African Horse Sickness Diagnosis
Although the clinical signs and lesions are characteristic, they can be confused with those of other equine diseases. For that reason, laboratory diagnosis of AHS is essential. Several techniques are available for AHS, both serological and agent identification methods. If possible, more than one test should be performed to diagnose an outbreak of AHS, especially the index case.
Serogroup diagnosis is the first step to carry out. Real time RT-PCR and ELISA are the minimum techniques recommended by the EURL to be stablished in the National reference laboratories of the UE.
After that, the second step is the serotype diagnosis. It is relevant to implement vaccination program as soon as possible, considering that commercial available vaccines are serotype specific.
Finally, a further characterization, mainly based in genome sequence, should be performed to determinate the specific strain.
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