Photo by Kaylee Killian

Fears of an outbreak out of a highly contagious horse disease, Equine Herpesvirus (EHV-1), surfaced this week, after a horse from St. Mary’s tested positive at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virgina.

“The initial horse that got sick was from Maryland,” Elaine Lidholm, spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told The Bay Net.

 

“It was treated at Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Virginia,” she said.

The Maryland Department of Agriculture has placed seven-day “Investigational Hold Orders;” on farms at eight sites in Maryland to prevent any movement of horses onto or off the farms until the situation at each location is evaluated and any necessary test results are returned,  said Sue duPont, spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Agriculture in Annapolis.

“No horses can come or go on the farms for seven days,” duPont explained of the hold orders, as she spoke to The Bay Net from Annapolis.

DuPont confirmed the first horse that tested positive was from St. Mary’s County. A total of three horses have been hospitalized so far and are suspected to be infected with the neurological form of the EHV-1 virus.

The Equine Herpesvirus-1 virus can cause three different forms of disease that include a respiratory disease which affects mostly young horses, abortions in pregnant mares, and neurological disease. Most commonly, this virus manifests itself as a respiratory disease in young horses. Abortion storms also occur in non-vaccinated pregnant mares. The neurological form of EHV-1 is less common, according to Judy Marteniuk, Equine Extension Veterinarian at Michigan State University.

There were six other horses from Virginia housed at DuPont at the time as the St. Mary’s horse.

“We are following the six horses from Virginia that were at the facility at the same time that the horse that got sick, the index horse,” Lidholm said.

Lidholm said one of those six horses has returned to its farm in Virginia. “We have quarantined that farm, which is in Loudon County,” she said.

The other five horses have not returned to their farms in Virginia. “Three never left Marion duPont. That facility is quarantined, too. Two were removed to facilities in Maryland to recuperate,” she said.
Lindholm said it was only the second year in history that the highly contagious EHV-1 has been reported in Virginia, the first case being in 2002 at a farm in Northern Virginia.

In Maryland this is the third year in a row the disease has been reported. The viral outbreak previously happened around this time of the year, duPont said.

Nat White, director at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center, said, “Three other horses are suspected to have been infected. They have been sampled, but we do not have the test results yet.”
White said the neurological form of EHV-1 is rare, but stressed it was the most dangerous as it can be fatal. He confirmed EHV-1 usually causes a mild respiratory disease.

The disease is contagious. Now the task at hand is trying to keep it isolated and attempting to prevent its spr