Coronavirus: ‘Effect of measures on equine sector’ and ‘Equine Coronavirus not infectious to humans’

What is the effect of government-imposed measures on the horse industry? And is equine Coronavirus contagious to humans? The Equine Sector Council (SRP) pays extensive attention to these issues, and we have summarized two relevant articles from the SRP.

CORONAVIRUS:
CABINET ADOPTS PACKAGE OF NEW MEASURES FOR JOBS AND ECONOMY

The Corona measures also have a huge effect on the horse sector. The horse sector is a specific sector dealing with horse welfare and the sector is being hit hard by the Corona crisis. Examples include riding stables where riding lessons have been halted and costs are continuing; events, competitions and inspections that have been halted causing damage to companies and organizations; training and completion stables where some work has come to a standstill; and the trading and export stables that have suddenly shut down. Trade has also come to a halt at service providers and retail businesses.

The SRP is currently conducting an inventory among the supporting organizations. This is an inventory of the impact of the sector and an inventory of how to deal with the situation after April 6, 2020.

Measures

No one knows how long the crisis will last. The measures also have yet to be worked out but the outlines of the measures have been announced. The measures will be worked out in the coming period. The exact elaboration must wait. Non-payment of tax can be started today.

The measures most important to the horse industry (for a brief explanation of each measure, click the link to the full article):

• Establish temporary scheme to meet labor costs
• Additional support for self-employed entrepreneurs
• Easing tax deferral and reducing penalties
• Extended Entrepreneur Financing Guarantee Scheme.
• Compensation scheme for affected sectors

EQUINE CORONAVIRUS IS NOT INFECTIOUS TO HUMANS OR OTHER ANIMAL SPECIES

Many types of coronaviruses occur in many animal species including humans. In principle, those different types of coronaviruses are species-specific and thus usually stay with their ‘own’ species.

For example, in the horse we have had ECoV = Equine Corona Virus (equine is an English word for horse) for several years. This virus occurs in foals with and without diarrhea and sometimes in adult horses. It can cause fever, lack of appetite, sometimes mild colic and diarrhea or limp dung. This virus type is not contagious to other animal species or to humans. However, ECoV does spread rapidly among horses because it is highly contagious to horses among themselves and has a short incubation period (= time between coming into contact with the virus and developing symptoms of illness). However, many horses are not affected by the infection at all.

So, for the horse owner, the current coronavirus infection in humans (COVID-19) and the coronavirus in horses (ECoV) do belong to the same virus group from the point of view of virus research, but in practice have nothing at all to do with each other. Humans do not get sick from equine coronavirus and horses do not get sick from human coronaviruses.

The above information comes from Prof. Dr. Marianne Sloet of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht. The full article can be read on the website of the SRP.

Source: Equine Sector Council (SRP).