1872 Equine Flu

December 3, 2020 1:22 PM

In 1872 the U.S. economy was growing as the young nation industrialized and expanded westward. Then in the autumn, a sudden shock paralyzed social and economic life. It was an energy crisis of sorts, but not a shortage of fossil fuels. Rather, the cause was a virus that spread among horses and mules from Canada to Central America.
posted by ShooBoo (5 comments total)

Thank you, that's an interesting article. I had no idea there had been a "horse flu."
posted by WalkerWestridge at 2:29 PM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

I’m surprised there haven’t been more, given how intensively humans raised and worked them for so long. How do you keep a disease of your communications infrastructure from spreading?
posted by clew at 4:25 PM on December 3, 2020

I wish I could find the relevant citations regarding the relationship between the 1872 Horse Flu and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic.
posted by AJScease at 6:27 PM on December 3, 2020

I hope Bergh is honoured in the States for his campaign against animal cruelty.

More recently ... Australia 2007/2008

The outbreak that eventuated was the most serious emergency animal disease Australia has experienced in recent history. At its peak, 47,000 horses were infected in NSW on 5943 properties, and horse owners and industry workers were facing dark times with major impacts on their livelihood and lifestyle.

The campaign led by NSW DPI to eradicate the disease was the largest of its type ever undertaken in Australia, using the latest laboratory, vaccine, surveillance, mapping and communication technologies.

The disease was eradicated within six months well ahead of predictions and by July 2008 horse industry operations had returned to normal.
...
Over 2000 people were deployed in the NSW control program, working at one of the state and local disease centres, nine forward command posts, 14 local vaccine centres and on affected properties. ...

• 16,000 movement permits were processed.
• Over 50,000 horses were vaccinated.
• 132,000 laboratory tests were carried out, with as many as 3,000 per day being done at the peak of operations.
• 45 zone progression cases were prepared and submitted for consideration by the national authorities. Each case involved the assembly of a detailed case, supported by comprehensive surveillance.
• 300 media releases were issued, resulting in thousands of radio, television and press interviews.
• 58 public meetings were held, attended by 5,660 people.
• 50 publications were prepared including factsheets, posters and signs. In addition, numerous press advertisements were prepared.
• There were 685,000 unique ‘page views’ generated for the EI home page alone. This does not include views of other web pages, fact sheets and multimedia products available from the EI website.
• Over 62,000 calls were made to the main EI hotline. Many other calls were directed to movements staff, Forward Command Posts and the Local Disease Control Centre.

Disease Response Poster
A vet looks back ten years later

posted by Thella at 11:51 PM on December 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

On Nov. 9, 1872, a fire started in the basement of a dry-goods shop at Kingston and Summer streets in Boston that eventually engulfed most of downtown Boston.

The city fire department was hampered both by inadequate water pressure (something the city fire chief had warned about, only to be dismissed as a worrywart) and by the fact that most of the department's horses had been knocked out by the flu, which meant firefighters had to pull engines themselves, and they just weren't as good at that as horses.
posted by adamg at 7:51 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]