Also, piro isn’t a negative/positive thing. You need to know the number. The shippers and vets who have been around these things forever have thresholds they consider safe for import - and they aren’t the same as the threshold to be “negative”. That’s because the stress of travel can cause the titer to go up.
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Yes, this!
I am glad your friend sent the horse back. Others have just had the horse euthanized. The import regs are not kind. The horse goes back, or it is put down.
I got into an argument with the lab and my vet over this once. They kept saying, negative is negative. They finally reissued the paperwork with the titer number. It wound up being extremely low and would not have been an issue, but the shipper handling the export didn’t even want to pick the horse up from the stable without knowing the number.
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Do you have a source for the piro titers?
I have been looking for the USDA recommendations for piroplasmosis titer and cannot find anything that gives ranges like
x - y - Negative
y - z Inconclusive
z - Positive
It’s read as a percentage. Positive is greater than or equal to 40%. I am not sure exactly what would be borderline risky. There is no “inconclusive”—it’s just as stated above that if the horse is negative but close, it is possible that the stress of travel might bump up the number to positive when the horse is retested in quarantine.
My horse was in the neighborhood of 2% for both types, for reference.
Edited to add my source is Bose lab.
Above 40% c-ELISA inhibition rate is considered Positive for Piroplasmosis (Th. Equi) my new horse shipped at 9.9% , as reported on his final blood test, Bose labs, at the processing center in Taragona for his export processing.
Above 40% c-ELISA inhibition rate also for Piroplasmosis (B. caballi) considered positive. mine was 8.0%
I don’t know difference between those separate piro diseases, I am just dictating off the lab result form.
Interesting to me- he was at 14% on one and .68 on the other when he was initially tested, about two months prior to shipping, back when I first inquired about buying him. So it clearly goes up and down in their bloodstream. He was tested again upon arrival at LAX but for some strange reason I cannot find that one.
I read online (and was told by others who’ve imported from Iberian countries) that 100% of horses there have some degree of Piro in the bloodstream. It’s the amount that matters and the > 40% line is the degree that USA won’t allow in.
I located the LAX release form-- it does not give a percentage it just says tested negative for Piroplasmosis.
I found that my paperwork stated that anything less than 25% was negative, 25-40% was suspicious, 40%+ is positive.
Thanks all who replied with this titer info. Very interesting. I look at what Bose labs post on line.
Piroplasmosis is endemic in Europe, that means most horses have been or will probably be exposed so horses carry antibodies from exposure but are not active carriers. Same for horses from Latin America. I have to read more, but it would seem that above a certain level titer, the USDA has deemed the horse to be a potential active carrier.
This seems similar to EPM where horses can test in the “Positive” range, but the AAEP says this is inconclusive for active disease and they do not recommend blood tests for asymptomatic horses as they expect that horses in areas where EPM is endemic to show a “positive” titer level in the blood.
USDA managed to reduce/eliminate piro in the US. There had been some cases with QH due to iatrogenic transmission…eg., transmitted by “dirty” needles when vets (or someone) have injections from a carrier horse to others.
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Yes. Some shippers will take a horse that tests 25-30, many will not. At least one of the ones that will take borderline horses recommends treating right before shipping in hopes that it doesn’t spike in transit. Too risky for me.
Also, some vets think the lab matters. Some vets will only send US-bound PPE piro tests to a German lab.
Mine was quite some time ago. But I also used Sofie from Andalusitano.
She was amazing. I went to Spain and spent a week driving around and test riding horses. She made the whole process very pleasant and I had a lot of fun.
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Had a buyer flunk a very, very nice horse on the vet for this and my personal vet was pissed that any vet would advise a buyer to 1. pull an EPM titer on a horse for sale with no suggestive symptoms and 2. call the result a “positive” in an EPM area.
Another buyer got a great deal on a very nice horse, because their vet wasn’t an idiot.
The vet I used sent the tests to the U.S. lab. Also, the shipper retested right before shipping.
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Hello - looking at an older post if yours. You had offered another member information on vets and agents to import from Spain and Portugal . Would you be able to share that information with me ? researching people to work w in this process
Thank you !
Anne
Hi, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your experience with Sofie/importing a horse.
(Not sure how to send a DM).
Thank you!
