Lancaster Farming, Saturday. July 12,1975
56—1
Use the Farm Calendar
To Publicize Your Meetings.
Maryland expands
diagnostic service
- The Maryland Department
of Agriculture announced
recently an expansion of its
animal health laboratory
{ diagnostic service for the
detection of Equine In
fectious Anemia (Swamp
Fever).
On July 1, the MDA
Animal Health Laboratory
at College Park will begin
performing the Coggins
AGID-EIA test, the only
reliable diagnostic test for
the costly, incurable equine
disease. Heretofore, this test
was available only from the
department’s Centerville
laboratory, or from private
. laboratories.
Dr. Hugh E. Binks, Chief
of MDA’s Animal Health
Section, located at College
Park, says that this will
serve to expedite EIA
reports for accredited
veterinarians throughout the
state. He advises that blood
samples should be sent by
veterinarians directly to
either the College Park or
the Centreville facility/
While the other three state
laboratories at Salisbury,
Frederick and Oakland, will
continue to accept such
samples, delays may result
because-the samples have to
be forwarded to the
laboratories equipped to
perform the Coggins test.
The demand for the
Coggins test has risen
sharply over the past several
MBA facility—tested—l
performed 4,376 tests in the ceptance,
first quarter of 1975, as
compared with 11,831 in the
12 months of 1974. The
disease rate (positive
reactions) for the quarter
was 0.40 percent and for the
year 1974, 1.34 percent.
Since 1973, the USDA has
prohibited the interstate
shipment of eqoines showing
a positive reaction to the
Coggins test, except for
immediate slaughter. Ef-
fective last December,
Maryland regulations
required that any equine •
horses, ponies, mules, etc,
having a positive reaction be
permanently identified
with a freeze brand on the
left side of the neck and
quarantined for life, at a
place approved by the MDA.
More recently, Maryland
regulations have required
that all equines brought into
the state must have been
tested negative, within 12
months prior to entry.
“There is definitely no EIA
epidemic,” states Dr. Binks.'
He adds that most scientists
who have studied it believe
that neither the disease nor
the infection rate has
changed much in the past 100
years. However, as the horse
population has risen and the
movement of these animals
become more widespread,
more cases of EIA are ob
served and confirmed.
Because EIA is both in
curable and transmissible,
many owners, whose
animals contract the
disease, have choosen to
destroy them than run the
high risk of having the
disease spread to the healthy
animals.
Dr. Binks advises that
when purchasing a horse,
pony, or mule, the purchaser
should accept the animal on
a trial basis and have it
i j
I I
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