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| Author |
Message |
    
Emily French (Jcsmoon)
| | Posted on Monday, Mar 12, 2001 - 1:28 pm: |   |
DR O
My vet & I are trying to get some Qs answered on the new experimental EPM Vaccine and thought you could help
What are the recomendations for pre and post vaccination blood work for the presence of EPM antibodies considering the high rate of normal exposure?
How the heck do you get a hold of Fort Dodge??? Their web site dosen't have any Phone #'s for vet to call for info on the study.
Thanks for any help, I am doing the leg work for my vet who is now being bomb-barded with Q's - Though I keep assureing him that we are not in one of the elligible states for the trial. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2001 - 7:35 am: | |
Hello Emily,
If you have not seen it yet Emily, I have put the information I gleaned from FD technical support in the article on EPM in the Neurological Disease section. If there are no tech support numbers call sales, everyone has a sales number, and ask for tech, they will refer you.
I have seen the recommedation that prevaccination EPM blood titers be done to establish exposure status but I am wondering what we do with this information? I don't see that you should base the decision to vaccinate on the results and whether or not there were prevaccination titers, if your horse comes down with EPM like disease you are going to treat right? It could be that this information may have some future, as yet unknown, use.
DrO |
Jane C. Africa (Rebelde)
| | Posted on Tuesday, Mar 13, 2001 - 8:52 pm: | |
Emily,
Here are some addresses and number I have gotten for Fort Dodge.
Fort Dodge Animal Health
Division of American Home Products Corp.
Erica Bord, M.S.
Territory Manager, Equine
9401 Indian Creek Parkway, Suite 1500
Overland Park, KS 66210
Telephone: 800-477-1365
Customer Service: 800-685-5656
24 hour Customer Order:
Fax: 800-846-8626, Email: fdoeder.com
now for the other side of the business card
68 W. Exchange St.
Akron, OH 44308
Tel/Fax: 330-535-1067/330-762-1515
Mobile: 330-819-3329
VoiceMail: 800-485-4898, #956-2771
Email: bordjr@aol.com Hope this helps. I had a problem with a vacine and Fort Dodge had a Rep at an Expo and this lady gave me her card. She told me to call the 800 number and ask for a Vet. My Vet was rather upset with me that I had gotten these numbers. I would also like to know more about the EPM vacine. Especially any side affects. I had to treat two horses for EPM. The outcome was very good. I would like to vacinate against it. The vacine HAS to be less expensive than treating EPM. Talk about eating peanut butter and jelly just so the horses could get well. Oh I guess that should go under horses on a budget. What budget? You got to do what you got to do.
Jane |
JOHN M. FINO (Finojohn)
| | Posted on Friday, Mar 16, 2001 - 5:51 am: | |
i have treated two horses that developed epm disease. i believe they contracted the disease from eating dirt when i was excavating to put in a new padock,shortly after they came down with epm.the area excavated used to be a chicken farm. my horses seem to be doing fine now, but i am anxious to get them inoculated.it was a lot of time and money to fight epm.my horse is a tennesee walker who is very special a one in a million horse. thanks |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Friday, Mar 16, 2001 - 7:49 am: | |
Hello John,
How sure of the diagnosis are you? How close together where the two cases?
DrO |
JOHN M. FINO (Finojohn)
| | Posted on Saturday, Mar 17, 2001 - 5:48 am: | |
hello DRO, i first started noticing one of our two horses was beginning to loose control in his rear quarters, almost falling over at times. i called the vet right away. the vet performed some field mobility tests and had a blood test done, the both horses tested pos.shortly after the second horse started showing stiffness in the rear quarters. the vet wanted to do a spinal. we decided instead to start immediate treatment.i figured pos blood test, clinacal signs were enough if horses responded to epm treatment that would confirm the disease. it was like a miracle in several days they seemed better. we treated them for 120 days , with a medicine called epm shake, its a combination of 2 drugs.they seem to be doing fine now, but i am lost as what to do from here. i believe the most important thing with epm is early diagnosis and immediate treatment, the sooner you can stop the proazoa from making cysts in the horses spinal area the better chance you have of full recovery.i believe in our both horses the result of thier syomtoms were from inflamation of the spine due to the beginning stages of protazoal infestation. im hoping this epm vaccine proves to be effective. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Saturday, Mar 17, 2001 - 9:11 am: | |
Hello John,
From what we understand, and the information I have so far, I have to say EPM is not the most likely cause, though I cannot rule it out. Many areas of the country have more EPM positive healthy horses on the blood test than negative. So while it can help rule out the disease, a positive does not rule it in. Next is that your horses became sick together. From what we know about this disease this is improbable.
It is likely that horses do not become sick upon initial exposure, it takes time to make it to the brain (a time that is probably variable from horse to horse) and then only a small percentage maybe as small as 1 in several thousand become ill. So to have two horses get ill at the same time, to the same degree, and then recover completely, suggest another and possibly and more common disease: equine herpes virus myelitis.
Do not get me wrong: I would have done the same thing you did and crowed about the results, but fromt the information I have so far, would consider the other cause more likely.
DrO |
JOHN M. FINO (Finojohn)
| | Posted on Monday, Mar 19, 2001 - 6:07 am: | |
dr O , thank you for your response.where can i get info on equine herpes virus myelitis and what would i look it up under? is there a test for this disease and what about a vaccine? considering what i"ve allready done as treatment what would or should be my next step to make sure my horses are ok. thank you, john |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Monday, Mar 19, 2001 - 7:31 am: | |
The locations is: Diseases: Neurological. There is also an article there on EPM. I think most of your questions are answered there.
DrO |
Marybeth Block (Marybeth)
| | Posted on Friday, May 17, 2002 - 12:24 pm: | |
I can't find any posts from 2002 regarding the EPM vaccination. I've had one vet strongly recommend it, and my other vet doesn't even carry it. Another curiousity was a neighbor who vaccinated for it, and her horse became depressed and very uncoordinated in the back end. Her vet couldn't diagnose the problem but said the symptoms were in line with those of EPM. Here's my questions:
Is there any new information for 2002 on the efficacy or risks associated with the EPM vaccine? Dr. O are you recommending it? And if a horse has some natural immunity to the protoza could the vaccine cause a reaction displaying some of the symtoms of the disease? |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Saturday, May 18, 2002 - 7:57 am: | |
Hello Marybeth,
This vaccine has really been a black hole with no information that I can find being generated about it. I also heard nothing at the last AAEP meeting. I am not recommending it. Our history with developing effective vaccines against protozoans is very poor so I wait for more information. I can think of several ways the vaccine might cause disease with the most likely being that horses may have preexisting CNS infection that does not cause disease but once vaccinated the sensitized imune system causes inflammation which interferes with normal CNS function.
DrO |
Chris Mills
Member
Username: Count
Post Number: 52
Registered: 9-2000
| | Posted on Monday, May 19, 2003 - 12:14 pm: | |
Dear Dr. O,
What is your latest information on the EPM vaccine? We live in La. possums, armadillos, birds, etc everwhere. Our vet initially did not recommend it (last yr); now, she says she's going to give it to her horses. Another vet we know is very much against it.
Have read your info on vaccine and EPM.
Thanks in advance,
Ann |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro
Post Number: 8403
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - 7:37 am: | |
Hello Chris,
There is a real black hole on information on this vaccine. I have heard nothing in over a year.
DrO |
Cindy Mitchell
Member
Username: Cmitch
Post Number: 10
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Monday, Feb 21, 2005 - 8:52 pm: | |
I tried to post this yesterday, must not have went through. Anything new on the EPM vaccine for 2005? Heard they recommended it at a major vet conference this year. My vet wants to give my guys it this year.....just not sure. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro
Post Number: 12157
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, Feb 24, 2005 - 7:07 am: | |
Cindy there was this report last spring and this is still the status quo:
Vet Ther. 2004 Spring;5(1):34-42.
Evaluation of immune responses in horses immunized using a killed Sarcocystis neurona vaccine.
Marsh AE, Lakritz J, Johnson PJ, Miller MA, Chiang YW, Chu HJ.
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Clinically normal horses developed cellular immunity to Sarcocystis neurona following IM vaccination with a commercial killed S. neurona vaccine, as indicated by the development of measurable anti-S. neurona IgG antibodies and additional intradermal skin testing. Large-scale independent assessments of the vaccine's performance and safety are in progress under field conditions. The next step in the evaluation of this vaccine would be to attempt experimental challenge after a reproducible reliable equine model of S. neurona encephalitis has been established that allows for reisolation of the pathogen after challenge.
As stated in the report there has been progress on finding a disease model that results in dependable infection so that the vaccine can be tested. This has been one of the problems in the past: you could not reliably cause disease in horses by simply exposing them to the organism. This made evaluation of the vaccine difficult as simple measuremnts of immune response do not correlate well with disease protection.
DrO
|
Robin Levine
Member
Username: Rob10549
Post Number: 37
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 10, 2005 - 2:32 pm: | |
Of interest; Fort Dodge is extremely helpful and will connect you to a veterinarian who is in charge of the vaccine's efficacy. My horse was given the EPM vaccine two years in a row but never followed up with a booster! Without the booster the shot is worthless. I was never even asked if I wanted my horse to receive the vaccine as the veterinary practice never notified horse owners and just went ahead and gave them the vaccine. My horse and the horse that lived next to him both came down with EPM within the two year span following the vaccinations...without the boosters. I just recently found this out when I went to change barns and someone noticed that on my bill my horse had received the vaccine. I thought they were crazy! The moral of the story; make sure that if you opt for this unapproved drug that you make sure your horse gets the booster. I now have a veterinarian at Fort Dodge who I must contact monthly to update her on my horse's condition. He suffered a rear suspensory ligament injury a month before being diagnosed with the EPM. The injury may have been a result of him favoring the good leg as the other rear leg is now neurologically deficient. Know what your horse is receiving when the vet comes to vaccinate! They do not know if the vaccine, despite that it is a dead vaccine, can actually cause the disease. |
jessebell
New Member
Username: jessebel
Post Number: 1
Registered: 4-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 1:09 pm: | |
It is 2007, any progress on the EPM vaccine? My vet recommends the vaccine and says he has used it for over 2 years. He is treating one of my horses for EPM now but I have 2 others I'd like to protect from this disease. |
Cynthia Dittmar, RVT
Member
Username: ryle
Post Number: 83
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 - 7:43 pm: | |
Ft. Dodge has still not been able to get full licensure because they haven't proven effectiveness of the vaccine.
With the fact that the vaccine isn't PROVEN effective and that it fouls up the diagnostic testing, I would not opt to give it to my own horses....and I live in heavy opossum territory.
Robin, there is little risk of the killed protozoa causing disease as it's their reproduction within the cells of the central nervous system that causes the disease. |
Lucy Calhoun
New Member
Username: lucyc1
Post Number: 3
Registered: 1-2009
| | Posted on Friday, Feb 20, 2009 - 7:40 pm: | |
Is it true that the EPM vaccine has been withdrawn? If it is still available is there any more information?
Dr. O made a comment earlier in this thread that caught my attention. He said that "horses may have preexisting CNS infection that does not cause disease but once vaccinated the sensitized immune system causes inflammation which interferes with normal CNS function." This seems logical and worrisome. Is there any more info on this, or on the effectiveness of the vaccine? Is it still available? |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: dro
Post Number: 22395
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 - 9:13 am: | |
I have not heard an announcement Lucy, but I see where it has been removed from a Fort Dodge list of vaccines available. It was there recently as it is still in the google link description.
As to availability you still find it listed at some wholesalers but that is no guarantee. I can find no further research for or against the activity of this vaccine than what is in the article.
DrO |
