African Horse Sickness Research Paper

AHSV infects equines such as horses, mules, donkeys and zebras (Theiler, 1921). Clinical symptoms of AHS are rare in zebras and they are considered natural vertebrate hosts and reservoirs (Barnard and Paweska, 1993). Horses are more susceptible to AHS and the mortality rates can reach up to 95% (Theiler, 1921). African horse sickness disease occurs regularly throughout the African continent but is endemic in central, eastern and southern Africa (Henning, 1956; 1961; Hamblin et al. 1990). Outbreaks outside the African continent were caused by serotype 9 except for the Spanish-Portugal outbreaks in 1987-1990, which were due to AHSV-4 (Mellor and Hamblin, 2004). African horse sickness virus is confined within the endemic regions during the winter