An outbreak of African horse sickness (AHS) is having a devastating effect in parts of the Eastern Cape, particularly in the Mthatha area, where more than 120 horses have reportedly died since December.
Rural villages in the OR Tambo district, including Ngqeleni, Moyeni, Ngolo, Mpindweni, Tsolo, Misty Mount and Sibangweni, are some of the areas battling the multiple-strain virus that is endemic to SA.
Owners and breeders, who said they were aware of an alarming number of horse, donkey and mule deaths due to the virus, lamented what some termed a lax response to the crisis from the government.
They said a shortage of the only AHS vaccine available in SA was compounding the problem.
The mandate to monitor and enforce vaccinations in the province is the responsibility of the agriculture, land reform and rural development department.
A spokesperson for the national department confirmed the vaccine shortage but said it had no record of the AHS deaths in the Mthatha area, though there had been three outbreaks in the Eastern Cape in the first six months of 2022.
AHS, which has a high mortality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, is spread by bloodsucking flies.
Barnyard Stables owner Janine Clarke, who watched a mule die from AHS on Tuesday, has been running a horse rescue and rehab centre in Mthatha for the past 28 years.
Clarke said her operation was the only one in the former Transkei region educating thousands of horse owners about AHS.
She oversees 4,680 rural-owned horses in and around Mthatha and conducts a free outreach programme providing education on horse care, wound care, deworming and castration.
“State vets do nothing; Mthatha has zero. I see the devastation AHS is causing at an advanced stage,” Clarke said.
“The sight is disturbing for many owners. The numbers keep growing as people buy new horses.
“By next week, there could be as many as 4,700 horses.”
According to the veterinary manual, the disease is primarily characterised by fever, oedema of the lungs and subcutaneous tissues and widespread haemorrhage.
The average virus incubation period is five to seven days.
As with other viruses, AHS cannot be treated with antibiotics, and any measures to save the horse rely on managing symptoms.
Lins Rautenbach, a horse owner in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, said: “Breeders and owners who ordered the [Onderstepoort Biological Products AHS] vaccine in January 2022 are still waiting.”
She said a lack of vaccine campaigns in rural and lower-income areas inhibited progress in encouraging owners to get their animals inoculated.
“To vaccinate is law, but little is being done to uphold that law and get it done.”
Describing the harrowing impact of the disease on infected horses as heartbreaking, another owner, Chantal Bossert, of Northam in Limpopo, said: “I’ve been through AHS four times.”
Rautenbach and Bossert said had also been cases of AHS in Gauteng and Limpopo but because of the Eastern Cape’s rural setting the majority of cases had been reported in the province.
Agriculture, land reform and rural development minister Thoko Didiza’s spokesperson, Reginald Ngcobo, said three AHS outbreaks had occurred in the Eastern Cape in the first six months of 2022, but none had been recorded so far this year.
Ngcobo did not specify how many horses had died in the Eastern Cape a result of the three outbreaks.
He confirmed that SA was experiencing an unprecedented vaccine shortage.
“We are aware of the supply constraints of certain OBP AHS vaccines.
“The department and industries are engaging OBP to restore vaccine supply against a number of diseases.
“The provincial veterinary services co-ordinates and implements outreach programmes, including vaccine drives.”
HeraldLIVE