โ Scribed by R.H.O.
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Virus Disease Challanges Research.--A virus disease that may attack man, although it is mainly important in horses and mules, is now one of the rao~e important subjects of veterinary research. Equine encephalomyelitis behmgs to the same general group of diseases that includes poliomyelitis and St. Louis encephalitis in man, but the horse infection, which has been recogni:,ed as a virus disease since I93O, has several features which make it of special in~:erest to research workers.
It is well established now that mosquitoes can transmit the disease to the hor,~e and to other warm blooded animals, including birds. One confusing fl~ature is that there are two distinct strains, known as "western" and "eastern." The disease has been reported from all but three of the States--Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia--according to a recent review of the situation by M. S. Shahan and L. T. Giltner, U. S. Department of Agriculture veterinary research workers. In three States--Alabama, Texas and Michigan --both strains have been identified. A third strain, very similar, has been found in Venezuela and in some other Latin America areas. Cuba and Mexico have the "eastern" strain and Argentina has the "western" type.
The Bureau of Animal Industry has had reports of more than 5oo,ooo cases since I935, and estimates that there have been at least i,ooo,ooo cases in the United States since I93o. Discouragement over loss of work animals, says the report, has been a factor in causing substitution of tractor power on some farms.
Since I938, when an effective vaccine was developed from virus cultured on chick embryo, it is estimated that more than 7 million 2-dose vaccinations of animals have been made. This gives satisfactory protection, but must be repeated each year, and in the three areas where both strains exist double vaccination is required since the vaccine from one strain does not protect against the other.
Veterinary scientists have not been able to find the source or "reservoir" in which the infection lives over from year to year. Apparently horses do not harbor the disease over winter. It may live over in birds or some animal or possibly in some such carrier as a tick.
If mosquito control becomes practical--as seems possible with widespread use of DDT--the veterenarians think this may help reduce losses from equine encephalomyelitis.
R. H. O.
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