Re: RC: Strangles

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Mon, 7 May 2001 12:28:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, "Carolyn Burgess" <carolyn_burgess@hotmail.com> writes:

<< I used to board at a facility that had strangles go through the barn about 5 
years before I got there.  My mare had never been vacinated for strangles, 
but was off the track after racing for many years.  She never contracted 
strangles from this place, and I still don't have her vacinated.  Another 
horse that moved there shortly after I did had spent it's entire life at one 
facility and had contact with only one other horse it's entire life.  2 
weeks after it moved there it was a snot factory.  The most disgusting 
disease I've ever seen.  It took about 6 weeks for the disease to complete 
resolve.  No other horse got sick.  I don't know if this means that somehow 
my mare has immunity that has lasted a lifetime or if she was just lucky.>>

The mare from the track could very well have had an immunity from prior exposure, or may have simply had a strong enough immune system not to come down with the disease from a mild exposure at the new facility.  In either event, as long as she continues to live in an environment where there is constant low-level immunity, she is, in essence, being "vaccinated" by the environment, and could very well maintain an immunity.  This is not the same scenario as a horse that is not exposed again, and hence has no stimulation of its immune "memory" of strangles--it is horses without continued exposure that will lose their immunity.

Heidi