Detection of IgG and/or IgM antibodies against equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) in Nigerian race and polo horses

Equine infectious anaemia (EIA) has aroused a lot of attention over the years. The disease is often fatal in horses and surviving horses remain lifelong carriers; that is why humane destruction of infected horses is highly recommmended. It is caused by the prototype lentivirus of the family retrovirus. A serological screening was carried out in polo and race horses from three selected state capitals in Nigeria. In all, 84 sera samples were collected from race horses from Ilorin in the North Central and Sokoto in the Northwest, and polo horses from Ibadan in the Southwest. They were analyzed for antibodies against the equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) by indirect ELISA. Of the 84 samples tested, 2 samples, 1 (1.2%) horse in Ilorin and 1 (1.2%) horse in Ibadan tested positive. It was observed that the positive horses were adult and they showed no fever and symptoms associated with EIA. The positive results were from male and female Arewa breed respectively. In conclusion, EIA is present in certain areas in Nigeria with prevalent of 2.4% among the Arewa breed horses from the population sampled.