Description of the outbreak of equine influenza (H3N8) in the United Kingdom in 2003, during which recently vaccinated horses in Newmarket developed respiratory disease

Between March and May 2003, equine influenza virus infection was confirmed as the cause of clinical respiratory disease among both vaccinated and unvaccinated horses of different breeds and types in at least 12 locations in the UK. In the largest outbreak, 21 thoroughbred training yards in Newmarket, with more than 1300 racehorses, were affected, with the horses showing signs of coughing and nasal discharge during a period of nine weeks. Many of the infected horses had been vaccinated during the previous three months with a vaccine that contained representatives from both the European (A/eq/Newmarket/2/93) and American (A/eq/Newmarket/1/93) H3N8 influenza virus lineages. Antigenic and genetic characterisation of the viruses from Newmarket and elsewhere indicated that they were all closely related to representatives of a sublineage of American viruses, for example, Kentucky/5/02, the first time that this sublineage had been isolated in the UK. In the recently vaccinated racehorses in Newmarket the single radial haemolysis antibody levels in acute sera appeared to be adequate, and there did not appear to be significant antigenic differences between the infecting virus and A/eq/Newmarket/1/93, the representative of the American lineage virus present in the most widely used vaccine, to explain the vaccine failure. However, there was evidence for significantly fewer infections among two-year-old horses than older animals, despite their having similar high levels of antibody, consistent with a qualitative rather than a quantitative difference in the immunity conveyed by the vaccination.