A state imposed quarantine on 43 thoroughbred horses at the Evangeline Training Center in Carencro was lifted January 13, Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, D.V.M., said.
State animal health officials put the quarantine in place Dec. 30 on one barn at the training center to contain equine herpes virus (EHV-1) after a horse tested positive for the disease.
Forty-two horses within the barn were also quarantined as a safeguard.
The horse in question was tested after it displayed symptoms of the more serious neuropathogenic strain of equine herpes but laboratory tests conducted at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine showed the horse had contracted the wild strain of EHV-1.
“EHV-1 is a viral disease that can evolve into a serious neurological condition so the barn was put under quarantine,” Strain said. “However, temperatures were taken twice daily and there have been no signs of clinical illness in any of the horses during the quarantine period, therefore the quarantine was lifted on Jan. 13.”
EHV-1 experts have indicated that as many as five percent of horses will normally carry some variant of the virus in their systems. Physical symptoms of the EHV-1 virus include fever, upper respiratory infection, nasal discharge, cough, lethargy and loss of appetite.
Strain said state biosecurity protocols used to contain the situation in Carencro had been developed in anticipation of such an event and were first used to successfully manage an outbreak of EHV-1 in New Orleans in Dec. 2008.
“The protocol worked very smoothly with minimum impact to the horse owners and training center,” Strain said.
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