kentucky office of the state veterinarian

On July 28, Kentucky state animal health officials issued guidance on the movement of racehorses from Saratoga, where a horse fell ill and tested positive for EHV earlier this month. The following bulletin was published via the Equine Disease Communication Center:

“Due to Kentucky's inability to adequately isolate new arrivals on the grounds of Kentucky tracks and training facilities and out of an abundance of caution, additional requirements will be placed on horses from Saratoga Race Course requesting entry to Kentucky tracks and associated training centers after July 31.

Horses which have recently (since July 31) been on the grounds at Saratoga can qualify for approval to enter a Kentucky track or sanctioned training center, if they have documentation demonstrating they were off the grounds prior to July 31 or have been tested by PCR after July 31 and reported negative for EHV-1 on both nasal swab and whole blood – EDTA samples.

A Certificate of Veterinary Inspection for the horse(s) from the point where the sample was collected needs to be issued for movement to the Kentucky racing or training facility and must document the EHV-1 testing and current health assessment in addition to meeting the normal entry requirements that includes EHV-1 vaccination and EIA test certificate.

The post Kentucky Issues Restrictions On Horses Shipping From Saratoga In Light Of EHV-1 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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E.S. “Rusty” Ford, equine operations consultant for the Kentucky Office of the State Veterinarian, released the following update on an EHV-1 outbreak in Woodford County, Ky., on Monday. The outbreak was first announced March 11 after one horse at a training center was hospitalized with neurologic symptoms. On March 12, five more horse horses tested positive.

The additional 24 horses in Barn B of the index EHV-1 affected premises were sampled on Friday due to potential exposure of indirect transmission (riders) having occurred prior to confirmation of the index case. Two horses from this group had a trace amount of EHV-1 DNA detected in the nasal swab and were removed from the barn and segregated on Saturday.

To date, 18 horses in index Barn A and 22 horses in Barn B have had one set of negative test (nasal swab and/or blood) . The last febrile horse was removed from Barn A and placed in isolation on March 10, 2021. There have been no clinical horses in Barn B since the start of the outbreak.

Five of the nine horses in the isolation barn have tested positive with the last fever reported on Friday March 12, 2021. All horses in isolation are being monitored by the attending veterinarian.

A second round of testing is being planned for the horses in barns A, B and Isolation.

The management and staff of the premises continue to implement enhanced biosecurity and health monitoring protocols including multiple daily temperature recordings. Additionally, these enhanced measures have been implemented at other sanctioned training facilities in Kentucky.

Staff from the Office of the State Veterinarian continue to closely monitor the situation.

Appropriate biosecurity and other safeguards are fully implemented at Turfway Park.

Updates will continue to be provided as information is learned.

The post Kentucky EHV-1 Update: Two More Horses Found With ‘Trace Amounts’ Of Viral DNA In Nasal Swabs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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