A survey of epidemic diseases in horses imported into South Korea between 2003 and 2008.

South Korea is susceptible to foreign diseases due to its high rate of livestock importation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the infectious conditions of contagious disease of horses imported into South Korea from other countries. The horses were tested for contagious equine metritis (CEM), equine infectious anemia (EIA), equine piroplasmosis (EP), equine viral arteritis (EVA), vesicular stomatitis (VS), dourine, and glanders. The prevalence of these infectious diseases in 6,650 horses imported from 24 countries between 2003 and 2008 was reviewed by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. Seropositive results were found for EIA, EP, EVA, dourine and glanders: 3/6,189 serum samples tested were EIA-positive, 37/6,005 samples tested by complement fixation (CF) were EP-positive, 28/6,043 samples tested by virus neutralization (VN) were EVA-positive, 4/2,071 serum samples tested by CF were positive for dourine, and 4/1,950 samples tested by CF were positive for glanders. No contagious equine metritis or vesicular stomatitis was detected. In total, 76/6,650 imported horses tested positive for an infectious disease. Notably, 4/6 sera (66.6%), all taken from horses imported from Tanzania, were positive for glanders. This is the first report of glanders infection in horses from Tanzania since 1996.