Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture

‘An Important Start’: Pennsylvania Commission Approves 10-Step Action Plan To Improve Equine Safety; Implementation Targeted For March 1

The Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission announced Tuesday a 10-step action plan to improve equine safety and welfare in the state, with March 1, 2022 the targeted implementation date. Thomas Chuckas, director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, revealed the list during the commission's regularly-scheduled meeting.

“This list is a living and breathing list,” Chuckas said. “There are going to be changes obviously, it is not the end-all, be-all. It's a start, but it is an important start.”

The action plan is a result of the late-summer formation of a working group to address equine welfare, as well as examinations of what has worked in other states and the upcoming federal regulations.

The PSRC action plan is as follows:

Tracks will conduct an independent third party analysis of the racetrack two times per year. The first analysis for the Thoroughbred tracks is to be completed within 60 days and submitted to commission.
Increased monitoring and oversight of AM works, employing additional veterinarians to conduct oversight and examination. That will require a reshuffling of some of the vets and putting more vets in place, but the commission believes that what occurs in the morning is important to racing and moving forward.
Require the practicing veterinarians to attest that the horses are in fit, serviceable, and in sound condition and suitable to race.
Trainers must submit a pre-entry form to a racing panel for permission to race. It will require the submission of the most recent 30-day medical reports for the horses. The panel should consist at a minimum of the race secretary, commission vet, steward, and horsemen's representative.
Institute a rule for lower-level conditions or classes: a horse that doesn't finish in top four positions in five consecutive races is deemed non-competitive and not eligible to race in Pennsylvania.
Requiring the practicing veterinarian to conduct an examination within 48 hours of a horse being placed on the vet's list due to lameness. This examination will assist in determining the cause and if diagnostics are warranted. The practicing veterinarian will provide a verbal report to the commission vet.
Intra-articular injections: The initial injection is permitted based on the practicing veterinarian's examination and recommendation. Any additional injections require diagnostics to support further injections. If any injection is a corticosteroid, the horse is placed on the vet's list for 30 days.
Establish stricter criteria for removal from the vet's list, utilizing diagnostics, scanning, and imaging.
Establish a program to install either a pet scan machine or an MRI or the like at the racetrack in effort to detect issues.
Create a fatality database.

Chuckas added that some of 10 action items might be made via commission regulation, while others might be made by individual racetrack policy.

The PSRC also plans to create an integrity hotline which whistleblowers can call to report violations.

“We're not proposing anything that's never been tried before,” said commissioner Thomas Jay Ellis. “These are the best ideas to protect our horses, not some pie in the sky concepts, but things that can actually be done.”

Commissioner Dr. Corinne Sweeney motioned to approve the action plan, and commissioner Thomas Jay Ellis seconded. The motion carried.

The post ‘An Important Start’: Pennsylvania Commission Approves 10-Step Action Plan To Improve Equine Safety; Implementation Targeted For March 1 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Pennsylvania: Chuckas Now Says Barn Raids Resulted In ‘Nothing Of Substance’

In late May, Tom Chuckas, the director of Thoroughbred horse racing for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, reported to the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission that a series of barn raids resulted in a “significant amount of contraband.” This week, Chuckas has changed his tune, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News.

“In the last months, enforcement action was taken both at Penn National and at Parx,” Chuckas said June 29. “That enforcement action consisted of…vehicle searches, barn searches, vet trailer searches. In addition, we did out-of-competition testing both at Penn National and at Parx, and the preliminary results from these investigative enforcement actions is very, very minor infractions. Nothing of substance.”

Between those two meetings of the PHRC, Parx Hall of Fame trainer Ricardo Vega, who trains as Richard Vega Racing Stable, was summarily suspended after multiple loaded needles and syringes were found in his tack room at Parx during the raid described by Chuckas.

The PHRC issued the summary suspension on May 24, following the raid. The next day, three of Vega's horses were stewards' scratches from the May 25 race card at Parx. A board of stewards hearing was held on May 27, where officials voted to uphold the summary suspension issued earlier in the week.

The summary suspension cited two violations of state code — one that prohibits the possession of hypodermic needles, syringes, or injectable substances by non-veterinarians, and another that states “a licensee shall not, alone or in concert with another person, engage in inappropriate, illegal or unethical conduct which violates the Commission's rules and regulations of racing, is inconsistent with the best interests and integrity of racing or otherwise undermines the general public's faith public perception and confidence in the racing industry.”

Vega has not started any horses since May 19 at Parx, but is reported to be appealing his suspension.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Horse In PA Diagnosed With EHM

A 22-year-old Trakehner gelding that lived in Allegheny County, PA, was diagnosed with the neurologic form of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) on June 17 and euthanized, reported the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. A veterinarian was called after the horse showed signs of incoordination, abnormal urination and lying down without being able to rise. It is unclear if he had been vaccinated for the disease. An additional 39 horses boarded with the affected horse have been placed under official quarantine, reports The Horse.

EHV is highly contagious; it can cause respiratory issues and abortion in pregnant mares; it can also develop into the neurologic form of the disease, called equine herpesvirus myeloencephalitis (EHM). A horse that has the virus may have a fever, nasal discharge or cough; he may be uninterested in food or be depressed. Pregnant mares may show no symptoms of the virus before they abort, typically later in their pregnancies.

EHV-1 is spread through direct horse-to-horse contact as well as through contact with objects that have been contaminated by the virus, which includes human hands, equipment, tack, buckets, trailers and other such surfaces. The virus can be viable for between seven and 30 days in the environment.

Biosecurity measures such as limiting shared equipment and disinfection of tools and equipment that encounter an infected horse can prevent the spread of EHV. There is an EHV-1 vaccine that may reduce viral shedding of the disease, but it is not protective against the neurologic form.