an outbreak is suspected, horses should be isolated, their temperature monitored for at least a week (incubation period), twice a day as much as possible, and movement of horses in and out of the structure stopped. Clinically healthy horses can be an important vector of disease through direct contact. Hence the need to take regular samples (nasopharyngeal swabs) for at least 21 days after observing the last symptom.
The couple lives self-sufficiently, without visits and without lessons, without any income. “We estimate a net loss of €15,000” announces Samuel who recognizes in his misfortune the great luck of having been able to count on a veterinary team who gave them a lot of support and help.
Collaborative work
Anne-Sophie Clec'h, from Moulins-la-Marche, confirms the necessary collaboration between a veterinary service and club owners: “it's collaborative work, one doesn't work without the other. During an epidemic, we treat individuals and the collective and the team must be very united. We did not spread the disease or affect the neighbors.”
One month after the start of the epidemic, in mid-December, the equestrian center can reopen its doors.
Last week we did not have any new cases and we decided to partially resume activity with lessons and owners who come back to see their horses
Le Respe announced on December 16 in its latest bulletin that “the situation now seems to be under control but it remains under surveillance. Horses with neurological symptoms gradually recover at the different sites. »
“It was very hard psychologically” confides Samuel. He still fears for Altesse's life and for the physical recovery of Happy, a show pony who “is on the right track” but who will no longer be able to have the same potential.
A few days later, Altesse will be euthanized to end her suffering.
Respe’s advice
If Chéchinière is the only infectious source in Orne, the only one to have participated in the Le Mans competition, all the other equestrian centers in the region have listened to the recommendations of Respe.
Namely “stop the movement of horses in and out of the structure”. The organizers of the Mêle-sur-Sarthe Percheron foal fair announced on Saturday, November 23 that they were canceling the event planned for a week later as a precautionary measure.
No show jumping at Haras national du Pin
The Haras national du Pin cancels its club/pony show jumping from December 22.
“Given the circumstances, it was unthinkable to organize the grouping of more than 300 horses” explains David Jollivet, director of the International Equestrian Sports Center (Pisa).
This is a blank period to respect, which does not help us economically, but which requires us to observe health constraints as for the Covid-19 epidemic.
In unison with riders and professionals in the equine industry, he adds: “if all sport horses were vaccinated, the virus could not reach this scale. Zero risk does not exist, but in the racing world, where trotters and gallopers are required to be vaccinated, the virus does not explode”
The idea is to start off on a good basis. We care about our animals
And Anne-Sophie Clec'h adds: “Rhinopneumonia is a very old and poorly understood disease. Vaccination is only effective if the vaccinated population reaches 90%. When will the State finally decide toimpose this vaccination ? »
In Pasteur's country, the uncertainty over the need to vaccinate against a deadly disease is simply incomprehensible.
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