Equine Venereal Disease
Encyclopedia
The most common form of Equine Venereal Diseases is contagious equine metritis
Contagious equine metritis
Contagious Equine Metritis is a venereal infection of the genital tract of horses brought on by the Taylorella equigenitalis bacteria. Passed on through sexual contact, according to Robert N. Oglesby DVM, the disease was first reported in 1977 on horse breeding farms in England and was found in...

 (CEM). Another form of Equine Venereal Disease is equine coital exanthema, caused by the Equine herpesvirus 3
Equine herpesvirus 3
Equine herpesvirus 3 is a virus of the family Herpesviridae that affects horses. It causes a disease known as equine coital exanthema. The disease is spread through direct and sexual contact and possibly through flies carrying infected vaginal discharge. EHV-3 has an incubation period of as...

.

Causes of Equine Coital Exanthema

This disease which affects the external genitalia is caused by the Equine Herpes 3 virus. Being that it is a virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

, this is a disease that will be with the horse for all its life. Equine Coital exanthema is believed to only be transmitted during the acute phase of the disease through serous fluid from the blisters.

Transmission of EHV-3

This virus is transmitted through sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

, breeding tools, handlers, etc.

Symptoms

Equine Coital Exantema: This is seen in mares and stallions with the appearance of acute small lesions, no bigger than 2mm in diameter. They are seen around the vulva
Vulva
The vulva consists of the external genital organs of the female mammal. This article deals with the vulva of the human being, although the structures are similar for other mammals....

 in mare
Mare
Female horses are called mares.Mare is the Latin word for "sea".The word may also refer to:-People:* Ahmed Marzooq, also known as Mare, a footballer and Secretary General of Maldives Olympic Committee* Mare Winningham, American actress and singer...

s, and on the sheath in stallion
Stallion
A Stallion is a male horse.Stallion may also refer to:* Stallion , an American pop rock group* Stallion , a figure in the Gobot toyline* Stallion , a character in the console role-playing game series...

s. The small bumps will blister and then rupture leaving raw, ulcerated, painful sores. While the majority of the symptoms are external studies show that the presence of the virus can cause small and large plaque variants in tissues.

Contagious Equine Metritis: Acute symptoms include acyine inflammation of the uterus causes an obvious think, milky, mucous vulvar discharge 10 to 14 days after live, covering a stallion. Chronic symptoms include milder uterine inflammation that will cause less obvious vulvar discharge and at this time the infection may be more difficult to eliminate. Carrier mares can occur once the bacteria become stable within the reproductive tract. There mares can be asymptomatic for months and still remain infectious

History

The First Case of CEM was diagnosed in England in 1977.

It has infected horses in 26 countries:

Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Heregovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britiain, Greece, Guinea-Bissau, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Serbis, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sweden, Switerland, and the United States.
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