Health: Horse Disease: The Agony of Ecstessee

The polo season is closed after a highly contagious equine equivalent of AIDS infects a horse.

Think of the panic if aids could be spread by mosquitoes. Or through sweat. Such a nightmare exists-but fortunately not in the human world. That is little consolation for Devi Singh. He has been told that Ecstessee, the horse he trains with much love and affection, will be put to death because she has Equine Infectious Anaemia (EIA), a highly contagious, deadly and incurable equivalent of aids.

Doomed: Ecstessee, the source of infection, will be shot or given an anaesthesia overdose

"Does she not look good?" Singh disconsolately asks visitors in Jaipur. "She eats well, her eyes sparkle and notice her ears-how alert they are." But Ecstessee's affliction is invisible, for now. She carries the EIA retrovirus, a cousin of the aids virus, that will break down her immune system and kill her. "She is like my child," whispers Singh of the four-year-old mare, which was to play her first polo match this month. "You do not kill a human being for acquiring aids.''

But Ecstessee must die, either from a special horse gun or from an overdose of anaesthesia. She is the only horse to test positive for the disease so far this year, but such is the fear EIA generates that north India's entire polo season and other equine sports in Jaipur and Delhi have been cancelled, the movement of horses between the cities frozen. Mumbai, after being put on alert, also cancelled its season. All places within 2 sq km of the infected horse, and others that came into contact with it, have been declared out of bounds for equines and will remain under surveillance for one year.

"It is a disaster for us," says Prince Jai Singh, a former polo player and senior vice-president of the Rajasthan Polo Club. "Jaipur has lost its annual festivity and the club and players their money.'' A thoroughbred costs above Rs 1 lakh and demands almost Rs 80,000 a year on upkeep and movement. Only tournament winnings can meet the vast annual expenditure of the six-month long polo season. At least Rs 3 crore is spent on about 400 polo horses every year.

EQUINE NIGHTMARE

THE DISEASE: Equine Infectious Anaemia is an incurable disease caused by a retrovirus and spread by contact. The virus breaks down the horse's immunity and kills it.
THE EFFECT: Hundreds of horses quarantined and suspected areas declared out of bounds for other horses. These areas will remain under surveillance for one year.
THE LOST SEASON: Worst hit is Jaipur, expecting 70 players, including two foreign teams from Dubai and South Africa. The cancelled tournaments include the Kota Cup, Sirmour Cup Open and the Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase in Jaipur and the Indian Navy Polo Stick, Southern Command Polo Cup and the Oberoi Cup in Mumbai.

There is distress in Jaipur, where once people like the Shah of Iran, Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev and Prince Charles came to watch the game of kings. The city was allotted a prestigious round of the World Cup Polo Championships in February 2001. This year's season was to be a warm up. Hundreds of quarantined horses wait for veterinary experts, who will painstakingly check them for the deadly virus: the consequence of one horse owner's carelessness.

So far, 334 horses at the Army Equestrian Centre in Delhi and another 270- including 90 from the elite President's Bodyguards-have been tested. Of these 117, all belonging to the army, have tested negative; other results are awaited. After they do come in, another round of tests will be carried out. "This is in the larger interests of the polo community," says Captain Atul Gupta, secretary, Delhi Polo Club. "We are taking precautions since polo is a contact sport." For now the horses are rubbed with protective insect repellent, their litter sprayed with another repellent. And unless cleared by the Ministry of Agriculture's animal husbandry commissioner, the horses will not be allowed to leave Delhi for any tournaments.

The grim story began on January 27 when Dr M.P. Yadav, director, National Research Centre on Equines in Hissar, Haryana, received Ecstessee's serum among the 10,000 samples his team tests every year. He had routinely added EIA antigen to the serum 24 hours earlier. He and a colleague sat up in alarm when they noticed the rare positive reading. They would have to wait for two more readings, at 36 and 48 hours, before passing the death verdict.

Ved Ahuja, Rajasthan Polo Club secretary, was supervising the unloading of 10 horses from Delhi, which had just witnessed a successful conclusion of its polo season. Yadav's call interrupted the work. "A batch of 10 horses of Jodhpur Polo and Equestrian Institute has left Delhi for Jaipur and it has a polo mare, Ecstessee, which has tested positive for EIA," said Yadav, warning Ahuja to isolate the mare immediately.

Ahuja knew if EIA turned into an epidemic, hundreds of horses were doomed. According to the national policy on EIA, no horse should be moved until test reports have been received. Every horse in the country is supposed to undergo the Coggins test, as the EIA test is called, every three months or every time it is moved from one place to the other. It is a requirement often breached. Ecstessee belongs to Maharaja Gaj Singh of Jodhpur. The mare tested negative in Jodhpur before moving to Delhi on January 4. She was tested there, but before the results were in, she was moved to Jaipur, violating the wait-and-watch rules.

The next message that Ahuja and Colonel Umed Singh, ex-army vet and manager of Jodhpur's horses, got was that Ecstessee had to die. Umed Singh had never come across the virus during his army days. "There is no alternative," says Yadav. "The horse will always remain a carrier even if it does not die a quick death." Gaj Singh knows this. "It is a dreaded disease," he acknowledges.

EIA was first reported in Bangalore in 1987. But it came to horse owners' knowledge only in 1989-90, when an epidemic raged during a polo session at Calcutta. Finally, 100 horses were killed. Since then, until 1996, another 100 horses have been found affected by it and killed. They included polo horses from Jaipur. The disease seemed to be confined to the polo circle but considered under control because owners and organisers are well aware of EIA. This isn't the case with race and other horses, which are considered to undergo less "contact" than polo. EIA has also thus far been limited to thoroughbreds-there are about 12,500 in India-though half breeds are also viewed with suspicion. Ominously in 1997 and 1998, four horses belonging to the Uttar Pradesh Police- not a part of the active polo circuit-tested positive.

The efforts to contain the virus necessitated quick location of the source of Ecstessee's infection. Once identified, the horse's movement record will have to be obtained. Meanwhile, all other centres it visited will have to be declared out of bounds too. "But there is no need to panic," says Yadav. "We do not expect a Calcutta-like epidemic." For now they stable the horses-and hope the virus has not bolted.