Re: now EIA

["Howard Bramhall" <hwb67@msn.com>]

Debra Barwick, the lady who wrote that article on EIA I mentioned, did return my call from south Florida.  She's mailing me some of the information on the vaccine she discussed in her article.  The vaccine is being used in China, not Japan; for some reason her article put in the wrong country.  I'll try and post some of the info and maybe we can compare it with what Ed Hauser has.

 

I had so many questions I wanted to ask this woman about the FRIENDS facility.  She's been involved since it's inception, which is over 15 years.  Some of the things she told me were very informative and enlightening.  I'm sure there are those who will say this woman's views are tainted, since she works with infected horses on a daily basis; but, for me, it's good to get another point of view. To see their Internet site go to:

http://www.eiahorses.org/

 

Now, I've been told by several vets that all horses who carry EIA will eventually die.  Debra told me flat out that is not the case; most of their horses live out full and healthy lives without ever showing any signs of the disease.  She has one horse who is over 35 years old and tested positive when he was 5.  She said they currently have 59 horses there and most of them are considered inapparent carriers.  She doesn't expect more than ten percent of them to die from EIA.  And the inapparent carriers are as healthy as your horse or mine, except they come up positive when given the Coggins test. 

 

One thing she told me that kind of freaked me out is that they, also, have donated horses there who have not tested positive for EIA.  It's part of the research they perform at the facility.  And not one of those negative horses has come up positive, even though they live side by side, next to the carriers.  This is incredible to me considering the bug problem in south Florida.

 

I know some of y'all are going to think I've done and gone off the deep end here or that I'm trying to promote something slanted or one sided.  I'm not,  I just think that euthanasia of horses who test positive with the Coggins should not be the only way to handle this issue.  I, for one, am glad that the FRIENDS facility exists, and God forbid, if any of my guys came up positive I'd do my best to get them down there instead of having them killed. 

 

Maybe Ed Hauser is right, the vaccine in China is not effective.  I don't know.  I just know I'd like to find out more about it and any others that are in use around the world.  And the next time I'm down south I will be stopping by the FRIENDS facility so I can see for myself what an inapparent carrier looks like.

 

Every time I see Magic Johnson trotting down the basketball court or on TV, I say to myself, there goes a human inapparent carrier.  He sure looks healthy to me.  And nobody's ever suggested we put him down.

 

cya,

Howard