I received the following comment on my recent blog post on the EHV outbreak in Florida:

“My concern is that exposed horses could end up going from Florida to Gulfport. I know that there are horses that would show in Florida and then head to Mississippi. What is the guarantee that it will not spread into that area?”

With regional and even national and international travel becoming more common, there is absolutely no guarantee that Equine Herpes Virus (EHV) will not spread into that area or any other area. As the world gets smaller, EHV and other infectious diseases will continue to cause problems. Indeed, horses continue to become sick and test positive in Florida. And we should not allow ourselves to take the nightmare scenario of any infectious disease outbreak — uncontrolled national (and international) spread of the disease — lightly. It should not be forgotten that the most recent outbreak in Florida started with infected horses imported from Europe.

Closer to home, the highly respected Fairfield Equine Hospital has closed their doors to accepting any patients at their hospital. Due to their vigilance they recognized a recent post-surgical horse with a fever spike. The horse was quickly tested for EHV. The horse came back positive and Fairfield placed its hospital under quarantine. This horse had not show signs of the neurologic strain of EHV at the time of testing nor is the horse showing those signs at this time. (Click here for more information.)

A case so close to home highlights that even up here in New England we need to stay aware and educated. We need to take the proactive steps to keep our horses safe. That is not to say that we must shut all our horses in isolation stalls. By way of example, when a client called me recently to ask my opinion of her daughter’s performance horse traveling to another barn for lessons, we assessed the environment to which the horse will be subject and decided that there would be minimal risk — because the horse is properly vaccinated and the exposure would be minimal. I did mention that it would be important (and educational to her daughter) that the horse be “temped” once to twice a day and that any abnormal temperatures should be reported to me at once. It comes down to awareness and vigilance.

For further up to date information please refer to the aaep.org and faep.net web sites.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007 at 11:57 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.