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  Discussion on Oseltamivir to treat horses inoculated with equine influenza A
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DrO

Posted on Monday, Nov 27, 2006 - 10:54 am:

Oseltamivir is known as Tamiflu to most folks. Using the regimen below 5000 mg would be needed to treat an average size horse for the whole 5 days, which comes to about 500$ US using discount prices. Expensive for what is usually a self limiting disease but there does seem to be a benefit.

J Vet Med Sci. 2006 Sep;68(9):923-8.

Efficacy of oseltamivir phosphate to horses inoculated with equine influenza A virus.

Yamanaka T, Tsujimura K, Kondo T, Hobo S, Matsumura T.
Epizootic Research Center, Equine Research Institute, Japan Racing Association, Tochigi, Japan.

We investigated the efficacy of the oral administration of oseltamivir phosphate (OP) in horses experimentally infected with equine influenza A virus (H3N8). Nine horses were divided into three horses each of control, treatment and prophylaxis groups. An administration protocol for the treatment group (2 mg/kg of body weight, twice a day for five days) was started immediately after the onset of pyrexia (above 38.9 degrees C). An administration protocol for the prophylaxis group (2 mg/kg of body weight, once a day for five days) was started on a day before viral inoculation. In the treatment group, periods of virus excretion (mean days +/- standard deviation, 2.3 +/- 0.6) and pyrexia (2.0 +/- 0.0) were apparently shorter than those of the control group (6.0 +/- 0.0 and 8.0 +/- 1.0, respectively). In the prophylaxis group, although virus excretion and pyrexia were not prevented, the periods of virus excretion (5.0 +/- 0.0) and pyrexia (4.7 +/- 1.5) were shorter than those of the control group. Moreover, in the treatment and prophylaxis groups, bacterial counts of Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus known as the common pathogen of secondary bacterial pneumonia in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids collected seven days after inoculation were significantly fewer than that of the control group. The results indicated that the oral administration of OP to horses affected with equine influenza would contribute to reduce the magnitude of virus excretion, pyrexia and consequent secondary bacterial pneumonia.
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