Abstract
A study was conducted to determine the prevalence and risk factors for African Horse Sickness (AHS) in donkeys in the highland area of Kiambu County, Kenya. Data on the risk factors was collected using semi-structured questionnaires administered to 146 donkey owners while blood samples collected from 398 donkeys both during the rainy and dry seasons. Antibodies against AHS were detected using competitive antibody Enzyme Linked Immuno – Sorbent Assay (c-ELISA). The estimated sero-prevalence of AHS in donkeys was 35.2 and 27.6% during the rainy and the dry seasons, respectively. The sero-prevalence of AHS in the donkeys that were re-examined during both seasons decreased from 60 to 20% indicating a waning immunity. Age of the donkey (P= 0.02) and presence of water streams (P= 0.03) were significant risk factors of AHS among donkeys. Three seropositive donkeys also showed pulmonary clinical signs of AHS. There was poor agreement (k =0.05) between the c-ELISA and clinical diagnosis of AHS. In conclusion, AHS in donkeys is endemic in the highland area of Kenya. This calls for increased adoption of preventive measures against the disease and justifies the need for future research on clinical and epidemiological patterns of AHS in donkeys in other highland areas. Key words: African horse sickness, donkeys, highland area, prevalence, risk factors.
Highlights
Donkeys are commonly regarded as hardy animals (Croxton, 1993) diseases have often posed an enormous threat to their effective use for draught purposes (Mellor and Hamblin, 2008)
The current study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of African Horse Sickness (AHS) in donkeys as well as to determine the risk factors associated with the disease
The results demonstrated an AHS prevalence of 35.2% in the donkey population during the heavy rains in April to May, and 27.6% in the dry season in August and September, 2010
Summary
Donkeys are commonly regarded as hardy animals (Croxton, 1993) diseases have often posed an enormous threat to their effective use for draught purposes (Mellor and Hamblin, 2008). African Horse Sickness (AHS) is an arthropod-borne viral disease of horses, mules, donkeys and zebra, caused by a doublestranded RNA virus of the same name, the African Horse Sickness Virus (AHSV). There are nine distinct identified serotypes of AHSV (Mellor and Mertens, 2004). Donkeys are infected with AHSV serotype 4 (Hamblin et al, 1998) as well as serotype 6 (Zeleke et al, 2003). Culicoides, the main biological vectors involved in transmission of AHSV in Africa, are tiny biting midges about 1-3 mm in length.
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