A good rule to remember with ALL of the foreign animal diseases is that they never come with a tag attached.  They can all masquerade as other diseases.
THE ONLY WAY TO DEFINITIVELY DIAGNOSE A FOREIGN DISEASE IS THROUGH LABORATORY CONFIRMATION.
The diagnosis is NEVER made in the field.  So, you can rest easy.  No veterinarian will ever be expected to render a diagnosis of a foreign animal disease based on clinical signs and/or postmortem findings.  However, you ARE held responsible for alerting the proper regulatory authorities of your suspicions that there may be an exotic disease.  It is important to take good samples to allow the laboratory to do culturing and other diagnostic tests.  Federal and some state veterinarians have received specialized training with respect to which samples to take from the various species to allow the laboratories to do the work necessary for accurate diagnosis.
In this case of African horse sickness, virus isolation from whole blood (live animal) or spleen (dead animal) would be the tests performed in the laboratory.
Laboratory confirmation is essential
 
Back to Foreign Animal Disease Case Studies Menu