Osteopathy in the Treatment of African Horse Sickness Virus

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African horse sickness is spread mostly by Culicoides midges and is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. In its pulmonary form the mortality rate is 95%, and with no recognised antiviral medication, treatment is supportive and often palliative. Writing from Gauteng, South Africa, Sonet Raath asks in her paper for the London College of Animal Osteopathy whether osteopathy could play a role in helping infected horses recover. Vaccination is required by South African law, yet the only registered vaccine covers 7 of the 9 serotypes, and its formula has not changed since 1994. Raath focuses on lymphatic pump techniques, rhythmic osteopathic methods intended to increase the flow of lymph and enhance the body's innate immune response. She reviews studies in humans, dogs and rats, revisits osteopathic care during the 1918 influenza pandemic with a frank note on the reliability of its records, and turns to equine anatomy. Horses have roughly 8,000 lymph nodes compared with around 600 in humans, along with a thinner subcutaneous layer. She is clear that no evidence was found of lymphatic pump techniques being applied to horses, and that the paper partly rests on the assumption that horses would respond as other species do. What she concludes about the technique's potential, and what she believes needs to happen next, will interest anyone working with horses where the disease is endemic.