1. Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) is not a threat.

EIA is so insignificant the USDA has no record of annual deaths. The USDA claims .02% of the US horse population is infected. If there are 6.9 million horses, then 138,000 should be diseased. (It is a fact 95% never show symptoms and are never sick and do not infect other horses, so .05% could be seriously ill. If that were true, then 6,900 horses would die of EIA each year in U.S. But that is not happening. And the present quarantine/slaughter program does not protect healthy horses from anything.

2. There is an effective vaccine

Dr. Roger Lloyd, a zoologist in Jacksonville, FL., is a member of the governing board of the American Chinese Veterinary Medical Frontiers, Inc., a corporation which has brought the EIA vaccine to the US for testing. According to Dr. Lloyd, preliminary tests run in China have demonstrated the vaccine to be effective against the American strain of EIA as well as the virulent Chinese strain. We could be using the vaccine.

3. There is a better way to protect horses against EIA

Take a horse’s temperature before he is shipped across state lines, or enters a show grounds, rack track or public horse facility. If the horse’s temperature is normal, he isn’t suffering from EIA, strangles, flu, Rhinopheumonitis or Potomac Horse Fever. The horse with a normal temperature is much safer around other horses than a horse with a negative Coggins test. The Coggins test is only good for 15 seconds. After the blood is drawn, the horse can get infected anytime. Of course, if he does, he’ll run a temperature. So let’s stop the tragic waste of quarantining or slaughtering hearty, useful, loving horses Ask the director of your state department of agriculture to say, "no" to a senseless, discrimating program. Test for EIA. Euthanize acutely ill horses. Save hearty, useful horses.

A Little More Info on EIA
The disease is self-limiting. Even as the US horse population grows, the number of EIA positive horses decreases. This is true because "inapparent carriers" make up 95% of the infected horses, but these horses do not transmit the disease. (Scientific studies indicate a 1 in 6 million chance an inapparent carrier might contribute to infecting another horse.) In addition, transmission is complicated and difficult. Only certain horse flies transmit the disease by feeding on an infected horse. The feeding process must be interrupted, and the fly must have blood splattered around it’s mouth. If, within the next 15 minutes, the fly resumes feeding on a healthy horse, then the disease may be transmitted.

There are "hot" zones for EIA, and percentages are higher in such zones. However, the more horses tested outside the hot zones, the lower the percentage of infected horses. The fact is EIA is insignificant within the entire U.S. horse population. And it is not spreading, it is decreasing.

QUARANTINE AND SLAUGHTER IS A TRAGIC, INEFFECTIVE WASTE
The argument that quarantine and slaughter can eradicate the disease makes absolutely no sense when you consider there is no effort to test all horses. Only about 20% of US horses are tested, so the program cannot possible work. To advocate such a program only testifies to the ignorance which drives it. The quarantine and slaughter is the fear campaign which keeps the discriminatory testing mandatory and keeps the money flowing into the pockets of veterinarians and testing laboratories. It is time for politicians to be accountable for the financial and emotional losses they are causing.

If EIA was such a terrible threat to horses, then each state would institute an eradication program. But states won’t name, list, develop, try or even suggest "eradication." Why? Money! If a state calls its EIA program an eradication effort, then it becomes responsible for the loss of the property and would have to pay the horse owner the value of the animal euthanized.

Ask your state senator or representative to learn about the state’s EIA program, then ask for and insist on facts:

1. How many acute cases of EIA are there each year? How many horses die annually?

2. If there is no proof an "inapparent carrier" can infect another horse, why kill a healthy, useful horse?

3. If we stop killing or quarantining "inapparent carriers," what will be the projected increase in EIA deaths?

4. Wouldn’t it be more effective and less costly in dollars and horses’ lives to simply take a temperature reading on horses crossing state lines or entering public horse areas?