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PasoBaby_CarolU
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Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 9013
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 Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 12:12 pm Post subject: Alert! Equine Herpes Virus |
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This is way too close for comfort:
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/animal_health/equine_herpes_virus.html
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Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos
"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."
Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar
"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt |
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becdubie
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Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 1335
Location: Montana, near Great Falls
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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No kidding. Makes me afraid to take my horse anywhere around any other horse.
Every thing I read....I think "Bubba as that" So many sicknesses in horses present them in the same way.
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-Becky
There is more than one right way! |
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Sunny
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Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 1145
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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They've already brought it back to Colorado....oh joy.
http://www.greeleytribune.com/ARTICLE/20110513/NEWS/705139969/1001/RSS
for those on dial-up:
| Quote: | LAKEWOOD — State Agriculture Department officials have quarantined two Weld County locations while they investigate how two horses contracted equine herpes.
One horse was euthanized after showing severe neurological signs associated with Equine Herpesvirus, and the second horse is under observation in a bio-secure location, according to a Department of Agriculture news release.
“The department is taking quick and appropriate actions to control and mitigate this disease,” State Veterinarian Dr. Keith Roehr said in a news release. “We will continue to trace the movement of these horses and those horses they came into contact with in order to protect Colorado’s equine industry.”
Both horses had recently attended the National Cutting Horse Association’s Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah. Colorado ag officials are working with the Utah State Veterinarian to investigate the location as a point of interest for the infection, the release stated.
The most common way for Equine Herpesvirus to spread is by direct horse-to-horse contact. The virus can also spread through the air, contaminated equipment, clothing and hands.
Symptoms include fever, decreased coordination, nasal discharge, urine dribbling, loss of tail tone, hind limb weakness, leaning against a wall or fence to maintain balance, lethargy and the inability to rise. While there is no cure, the symptoms of the disease may be treatable.
The virus is not transmissible to people. However, it can be a serious disease of horses that can cause respiratory, neurologic disease and death, according to the release.
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and Washington, California, Idaho, and Utah....
| Quote: | The Jurga Report: Horse Health Headlines Washington State University Vet School Hospital Closed by EHV Virus Related to Cutting Horse Show in UtahMay 15, 2011
Over the weekend, The Jurga Report was busy gathering reports from the western United States, after a warning was issued for horses that had competed at a cutting horse event in Ogden, Utah over Mother’s Day weekend. Two horses in Colorado returned from the show and became sick, and Colorado State University issued a diagnosis of Equine Herpes Virus, Type 1, also known as the “neurologic” mutation of the common Equine Herpes Virus. One of the horses was euthanized.
But by then, cutting horses from the Utah show had dispersed all over the western United States and Canada. Saturday we reported on this blog about sick horses in California, one of whom was euthanized; no diagnosis of EHV-1 has been issued by the state, but the sick horses had been at the Utah show.
Tonight we learned of additional sickness among horses that had been at the Utah event.
The Washington State University College of Veterinary Medicine is located in Pullman, Washington, in the eastern part of that state. They are now one of the centers of interest as this cutting horse disease story is tracked through the West.
The following information has been released to the public:
“The Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital is entering a period of voluntary isolation for equine and camelid patients. This is in response to a patient that was confirmed to be shedding Equine Herpes Virus type 1 (EHV-1).
“In the past week there have been two confirmed cases of EHV-1 in Colorado in horses that competed at the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah. A horse admitted to the Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH) for evaluation of unrelated problems was found to have competed at the show. Subsequent diagnostic testing confirmed that the horse was positive for EHV-1.
“Due to the potential for spread of the virus, access to the VTH is currently restricted. During this time, no new equine or camelid patients may be admitted to the hospital except for critical emergencies. It is expected that the period of isolation will last at least 2 weeks. There are currently no horses exhibiting signs of EHV-1 at WSU.
“Equine Herpes Virus does not affect cattle, sheep, goats, pigs or birds, and the remainder of the VTH remains open. There is no risk of transmission to people.
“We are taking every precaution to ensure the health and well-being of animals. ”
Elsewhere in the Northwest, Idaho Equine Hospital in Nampa, Idaho reported on their blog, “Idaho Equine Hospital has seen 2 horses from the Ogden (Utah) show with signs of EHV 1.” (Signs of the disease are not the same as a confirmed diagnosis; at this time only Colorado and Washington have confirmed diagnoses.)
To learn more about the neurologic form of EHV, download the USDA’s EHM brochure, Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy.
This form of EHV is not the common form of EHV. No vaccination is known to protect horses from this neurologic form of EHV. When researching EHV, look for recently published information about EHM or specifically, the neurologic form of Equine Herpesvirus Type 1
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bit
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Joined: 02 Feb 2009
Posts: 4352
Location: Kansas
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:38 pm Post subject: |
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One case at wsu in Enumclaw, which is the town where Cusack is waiting for trasport in June. Canadian, Utah and Ca borders are closed to horse transport, with more closures possible. This stuff is nasty.
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Sunny
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Joined: 24 Feb 2009
Posts: 1145
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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Looks like it may go further...
http://blogs.equisearch.com/horse...colorado-california-utah-disease/
| Quote: | Update Sunday May 15: From Sally Harrison’s blog: “In a precautionary move to ensure the health and safety of horses, the Breeder’s Invitational board of directors has canceled their Breeder’s Invitational cutting event in Tulsa, Okla., from May 14-28, and the National Cutting Horse Association has also cancelled the Mercuria World Series of Cutting this weekend in Tulsa.” For more information, read Sally Harrison’s Blog. Sally is my go-to source for information on the sport of cutting.
On its Facebook page, the NCHA reported on Sunday that sick cutting horses had been reported in several western states and in western Canada, but that the only confirmed diagnosis of EHV-1 had been in the Colorado horses via Colorado State University.
I received a Facebook message on Friday morning from a farrier in Colorado who was concerned about having worked on a horse that was believed to be ill with the neurologic form of Equine Herpes Virus (EHV). A second horse at the farm had been euthanized and the diagnosis of EHV had been confirmed by the laboratory at Colorado State University. The farm had been quarantined according to the farrier, who was conscientiously concerned about spreading the disease to other horses at other farms.
Checking with disease outbreak alerts, I couldn’t see any for Colorado, so I contacted the State Veterinarian’s office there on Friday; a representative told me that not just one, but two farms in Colorado’s Weld County, had been quarantined and the diagnosis had been the neurologic form of EHV. She said the state would issue a press release on Monday.
I sent a warning out via Twitter that EHV had been diagnosed in Colorado and more details would be forthcoming.
The vet’s office must have received a lot of calls, because a press release appeared on the Internet on Saturday afternoon.
The release confirmed the facts that I had. “The Department is taking quick and appropriate actions to control and mitigate this disease,” said State Veterinarian Dr. Keith Roehr in the release. “We will continue to trace the movement of these horses and those horses they came into contact with in order to protect Colorado’s equine industry.”
Both diagnosed horses had recently attended the National Cutting Horse Association’s Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah. The Colorado Department of Agriculture is working with the Utah State Veterinarian to investigate the location as a point of interest for the infection.
This morning, Quarter Horse News posted an article suggesting that the source of the Colorado disease was the Utah event.
In addition, Quarter Horse News reported that “At the Kern County cutting in California on May 13, one horse allegedly died of the disease and another was rushed to University of California, Davis, according to one cutting horse person present at the event. The show was immediately canceled.”
NCHA Announcement
An announcement on the National Cutting Horse Association web site alerts exhibitors from the Ogden event to be aware that two horses have tested positive for EHV.
Information from the announcement includes: “While we do not wish to unnecessarily alarm you, we wanted to get this information to you as soon as we received it. If you had a horse competing at the NCHA Western National Championships in Ogden, you may wish to consult with your local veterinarian on this issue. Any symptoms reportedly typically show within 4 – 6 days of exposure to the virus, and initially are in the form of a fever in the affected animal.”
California Update
This afternoon I interviewed Peggy Biller, president of the Kern County Cutting Horse Association in California, who verified the basic facts that had been reported by Quarter Horse News. She said that her organization had planned a three-day cutting for this weekend. The event began on Friday as scheduled. However, a horse was euthanized on the grounds and another horse became ill. Both horses had been at the NCHA event in Utah. The body of the dead horse was transported to the state laboratory in Tulare, California. The second horse was transported to the equine hospital at the University of California at Davis.
“People basically panicked,” Biller said. “They just wanted to get their horses out of there.” She said that there was a mixture of horses that had and had not been at the Utah event present at her event. She didn’t want to comment about how long the majority of horses had been on the grounds and already exposed to horses that had been in Utah or the sick horses themselves.
I was reminded of the shutdown of an Australian three-day event during the Equine Influenza outbreak there. When horses started to show signs of illness, no horses were allowed to leave the showground and were forced into a lock-down quarantine for three weeks rather than allow them to return to their home farms and possibly spread disease to more horses.
“Everybody panicked and ran,” said John Ward, vice-president of the Kern County Cutting Horse Association on the telephone today. “You’d have thought there was an earthquake. It was just like someone yelled, ‘Fire’!” Ward said that he felt very sorry for the owner of the two sick horses.
Ward commented that he thought people would follow the advice of veterinarians to monitor the horses’ temperatures twice a day. “These horses are worth a fortune,” he said. “And in the future, they will pay much closer attention when a horse acts different or is lethargic.”
A little web investigation revealed a memo dated both May 8 and May 13 that had gone out to California-based cutting horse exhibitors who had been at the Utah event. The memo was signed by Kent Fowler, DVM, Animal Health Branch Chief of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The memo is posted on the California Department of Food and Agriculture web site, if one knows that there is an EHV information page about six clicks deep into the site. There is no mention of EHV on the animal health main page, although there are alerts about bovine tuberculosis, Newcastle disease in Mexico and other disease outbreaks.
Among other things, the memo warned, “The California Department of Food and Agriculture encourages owners of horses who participated in the Odgen, Utah event to isolate and monitor their horses for clinical signs of disease. A rectal temperature in excess of 102F commonly precedes other clinical signs. Therefore, we are urging owners to take temperatures on each individual horse(s) twice a day. If a temperature above 102F is detected contact your private practitioner immediately. Laboratory submission of nasal swabs and blood samples collected from the exposed horse can be utilized for virus detection and isolation.”
Elsewhere in California, the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association announced the cancellation of the May 15 Clements Cutting Club Cutting and the PCCHA Tejon Ranch Cutting, May 19-22.
Commentary from The Equid Blog
Drs Scott Weese and Maureen Anderson , authors of the Equid Blog, from the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph in Canada, were monitoring the situation today and offered a sage summary of the week’s events.
“Whether or not the show is where the horses were first infected is unclear, but it makes sense because any time you mix together large numbers of horses, and stress them through shipping, competition, management changes and other factors, infectious disease exposure risks rise. This may be particularly true for EHV-1, since the virus is lying dormant within a large percentage of healthy horses. Most of the time, infected horses are not shedding the virus, but shedding can occur if horses are stressed or sick.
“EHV outbreaks and quarantines seem to be much more commonly reported over the past couple of years. Whether that’s because of a true increase in disease or an increase in publicity and response to disease is unclear. There has been a big change in our understanding of how EHV-1 “works,” through identification of a mutation in some strains that makes them more likely to cause neurological disease (and outbreaks).
“Tests are now available for this mutation, and this strain may be increasingly common. However, this strain doesn’t always cause neurological disease, and strains without the mutation can still cause neurological disease, so it’s not a completely clear situation. I suspect that we are truly seeing some increase in disease, but we are seeing an equal (or greater) increase in response to single cases or small outbreaks, with quarantines and press releases that would have been rare not too long ago.
“EHV-1 is all over the place and complete avoidance of it is impossible. Good general infection control practices to limit the spread of the virus when it is being shed by horses, and prompt identification and isolation of horses with EHV infection are important but often overlooked control measures.”
Type in red is quoted from the Equid Blog. Both Dr Weese and Dr Anderson are large animal internal medicine specialists with expertise in infectious diseases and infection control. Their blog is an excellent source of equine health information.
To learn more about the neurologic form of EHV, download the USDA brochure, Equine Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy.
And keep reading this blog. We’ll do our best to find out about equine public health situations and provide information with sources listed. Even if these alerts do not affect you directly, you can learn about these diseases and how to prevent them in your own horses.
by Fran Jurga
© The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com
Be friends with Fran Jurga on Facebook.com
Posted in biosecurity, disease, quarantine, veterinary, virus | Tagged biosecurity, California, Colorado, Contagious, cutting, cutting horse, disease, EHV, EHV-1, Equid Blog, equine health, Equine herpes virus, Equisearch, euthanized, Finals, Fran Jurga, herpesvirus, horse health, infectious disease, Kern County Cutting Horse Association, Maureen Anderson, Myeloencephalopathy, National Cutting Horse Association, NCHA, Scott Weese, sick, The Jurga Report, Utah, veterinarian, veterinary, virus, Wesern Finals | 4 Comments
4 Responses to “EHV Linked to Cutting Horse Event, Multiple Western US States Alerted for Disease After Two Horses Euthanized”
mfox says:
May 15, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Why are small town Vets unable to get the vaccine?
Reply
Fran Jurga says:
May 15, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Hello, Mfox, thanks for your comment. Did you read the USDA brochure? This neurologic form of EHV is likely a mutation, and there is no vaccine at present that is known to be effective against it. That’s why events are being canceled.
Reply
Megan says:
May 15, 2011 at 7:05 pm
They should not of announced about the outbreak as they did to where all contestants dispersed like wildfire, , what if one of the horses at that show was one that got infected?? Then it could of spread to all who were at that show when everyone loaded their trailers and left, , meaning that any of those horses could be tracking that disease across the country!! This is a very serious disease and I would hope that they are getting horses checked before this disease spreads any further, , very sad for the horse owners who have poss horses . .. but I pray the rest of the participants and those who came in contact with these horses get their horses tested before it spreads any further
Reply
Fran Jurga says:
May 15, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Hi Megan, I know, I agree with you. The horses had already been on the grounds for a few days by then. Also, the California horses have not been definitively diagnosed as having EHV, although they were at the Utah show.
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becdubie
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Joined: 23 Jul 2009
Posts: 1335
Location: Montana, near Great Falls
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | which is the town where Cusack is waiting for trasport in June |
Oh geeze....Too bad they can't strap a surgical mask on him. Hope they take precautions to keep the sick horse away from everybody else.
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-Becky
There is more than one right way! |
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PasoBaby_CarolU
Site Admin
Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 9013
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| Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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I just had Rosie and Carina at a show on Friday...and Rosie and Zar at a Dressage clinic Saturday. I'm really thinking of not taking the horses ANYWHERE until this outbreak subsides.
Scary! 
_________________
Carol Nudell
Corazon de Oro Paso Finos
"The path to your horse's heart lies through your own."
Rumors are carried by haters, spread by fools, and accepted by idiots. - Words of Wisdom - Mhar
"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss activities; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt |
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