Can Humans and Horses Transfer WNV to Each Other?
Q. - Can horses contract West Nile virus from humans, or humans from horses?
A. - While horses and humans can get West Nile virus (WNV) from the bite of mosquitos (that have previously bitten a WNV-infected bird), both horses and humans are what we refer to as dead-end hosts. That means that once the human or the horse becomes infected with the virus, as a general rule the virus doesn’t replicate at high enough levels in the bloodstream, which is called “viremia.” So horses and humans don’t get high enough viremia to subsequently infect a mosquito so that that mosquito could transfer the disease to another horse or human. The only way for a horse or human to get West Nile virus is through a mosquito bite.
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