24/01/2011

(2011, January 24th)

On 21st January 2011, IHP sent the following letter with a request of confirmation to Honorable Francesca Martini, Under-Secretary to the Health Minister:

Honorable Under-Secretary Martini,

First of all, we want to express our heartfelt congratulations for the goals of civility reached, thanks to your work, in the animal welfare field. In particular, we refer to the recent Ordinance about the Equine Infectious Anemia – EIA – which, for the first time in our country, takes in account the ethologic needs of the equines along with the needs of epidemiologic control.

We wish to submit the following point to your kind attention:

-The OIE, in chapter 2.05.06 of the operative manual regarding EIA, indicates the AGID test – the so called Coggins’ Test – as the official reference test for the diagnosis of Equine Infectious Anemia;

-The D.P.R. 11th February 1994, 243 states the Coggins’ Test is the only one that can be used to determine the positivity to EIA in the exchanges with other countries;

-The EC Regulation 1774 of 2002 also states the Coggins’ Test is the reference test to determine the (positivity to) EIA in the specimens the equine serum was obtained from;

-The Minister’s Ordinances (O.M.) regarding the Equine Infectious Anemia control (O.M 14th November 2006, O.M 18th December 2007, O.M 8th August 2010—the current one) exclusively refer, regarding the diagnostic methodologies, to the Coggins’ Test, recalling the D.M. 4th December 1976 “Prophylaxis of the equines’ Infectious Anemia”;

-The Minister’s Decree (D.M) 10th October 1994 “Rules for intercommunity exchange and the importation from foreign countries of living equines” and the D.M. 7th March 1992 regarding the prophylaxis of the equines’ Infectious Anemia in the re-organization of the experimental zoo- prophylaxis institutes, confirm the Coggins’ Test (Agar Gel Immuno Diffusion test) is the official test to determine the positivity to Equine Infectious Anemia;

-Finally, even the Lazio Region’s resolution n. 5702, 11th October 2010 “Regional procedures for the actuation of the Minister’s Ordinance 8th August 2010 regarding the national plan for equines’ Infectious Anemia” indicates that “The EIA diagnosis in Italy is currently based on serologic methods. The screening methods contemplated for the serologic EIA diagnosis are the Agar Gel Immuno Diffusion (AGID) and the l’Enzymelinked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) as indicated by OIE (OIE’s Manual)” (…) The positivity to ELISA must be confirmed by an Agar Gel Immuno Diffusion test, able to find the presence of the antibodies directed against the capsid p26’s protein. This test, also known as Coggins’ Test, partially modified by OIE (OIE’s Manual) is the one to be used for the official confirmation of positives.”

It seems clearly evident the official test for the Equine Infectious Diagnosis is the Coggins’ Test (or AGID, Agar Gel Immuno Diffusion), which is internationally used and indicated as the official test. Even when other methodologies are used (ELISA, PCR, IMMUNOBLOT), they must be confirmed by the official test (Coggins). This because the Coggins’ Test is extremely specific and doesn’t give false positives as the other methodologies do.

However we are now asking you another, urgent confirmation of the points stated above, in order to avoid any kind of confusion.

We also take the liberty to point you attention to the fact the other European countries take samples for EIA testing only from horses taking part to competitions or events involving concentrations of equines. Italy is the only country that tests all the equines inside the national borders, except those destined to slaughter. This is huge financial and organizational effort for the equines’ owners and, even more importantly, for the Public Health System, whose resources are already taxed by many other issues.

According to the data released by the IZSLT, it seems the Italian ASL’s (local health authorities) tested more than 237.000 equines in 2009; 338 were found positives and thus destined to isolation or slaughter. More than 200.000 tests every year represent a huge financial and organizational effort for a disease not easily transmitted ( as demonstrated by the fact its presence in our country was very low even during the years from 1995 to 2006, when there wasn’t any mandatory testing), which it could be downsized by testing, as in the other countries, only the horses taking part to competitions with a certain degree of importance. Financial and human resources could be used to research the most important EIA’s characteristics, in order to gather a more in-depth knowledge of them.

In contrast with the huge financial and organizational effort requested to check all the equines, those destined exclusively to slaughter are NOT included in the testing, even if they often live near or even in the same property or come in contact with horses not destined to the production of meat. In the same way, the equines temporarily entering in Italy from other European Union countries aren’t tested (see note DGSA directed to the FISE on 2nd March 2007), and the same happens with those imported for slaughter.

We thank you for your kind attention, and wait for your courteous reply.

Sincerely yours,

Antonio Nardi-Dei da Filicaja Dotti
President



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