The outbreak of equine influenza (H3N8) in the United Kingdom in 1989: diagnostic use of an antigen capture ELISA
Livesay, G.J.; O'Neill, T.; Hannant, D.; Yadav, M.P.; Mumford, J.A.
Veterinary Record 133(21): 515-519
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-4900 PMID: 8310627 Document Number: 416875
In July 1989 influenza A/equine-2 (H3N8) was isolated from a nasopharyngeal swab taken from a non-Thoroughbred horse with acute clinical respiratory disease. This was the first isolation of equine influenza virus in the UK since 1981. Subsequent investigations of acute respiratory disease in horses indicated that the infection was dispersed throughout the UK. However, unlike the previous epidemic of 1979, the first horses from which the virus was isolated had been vaccinated. This outbreak of influenza provided an opportunity to evaluate an antigen capture ELISA, directed against the influenza virus nucleoprotein, as a rapid method for detecting virus in the nasopharyngeal secretions of naturally infected horses.