OGDEN – Agricultural officials in Utah say they believe they contain a serious outbreak of horses in horses, which was confirmed in the state earlier this month after the sick horse attended an event in Weber County.
Dr. Dean Taylor, the state veterinarian, confirmed on March 7 that equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy, or EHM, has been confirmed in a horse in Utah. EHM is a disease of the EHV-1 virus that can be fatal or cause significant complications and spread through nasal droplets, aerosol droplets or through various shared spaces, including stalls, water or transport vehicles.
State officials did not disclose where the sick horse was reported in the state out of respect for the owner of the horse because the horse is kept in a private facility. After further investigation, they found a second horse at the property that also tested positive for EHM.
Government officials said they were not sure exactly how the originally infected horse became ill. The virus can start internally from stress or spread horse-to-horse.
“We really don’t know where it started at this point,” Taylor said. “Both horses are doing well. The outbreak is limited to one facility, and we are far beyond the two-week period we would be concerned about.”
The first positive test expressed concern in the state’s horse ownership community because he attended events at the Golden Spike Events Center in Ogden on February 20 and just before the horse’s owner noticed that the horse was showing signs of EHM.
Meanwhile, Taylor said there were also rumors circulating that a horse had died due to the spread of the virus. He said he also started receiving calls on March 10 from concerned horse owners who said their horses were showing signs of the virus.
As a precautionary measure, the state canceled a race scheduled for the Golden Spike Event Center that week. The event center announced on social media on March 11 that it would only be held as a precaution a week later, meaning more than half a dozen events were canceled.
This enabled the Department of Agriculture to further investigate the situation. The department has identified six facilities with potentially sick horses.
In a public letter on the situation Monday, Taylor wrote that the only premise that came back positive was the “originally positive premises”. No other horses were confirmed ill with the virus, including those that could be exposed on February 20th.
Consult the letter below with an update regarding EHV-1 at our facility.
Posted by Golden Spike Event Center on Monday March 22nd, 2021
“It appears that this outbreak is currently contained,” the letter read. “No additional cases have surfaced at any event in the Golden Spike Event Center and we are now past the period when we would have expected to have seen cases.”
The letter also says the agency does not believe it is “necessary to limit equine events in the future.”
He also told KSL.com on Tuesday that there was a dead horse, but the state could not have any laboratory work done on the horse to confirm the virus, and there was also no connection that the horse and the originally infected horse would do not connect.
Taylor said the plant with the two infected horses has done an excellent job of placing their horses in quarantine since the original diagnosis. The facility is also close to completing a 21-day precautionary quarantine.
In addition, he praised Weber County’s policy of disinfecting the event center after each event because it probably takes into account why the disease was only found in one place.
“Once the horse was there (February 20), the entire facility was disinfected before the next event,” he said. “It was therefore, in retrospect, very beneficial to contain this disease.”
As for EHM itself, it is treated with supportive care, such as the provision of fluids and anti-inflammatory drugs. The state shared a brochure on how horse owners can handle EHV-1 and EHM after its last possible outbreak in 2019.