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Saturday, February 18, 2006

Charged for NOT Coggins testing?

This is a news story about a man that is accused of animal neglect. His horses were malnourished and one was dead. Starving horses is inexcusable, but what confused me is the charge that is being filed against the man for falure to test for EIA:

"Another charge has been filed against Bruce Teeter, who stands accused of
animal neglect. Marion County deputy prosecutor Kenford Carter added
the charge of failure to test for EIA, or Equine Infectious Anemia, to the
complaint against Teeter.
Horse owners are required to perform the test
once a year, Carter said. According to the USDA, Equine Infectious Anemia is a viral disease for which there is no vaccine and no cure. The disease is spread by horseflies. To ensure that an animal is not harboring the virus, a simple test is performed. The Coggins test checks for EIA antibodies in the horse's blood." -http://www.baxterbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060214/NEWS01/602140316/1002



Horse owners are required by who to perform the test? The article fails to say. I don't know of any horse owners that test all their horses yearly, nor do I know if any regulation that requires horses to all be tested yearly. Shots are done yearly, deworming bimonthly, shoeing every 6-8 weeks... but coggins tests?

EIA (Equine Infectious Anemia) is extremely rare and fatal. The only time that people will generally test is when they are buying a new horse, or when they are attending an event or show that requires current coggins. Travelling out-of-state generally requires a proof of current coggins (and current is considered 6 months, not 1 year).

Perhaps in Arkansas where EIA is more of a potential problem (more mosquitoes etc.) it's required. I would love to know, if anyone has any information on laws requiring coggins tests, please let me know.

6 Comments:

  • I know here in Texas, under certain conditions horse owners ARE required to have a yearly EIA/Coggins test done on their animals. I currently filed a complaint with the Texas Animal Health commission on my neighbor who has over 50 horses with no current Coggins test. She has violated a state law (adjacent property law) and had until today to get those tests done. As far as we can tell, she still refuses to get the test done and if I'm understanding the state correctly, all horses will be quarantined and possibly removed from the property......

    http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/dawson/eia/tx_eia.htm

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:17 AM, March 01, 2006  

  • As far as I know, Arkansas doesn't have a law requiring an owner to coggins test every year. We only do it for shows around here, and most people only get one coggins test during the show period (late fall).

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:26 PM, May 14, 2006  

  • Arkansas DOES have a law requiring horse owners to have a Coggins done at least every 12 months. I just found this out, myself.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:10 AM, September 04, 2006  

  • Look at Arkansas General Assemble ACT; 1306 of 1997 and ACT; 540 of 2001 amendment. You will find the EIA regulations (COGGINS) laws of Arkansas governing the Coggins requirement.
    I located it, in about 30 seconds... under www.uaex.edu then click AGRICULTURE "left catagory colum" the click the HORSES

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:19 PM, March 28, 2007  

  • I read this years ago (below), so no doubt that "Testing for EIA (primarily the Coggins test) is a $50 million dollar business" is much higher now. This article says vets make $10 and the lab makes $10. Well my vet is charging $50 per test, so it's a lot higher than what sounds like was a $20 test when this was written, but if you'd like to see the truth about EIA and Coggins testing, read this -

    http://www.donblazer.com/ahorseofcourse/1000ahorse.html

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:04 PM, April 14, 2011  

  • In 1997, Act 1306,requires a coggins every 12 months for horse, mules, zebras,etc. over 6 monthsold

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:02 PM, December 27, 2011  

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