Botulism hos svenska hästar
Botulism is a serious disease with high mortality that can affect horses. Due to this about 20-30 percent of the horses in Sweden are vaccinated against botulism.
The purpose of this study was to see how common botulism is in the Swedish horse population and to se if a connection between feeding with haylage and botulism could be seen. In addition to this, the study aimed to find how common vaccination against botulism is among Swedish horses and on what grounds the diagnosis botulism is made.
Medical records of horses being diagnosed with botulism at all the major large animal hospitals in Sweden between 1995-2005 were searched. In addition to this the database where general practitioners report their cases as well as the cases with botulism reported to the insurance companies were included.
The results of this study show that only 0,03 percent of the Swedish horse population has been diagnosed with botulism during the time period this study covers. In all the cases included in this study the diagnosis was made based on clinical signs and in none of the cases verification by isolating the toxin was possible.
In all cases where forage is noted in the journals the horse has been feed haylage which indicate that there is a connection between the use of haylage and botulism.
Three horses died despite being partially vaccinated against botulism type B which indicate that a correct vaccination has to be done before the horse get any protection or that the correct diagnosis was not botulism type B.