Getting httpclient.HttpConnection "is appears to be stale" exceptions when using Apache Axis

Issue

We are running a Spring web application that uses Apache Axis to connect to a SOAP endpoint.

We are seeing a lots of the following exceptions:

2013-12-16 12:04:15,861 INFO  [STDOUT] (ajp-0.0.0.0-8209-6) 2013-12-16 12:04:15,860 DEBUG [ajp-0.0.0.0-8209-6] httpclient.HttpConnection (HttpConnection.java:525) - An error occurred while reading from the socket, is appears to be stale
java.net.SocketException: Connection reset
    at java.net.SocketInputStream.read(SocketInputStream.java:168)
    at java.net.ManagedSocketInputStreamHighPerformance.read(ManagedSocketInputStreamHighPerformance.java:258)
    at java.io.BufferedInputStream.fill(BufferedInputStream.java:218)
    at java.io.BufferedInputStream.read(BufferedInputStream.java:237)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnection.isStale(HttpConnection.java:506)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnection.closeIfStale(HttpConnection.java:431)
    at org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager$HttpConnectionAdapter.closeIfStale(MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager.java:1313)