Emergence and re-emergence of glanders in India: a description of outbreaks from 2006 to 2011.
Glanders, a bacterial disease of equines caused by Burkholderia mallei, is a fatal infectious disease of equines and has zoonotic significance. The disease has been eradicated from many countries by statutory testing, elimination of infected animals and import restrictions. However, it is still endemic in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America. In India, major glanders outbreaks were reported from different parts of the country between 1976 and 1982. Later, sporadic cases of the disease were reported in 1988, 1990 and 1998. The country remained free of glanders for about eight years until the recent outbreaks occurred in eight States from 2006 to 2007. Recurrent episodes have occurred in Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, whereas fresh outbreaks occurred in Chhattisgarh from 2009 to 2010. A total of 164 equines were declared positive; a majority of the positive cases (n=77) were from Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (n=23), Uttarakhand (n=21) and Andhra Pradesh (n=16). Under the provision of Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Disease in Animals Act, 2009, all the infected animals were euthanised and bio-security measures were implemented to curb the further spread of the disease.
National Research Centre on Equines, Sirsa Road, Hisar-125001, Haryana, India. malikphisar@hotmail.com
Praveen
P
Malik
Harisankar
H
Singha
Sandip K
SK
Khurana
Rajender
R
Kumar
Sanjay
S
Kumar
Ajay A
AA
Raut
Thachamvally
T
Riyesh
Rajesh K
RK
Vaid
Nitin
N
Virmani
Birendra K
BK
Singh
Shivroop V
SV
Pathak
Dhananjay D
DD
Parkale
Bhoodev
B
Singh
Sur B
SB
Pandey
Tilak R
TR
Sharma
Bhag C
BC
Chauhan
Vivek
V
Awasthi
Sanjay
S
Jain
Raj K
RK
Singh
D000818:Animals; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005896:Glanders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006736:Horses; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors