I’ve received a lot of emails over the past 24 hours about the recent report of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) neurological disease in an Ontario horse. The two main questions are whether there’s an outbreak and whether horse owners in Ontario should be concerned.
I don’t have any firsthand knowledge about this case
Yes, the title’s a bit misleading. Equine herpesvirus (EHV) is everywhere, since the virus circulates widely in the horse population internationally and lies dormant in the bodies of a large percentage of healthy horses. However, cases of EHV-1 neurological disease get attention because of the severity of disease and the potential for outbreaks (for reasons
I haven’t written much about equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) outbreaks lately because I have a hard time getting excited about them (from a blog writing standpoint… if one occurs here, that will be a different story). Outbreaks of neurological disease caused by this very common equine virus (one that doesn’t spread to people or
In response to an equine herpesvirus type I (EHV-1) outbreak at Hawthorne Racecourse in Illinois, the Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) announced movement restrictions on horses from Hawthorne, and Illinois in general.
Effective immediately:
Headshaking is a frustrating problem in horses. It’s often hard to identify a cause and treatments are frequently unrewarding. Many different possible causes of headshaking have been proposed, including equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) infection.
As is common with herpesviruses, EHV can lie dormant in the body, and it may be re-activated during times of
Quarantine is an important, effective and underused practice on horse farms. Quarantine can reduce the risk of introducing new infectious agents to animals on the farm or limit the spread of something that’s already starting to circulate through the herd.
A recent article from TheHorse.com gives a good overview of why and how to implement
Once again, an equine hospital is under quarantine because of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1). There have been a number of such incidents this year, highlighting both the increasing concern with this important pathogen and perhaps more transparency and willingness on the part of hospitals to take aggressive infection control measures when it is
The latest update on equine infecious neurological diseases in Ontario (Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), West Nile virus (WNV), rabies and neuropathic equine herpevirus type 1 (EHV-1)) is available from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
There aren’t a lot of surprises, and it’s good to see the numbers of cases have
