Published Wednesday, May 6, 2020 

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

The proteins to start the immunization process in horses arrived in the country, which will be applied to six horses whose blood plasma will be the basis for preparing the treatment serum against covid-19 disease, informed the Clodomiro Picado Research Institute on Tuesday.

Animals were carefully evaluated, through physical exams and blood tests, to ensure their general health conditions. High quality care is being provided to them, such as a quality diet based on hay, concentrate and grass, said the institute in its statement.

"At the Institute we focus a lot on the animal health part and that the horses are in their best condition," said veterinarian Mauricio Arguedas Gómez. "Our animals live in paddocks and groups free of stress."

According to Arguedas, the horses have an excellent diet, continuous veterinary attention and daily care. "All the horses are healthy, with a very good bodyweight close to 450 kilos, and without any sign of disease."

Non-infectious proteins from the SARS-COV-2 virus will be used to immunize horses, which do not adversely affect their health.

“We are not going to use the complete virus. What does this mean? That there is no risk of the horses becoming infected, " said Arguedas.


Scientists will shoot animals with some of the covid-19 proteins. The goal is that the horse's body will recognize these proteins and generate the antibodies. "Later, those antibodies will be used in infected patients," said Arguedas.

According to scientists, this work is not a fast process. It is estimated that the result of the immunization will be taken after four months from the start of the process of shooting the proteins into the animal.

It is estimated that the treatment plasma will be produced in September.

"Equine antibody-based medication will provide several advantages, and the first is not to rely on human donors," said Arguedas. "Similarly, we believe that equine antibodies may have a better virus-neutralizing potency than the potency of human antibodies. "

This is because the horses will be injected with protein several times.

Also, a bigger volume of plasma can be extracted from a horse, compared to what can be obtained from a human, said the scientists.

With the plasma obtained from a single horse, one hundred units of the plasma treatment can be produced, while the plasma from a single person produces only two units.

The extraction of blood does not affect the health of horses. Because there is a plasma process where blood cells can be released and injected into the animals to prevent them from becoming anemic.

The production of this plasma treatment is of vital importance for the country, due to the spread of the covid-19 in the country.


According to the statistics provided by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday, there are 336 active patients infected with covid-19 in the country. Active patients are people who currently have the virus.

Authorities provided the following statistics related to the development of the covid-19 in the country.

- There was an overnight increase of 13 new patients infected with the covid-19.

- The ages of those affected range from 1 to 87 with an average age of 37.

- 17 patients are being treated in public hospitals, where 12 are in recovery rooms and 5 have been reported in Intensive Care Unit with delicate health conditions. The rest of the infected patients are quarantined in their homes.

- So far, six deaths have been reported from patients infected with covid-19.

- Of the 755 infected since the first case was detected in March, 413 coronavirus patients have fully recovered, of these 202 women and 211 men.

- 91 foreigners infected, of these 14, who entered the country illegally, are jailed in the facilities of the Professional Migration Police in Heredia Province.

- 9,209 people have been ruled out.

The UNED University provides a daily updated number of total patients, active and recovered, in each district throughout the country at its  Covid-19 Map.

As of Monday night, the pandemic has killed 256,894 patients worldwide according to recent statistics reported by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.


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Should the government donate more resources to the institute to speed up the production process of the covid-19 treatment?  We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com