EQUINE | ECOD Report
ECOD Report
September 2019
Period reviewed: January – September 2019
This report summarizes the equine disease events logged on the ECOD (Equine Cause Of Disease) passive
surveillance system developed for the South African Equine Veterinary Association.
Overview and User Reports
Uptake of the ECOD system remains slow with the very
few active contributing users. In the period reviewed
10 additional veterinarians or practices registered on
the system. Excluding SAEHP users, who capture much
of the laboratory based results on ECOD, there were
a total of 18 active users over the nine months who
captured disease events. The majority of non-SAEHP
users captured events in Gauteng, KZN and the Western
Cape Province.
For the purposes of this report we only consider those
disease events that were classified as confirmed (rather
than suspect – 120 events were in this category). A total
of 793 confirmed disease events, constituting 958 cases,
were logged during the period. Private vets logged
8.2% of disease events for the period. Disease events
generally refer to all cases on an individual holding, and
for the sake of completeness have been included in the
analysis below, however, case totals provide the most
accurate depiction of the data reported.
African horse sickness
AHS reporting was one of the main reasons behind the
development of the ECOD system, and the majority of
38
cases are logged by SAEHP staff from positive laboratory
results for this disease. These logs are cross referenced
against any logs made by private veterinarians to ensure
that duplication of results/ cases is avoided.
There were a substantial number of AHS cases in the
period reviewed. A total of 593 cases were reported for
476 events. Provincial case totals are shown in Table 1.
Figures 1 and 2 show the spatial distribution by local
municipality and the epidemic curve of cases for the
period reviewed.
Table 1: African horse sickness cases reported on
ECOD between Jan - Sep 2019 and categorised by
Province
Province
Eastern Cape
Free State
Gauteng
Kwa-Zulu Natal
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
Northern Cape
North West Total cases
90
9
346
18
30
36
8
56 Total events
52
9
292
18
25
36
8
36
TOTAL 593 476
• Equine Health Update •