Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak shares slices of life from the Grand Island, Neb., racetrack throughout the 2022 meet in the Fonner Files.
Beginning Friday, April 1 the general quarantine of the entire Fonner Park stable area will be removed.
On March 12, 2022, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture issued a quarantine restricting any horses from leaving the Fonner Park stable area after two confirmed cases of the Equine Herpes Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) were confirmed. Since March 12 there have been zero reported EHM symptoms from any horses outside of barn R and therefore the quarantine was dropped.
A second quarantine was also issued specifically for barn R that restricted any of nearly 100 horses from participating in racing and limited their range of exercise to the walking wheels and the training track only, not the main track. Those horses remain under quarantine restrictions.
“Some horses in quarantine are still testing positive (for EHM) at a very low number but are on the improve,” said Dr. David Redechel DVM, the Nebraska Racing and Gaming Commission veterinarian. “I am hopeful in a week's time that the barn R quarantine will also be dropped.”
Since the first horse began to show symptoms of EHM, barn R was put under precautionary quarantine and emergency biosecurity measures were put in place to stop the virus spread. A product produced and sold by Anicell Biotech has been used with much success to arrest the spread and assist horses that tested positive for the disease.
“I am very proud of the horsemen at Fonner Park who engaged in a sudden change of policy to help prevent any spread of the EHM virus,” said Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak. “It is bad that some horses will remain in quarantine a bit longer. But it is outstanding that most horses are now free to leave the stable area and even better that we can now receive horses so that trainers and owners can resume their livelihood and interests. I truly believe that without the Anicell Biotech treatment many horses and horsemen would still be in a dire setting.”
Kotulak finalized with, “Even better, we are wide open for nominations to the $75,000 Bosselman Gus Fonner Stakes on Saturday, April 30.”
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