Abstract:
This is the first case of African horse sickness (AHS) in a dog where there was no apparent
ingestion of horse meat. Significantly, the dog was part of a colony that resides in a Good Clinical
Practice and Good Laboratory Practice accredited facility where complete history, weather
and feeding records are maintained. The dog died after a week-long illness despite therapy.
The principal post-mortem findings were severe hydrothorax and pulmonary consolidation
(red hepatisation of the lungs). Histopathology revealed severe oedema and congestion of
the lungs, hyaline degeneration of the myocardium and congestion of the liver sinusoids.
Immunohistochemistry detected AHS-positive staining granules in the myocardium, whilst a
real-time reverse transcription quantitative Polymerase chain reaction assay of tissue samples
was strongly positive for African horse sickness virus nucleic acid. Other dogs on the property
showed a 43% seroconversion rate to AHS.
