African Horse Sickness
In this section you can find out more about African Horse Sickness (AHS) – one of the subjects on which the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has produced background information
Background
African Horse Sickness (AHS) is a highly fatal infectious disease, which affects horses, mules and donkeys.
It is caused by an orbivirus and there are nine strains of the virus.
The clinical signs differ between individual animals and range from high fever, spasmodic coughing, dilated nostrils with profuse frothy fluid oozing out to swelling of eyelids, facial tissues, neck, thorax, brisket and shoulders.
AHS is endemic in the central tropical regions of the continent, from where it spreads regularly to Southern Africa and occasionally to Northern Africa and further.
A few outbreaks have occurred outside Africa, such as in the Near and Middle East (1959-63), in Spain (1966, 1987-90) and in Portugal (1989) with the more recent outbreaks in Spain due to importation of infected zebras from Namibia.
However, AHS has never been identified in Great Britain.
What the BVA has done
The BVA has issued a policy brief 
on AHS which gives an overview of the disease, clinical signs and differential diagnosis
More information
See the Defra website