equine herpes virus
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equine herpes virus
Just wondering if there are any other breeders out there scratching their heads like I am. Want to send my mare, foal at side, to Maryland for breeding but this herpes virus in Md. & Ky. has me second guessing myself. Mare has been vaccinated but what about the foal ? Will the foal get " immunized " through nursing or is it all just a crapshoot ?
Bring 'em back tired ; but bring 'em back sound !
Well, the biggest concern is the neurological form of the virus. It has the highest mortality rate. Unfortunately the vaccine doesn't protect the horse from it. The vaccine is only for the protection of the respiratory disease and abortion. However, it is believed that by reducing the incidence of the respiratory disease it will reduce the accurance of the neurological form.
By the way, most stud farms in KY require recent vaccination of all mares.
By the way, most stud farms in KY require recent vaccination of all mares.
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DreamersPrincess
- Yearling
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This was posted to an email list that I'm on a few days ago. I'm posting it here because you specifically mentioned MD. Some here may even know the originator. The message is a real wake up and I'm glad I don't have to make your decision.
Kami
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>>> [email protected] 2/6/2006 2:43 PM >>>
there was permission given to cross post this. To me this just brings home how easily bad things can happen. My heart goes out to these people.
Jean D
----- Original Message -----
From: CHRIS WALKER
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [VAHorses] Fw: Read this; horse illness in Maryland
Jean,
permission to cross-post this????
Chris w
>>> [email protected] 2/4/2006 6:02 AM >>>
Just thought everyone on the list might be interested....
Jean D
Kim Meier-Morani's Struggle With Equine Herpesvirus
The below is a letter written by Kim Meier-Morani, the private farm owner in Worton, Md., who has had an outbreak of EHV-1 on her farm. Meier-Morani has been a professional event trainer and coach for more than 30 years. She's competed to the four-star level, and runs Seven Hills Farm, a boarding and training business on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The majority of Meier-Morani's competition horses have been the products of her own small breeding program. Her four-star horse—now infected with EHV-1--is of the third generation of that program.
How has this outbreak of EHV-1 affected me? For starters, I had to sit on the cement aisle of my barn in January, at 6 a.m, with my daughter's homebred not-even-5-year-old mare's head in my lap to cushion it when she spasmed in semi-paralysis for an hour until help came.
Then, after the vet promising not to let her smash her face in while I woke my daughter up to tell her her horse wasn't going to make it, I had to watch a 15-year-old stroke and cradle that head while the mare got put down. She was there when we dragged her horse out of the barn and pushed it onto the trailer. There is no easy or pretty way to do that.
Then I had to take care of the other 18 horses on the farm, finding a second one in the neurological stage and my own international eventer with a fever. My daughter helped me make the rounds of taking temperatures twice a day, giving medications, and holding the neurological horse as she staggered backwards and flipped over when being catheterized because of a paralyzed bladder.
More meds, less sleep. Calls from boarders, wanting to help but nothing they could do. Waiting for my next twice-daily email to see if their horse had a fever, or worse. Dreading getting up to see what was going to be wrong today.
Then, the wrong happens to be the horse it's taken me a lifetime to breed, train and learn how to ride; a dream horse who not only had the scope and uncommon ability to make a four star event not only doable but easy, but who was my best friend and soulmate; to have him go neuro. Watching him sway with no balance; the same horse who jumped into the head of the lake at Rolex, but now he can hardly make it across the indoor. Why is he in the indoor? So if he goes down we can more easily drag his body away.
So I think about how to make some good come of it. I want to notify all farms receiving horses from a track not yet completely quarantined, but I am told by the Maryland state Department of Agriculture that that's ridiculous. Ridiculous? Common sense or just plain good manners maybe, but ridiculous?
This decision-maker needs to watch "Outbreak"; he needs to be told how a disease spreads, and that information is the key to prevention. He needs to read the diary of anyone who's ever taken care of a horse who may die tomorrow, no matter what they do. He needs to LISTEN to vets about how the virus is mutating. He needs to educate that a Flu/Rhino shot lasts only 90 days, and make vaccinations at tracks as mandatory as vaccinating your child before they go to school.
Next I hear about how much money the racing industry is losing. If it takes $5,000 a year to keep a horse, then including the year in utero I had $30,000 in my daughters horse, not counting the fact that she was talented and we loved her. It's winter, so I don't teach more than $600 worth a week. I was riding 5 horses in training, or $2500 per month plus $2500 in board. I called off three potential buyers coming to look in the first week alone, at horses priced at $10,$12 and $25K. I may lose my best horse. I may get sued by a boarder should they lose their horse. Do the math.
My life is out of my control. If I had been informed about what was floating around the place a horse came from, I could have been in control of my life and said either sure, I'll risk it, or more likely, no thanks. But I wasn't given that option. What's killing me and my horses may not have come from the track, but using logic and veterinary science and the laws of probability, I'd bet it did.
My friends and boarders are in an uproar to close down the track, and sue Pimlico. But my whole concern is that I DON'T WANT THEM TO MOVE HORSES IN OR OUT because, and this is the point everyone seems to be missing, I don't want anyone else to go through this; it's not fair to the horses or their people.
I want it to be mandatory for owners and/or trainers of horses coming in, or to receiving barns to be notified that there is a possibility to have contact with the virus. Get it straight that contagious is contagious, and highly contagious or somewhat contagious i s dangerous when it can kill you. A little contagious is like a little pregnant; it's a black/white situation.
Maryland State Veterinarian Dr. Guy Hohenhaus says he cannot do that. I think it would take a couple of sheets of plywood and some paint, or half hour at a typewriter and about 15 min with a copier.
There was an alleged case in Delaware, which later was confirmed negative. But officials in Delaware already had a plan to close ALL the tracks in the state should it be positive. Every vet I've talked to thinks the system is wrong, that the tracks should be quarantined, and one even outright called it a cover-up.
Fact: I had 20 horses, 8 got fevers, 3 went neurological, and one died, so far. One left the property. I was shut down an hour after the death and it was yet undiagnosed.
Pimlico has 500 horses, at least 11 symptomatic and 4 deaths. How many have left or entered the property? How long before they were quarantined?
With the help of my friends and clients, I want to let people know how devastating this disease is, through articles or websites of organizations. I want vets to know how to spot and treat this BEFORE a clients horse gets it, and teach them how to prevent it (no, there are no guaranteed measures, but plenty that can help keep it to a dull roar). I want laws that make it mandatory for any horse exiting a facility housing a potentially deadly virus be accompanied by a paper saying such for the person receiving it. I had a horse ship off my farm 3 days after the first temp here, and the new owners were informed to keep him separate for a while and take his temp, and that was before I had any idea it could be this bad. I did this so no one else's horses got sick. And I thought that's what the Department of Agriculture's job was.
Kami
-------------------------
>>> [email protected] 2/6/2006 2:43 PM >>>
there was permission given to cross post this. To me this just brings home how easily bad things can happen. My heart goes out to these people.
Jean D
----- Original Message -----
From: CHRIS WALKER
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [VAHorses] Fw: Read this; horse illness in Maryland
Jean,
permission to cross-post this????
Chris w
>>> [email protected] 2/4/2006 6:02 AM >>>
Just thought everyone on the list might be interested....
Jean D
Kim Meier-Morani's Struggle With Equine Herpesvirus
The below is a letter written by Kim Meier-Morani, the private farm owner in Worton, Md., who has had an outbreak of EHV-1 on her farm. Meier-Morani has been a professional event trainer and coach for more than 30 years. She's competed to the four-star level, and runs Seven Hills Farm, a boarding and training business on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The majority of Meier-Morani's competition horses have been the products of her own small breeding program. Her four-star horse—now infected with EHV-1--is of the third generation of that program.
How has this outbreak of EHV-1 affected me? For starters, I had to sit on the cement aisle of my barn in January, at 6 a.m, with my daughter's homebred not-even-5-year-old mare's head in my lap to cushion it when she spasmed in semi-paralysis for an hour until help came.
Then, after the vet promising not to let her smash her face in while I woke my daughter up to tell her her horse wasn't going to make it, I had to watch a 15-year-old stroke and cradle that head while the mare got put down. She was there when we dragged her horse out of the barn and pushed it onto the trailer. There is no easy or pretty way to do that.
Then I had to take care of the other 18 horses on the farm, finding a second one in the neurological stage and my own international eventer with a fever. My daughter helped me make the rounds of taking temperatures twice a day, giving medications, and holding the neurological horse as she staggered backwards and flipped over when being catheterized because of a paralyzed bladder.
More meds, less sleep. Calls from boarders, wanting to help but nothing they could do. Waiting for my next twice-daily email to see if their horse had a fever, or worse. Dreading getting up to see what was going to be wrong today.
Then, the wrong happens to be the horse it's taken me a lifetime to breed, train and learn how to ride; a dream horse who not only had the scope and uncommon ability to make a four star event not only doable but easy, but who was my best friend and soulmate; to have him go neuro. Watching him sway with no balance; the same horse who jumped into the head of the lake at Rolex, but now he can hardly make it across the indoor. Why is he in the indoor? So if he goes down we can more easily drag his body away.
So I think about how to make some good come of it. I want to notify all farms receiving horses from a track not yet completely quarantined, but I am told by the Maryland state Department of Agriculture that that's ridiculous. Ridiculous? Common sense or just plain good manners maybe, but ridiculous?
This decision-maker needs to watch "Outbreak"; he needs to be told how a disease spreads, and that information is the key to prevention. He needs to read the diary of anyone who's ever taken care of a horse who may die tomorrow, no matter what they do. He needs to LISTEN to vets about how the virus is mutating. He needs to educate that a Flu/Rhino shot lasts only 90 days, and make vaccinations at tracks as mandatory as vaccinating your child before they go to school.
Next I hear about how much money the racing industry is losing. If it takes $5,000 a year to keep a horse, then including the year in utero I had $30,000 in my daughters horse, not counting the fact that she was talented and we loved her. It's winter, so I don't teach more than $600 worth a week. I was riding 5 horses in training, or $2500 per month plus $2500 in board. I called off three potential buyers coming to look in the first week alone, at horses priced at $10,$12 and $25K. I may lose my best horse. I may get sued by a boarder should they lose their horse. Do the math.
My life is out of my control. If I had been informed about what was floating around the place a horse came from, I could have been in control of my life and said either sure, I'll risk it, or more likely, no thanks. But I wasn't given that option. What's killing me and my horses may not have come from the track, but using logic and veterinary science and the laws of probability, I'd bet it did.
My friends and boarders are in an uproar to close down the track, and sue Pimlico. But my whole concern is that I DON'T WANT THEM TO MOVE HORSES IN OR OUT because, and this is the point everyone seems to be missing, I don't want anyone else to go through this; it's not fair to the horses or their people.
I want it to be mandatory for owners and/or trainers of horses coming in, or to receiving barns to be notified that there is a possibility to have contact with the virus. Get it straight that contagious is contagious, and highly contagious or somewhat contagious i s dangerous when it can kill you. A little contagious is like a little pregnant; it's a black/white situation.
Maryland State Veterinarian Dr. Guy Hohenhaus says he cannot do that. I think it would take a couple of sheets of plywood and some paint, or half hour at a typewriter and about 15 min with a copier.
There was an alleged case in Delaware, which later was confirmed negative. But officials in Delaware already had a plan to close ALL the tracks in the state should it be positive. Every vet I've talked to thinks the system is wrong, that the tracks should be quarantined, and one even outright called it a cover-up.
Fact: I had 20 horses, 8 got fevers, 3 went neurological, and one died, so far. One left the property. I was shut down an hour after the death and it was yet undiagnosed.
Pimlico has 500 horses, at least 11 symptomatic and 4 deaths. How many have left or entered the property? How long before they were quarantined?
With the help of my friends and clients, I want to let people know how devastating this disease is, through articles or websites of organizations. I want vets to know how to spot and treat this BEFORE a clients horse gets it, and teach them how to prevent it (no, there are no guaranteed measures, but plenty that can help keep it to a dull roar). I want laws that make it mandatory for any horse exiting a facility housing a potentially deadly virus be accompanied by a paper saying such for the person receiving it. I had a horse ship off my farm 3 days after the first temp here, and the new owners were informed to keep him separate for a while and take his temp, and that was before I had any idea it could be this bad. I did this so no one else's horses got sick. And I thought that's what the Department of Agriculture's job was.
I'm sorry to hear such a sad story... but EVERY horse that comes into my farm goes into a "no contact" two-week quarantine. And I don't have $25K eventers here. I DO have horses shipping in nearly every week. LOVE portable corrals because I can always sling one up to keep a horse in that needs to be quarantined. The Rhino (killed) that is in your 4way or 5way shot IS a 90 day, but the separate Rhinopneumanitis (modified live) is much longer and much more protection.. my horses get both.
Still, it is very sad for someone to lose horses like that. But the horse who came from the track should have been quarantined.
Still, it is very sad for someone to lose horses like that. But the horse who came from the track should have been quarantined.
So Run for the Roses, as fast as you can.....
It's a terribly sad situation that woman is in but to say that the problem lies with "the track" and that the disease originated at "the track" is just silly. These outbreaks have been circulating in greater or lesser form since 2001 and there's been a great deal of press about the current problem for the last three months. Incoming horses should be quarantined, no matter where they came from--you shouldn't need the approval of a health official to figure out how to do that.
I'd have to agree with LSB, but from my reading of the letter it appears all or most of her horses were homebreds and that no animals had recently come in from the track. It was its proximity that made her think it did. Given that the first one to show symptoms was the 5yo homebred mare, I would assume it came from an eventing trial or horse show.
I don't have low self-esteem. I have low esteem for everyone else. ~ Daria
Mikec.
You will probably be alright to ship your mare and foal to Maryland for breeding if you vaccinate your mare before she foals, and wait a few weeks. I haven't heard about any more new cases in the last two weeks. With the exception of the one farm, all of the cases have been at the racetracks. The disease spread to the one farm when a horse was shipped from Pimlico to her farm.
My understanding from the vet that treated the outbreak at Columbia Horse Center is that there are two vaccines that the manufacturers claim will protect against the neurological form - - Rhinomune and Pneumabort-k. The other EHV 1/4 vax do not. He also said that there have been no cases amoung real young (less than two years) horses.
You will probably be alright to ship your mare and foal to Maryland for breeding if you vaccinate your mare before she foals, and wait a few weeks. I haven't heard about any more new cases in the last two weeks. With the exception of the one farm, all of the cases have been at the racetracks. The disease spread to the one farm when a horse was shipped from Pimlico to her farm.
My understanding from the vet that treated the outbreak at Columbia Horse Center is that there are two vaccines that the manufacturers claim will protect against the neurological form - - Rhinomune and Pneumabort-k. The other EHV 1/4 vax do not. He also said that there have been no cases amoung real young (less than two years) horses.
Unfortunately this is incorrect. There is no EHV vaccine which is labled to protect from the neurological disease caused by EHV 1.
This always causes a lot of confusion. People think that their horses are safe because they have been vaccinated. Well, unfortuately not.
As I stated in my previous post it is believed that by vaccinating and therefore reducing the incidence of the respiratory disease it will reduce the occurance of the neurological disease. (And of course you vaccinate pregnant mares to prevent abortion caused by EHV.)
This always causes a lot of confusion. People think that their horses are safe because they have been vaccinated. Well, unfortuately not.
As I stated in my previous post it is believed that by vaccinating and therefore reducing the incidence of the respiratory disease it will reduce the occurance of the neurological disease. (And of course you vaccinate pregnant mares to prevent abortion caused by EHV.)
Lindros, you are correct in stating that Rhinomune and Pneumabort-K are not labeled to protect against the neurological form, but the manufacturers have recently released test results to the veterinary community demonstrating/claiming that they are effective in protecting against it. Granted, the research was funded by the manufacturers . . . but I doubt the results would ever have been released if the vaccines completely failed to protect against the neurological form. There may be something to it, because the horses that you would expect to be most vulnerable (foals, weanlings, and yearlings) don't seem to be getting it.
Unfortunately, there has been a confirmed case at Fair Hill, so we are not done with this outbreak yet.
Unfortunately, there has been a confirmed case at Fair Hill, so we are not done with this outbreak yet.
Thank you all for the discussion. Sorry I've been out of touch with this board for a bit but truthfully I was burning up the phone lines between my vet & the farm.
Mare & foal have been shipped to Md. after I confirmed that the proper vaccinations had been administered etc...
Appearances indicate that the farm hasn't gotten all that busy as yet so, once covered, I'll be getting them both the hell out of there much sooner than I ordinarily would.
Seldom do I hear about any of this stuff happening in Florida - wonder why ?
Mare & foal have been shipped to Md. after I confirmed that the proper vaccinations had been administered etc...
Appearances indicate that the farm hasn't gotten all that busy as yet so, once covered, I'll be getting them both the hell out of there much sooner than I ordinarily would.
Seldom do I hear about any of this stuff happening in Florida - wonder why ?
Bring 'em back tired ; but bring 'em back sound !
mikec,
involved in another topic on how long to leave a mare after bred and BJ posted this info to me.
I had read this post previously and thought you might want to read it.
"Joe Taylor's book on Breeding and Raising Racehorses says shipping a mare is the most stressful thing you can do when they are in foal. The next worst is breeding her back on her foaling heat. (Also said to be very unhealthy and almost a guarantee of infection.) Next, is shipping w/foal at side."
good luck with Louis Q breeding.
involved in another topic on how long to leave a mare after bred and BJ posted this info to me.
I had read this post previously and thought you might want to read it.
"Joe Taylor's book on Breeding and Raising Racehorses says shipping a mare is the most stressful thing you can do when they are in foal. The next worst is breeding her back on her foaling heat. (Also said to be very unhealthy and almost a guarantee of infection.) Next, is shipping w/foal at side."
good luck with Louis Q breeding.