No Danger To The Public—

Equine Herpesvirus Quarantines Horse At Newtown Veterinary Facility

By Shannon Hicks

A horse that was admitted to Fairfield Equine Associates for surgery last month has been placed under quarantine after having been identified as carrying the neuropathogenic form of equine herpesvirus, or EHV-1. EHV-1 can cause fevers and neurologic signs ranging from fever and loss of coordination to weakness in the hind limbs and even paralysis.

Six horses in Florida have been euthanized during the last month after having contracted the same virus, which can be deadly to horses.

The horse at Fairfield Equine Associates, which is located at 32 Barnabas Road, has been improving in recent days but went through quite an ordeal after being admitted to the equine hospital a few weeks ago for a lameness examination. The unnamed male horse has been in quarantine since December 24, but its doctors are confident he is up for a full recovery. They are also confident that their facility is safe for other equine patients once the voluntary quarantine on the horse is cleared.

The horse arrived in Newtown from a small barn in Vermont on December 13, had surgery on December 19, and it was five days later — on December 24 — that his fever started and was quickly identified at EHV-1.

EHV-1 can be highly contagious to horses and can spread through the air. It can be passed through shared tack and barn equipment, even by human hands and clothing, making “tight biosurgery essential to stop it from spreading,” a press release from the equine hospital said this week.

Nevertheless, the staff at Fairfield Equine Associates is confident the single horse currently under quarantine does not pose an equine health hazard.

“It’s funny, but of all the descriptions provided — whether quarantine, deadly, or anything like that — this is not an emergency,” Mark R. Baus, DVM, a managing partner for Fairfield Equine Associates said Wednesday afternoon. “What this is about is understanding the nature of this virus.

“Two things have made this particular virus significant,” he continued. “It’s had a profound impact on the horse show circuit in Florida. The winter equestrian festival has been significantly hampered ... the implications on the winter season have been significant.”

Seven stables in Wellington, Fla., were under quarantine for the highly contagious virus in December and six horses had been euthanized in that state as of December 29 due to EHV-1. State officials had also quarantined stables in Ocala, Indiantown, and Jupiter Farms, Fla.

By January 3, Florida racetrack and state officials were “cautiously optimistic” that the current outbreak is over, with no new cases of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) detected, according to a story posted at TheHorse.com.

Veterinarians have not been able to establish a link between the horse in Newtown and any of those to those that sparked the Wellington outbreak.

The second point of significance, said Dr Baus, is that advance testing techniques allows veterinarians to isolate the virus more readily.

Epidemic Fears?

“We have never had to deal with it like this,” he said. “We know that this virus has been around, and we know that it has been in this area. We are not convinced that this represents an epidemic in this area.”

Dr Baus suspects the horse is dealing with a latent infection.

“We don’t know definitely where he picked up this virus, but we feel it was within him and emerged with the stress of this surgery,” he said. “Our surgeon had a suspicion, and we had a lot of awareness due to the infections in Florida.

Ryland B. Edwards III, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVS, has been in charge of the Fairfield Equine case from the beginning.

“Dr Edwards actually had a suspicion about [the virus], simply because it did not fit with other postoperative fevers,” said Dr Baus. “The degree of fever, the response to medication... nothing else was consistent with other kinds of infections.”

There are two tests to identify this virus, a blood test and a nasal swab. The horse at Fairfield Equine Associates tested positive through the nasal swab, but negative following the blood test. As soon as the horse’s fever and assimilated virus was identified, he was moved to a separate building.

Since placing the horse under voluntary quarantine, the hospital has not admitted any horses as out- or in-patients. Staff members have instead been seeing horses at surrounding stables, eliminating any exposure to the infected horse at the hospital. Also, Fairfield Equine made arrangements with a local hospital for surgical and emergency care that became necessary.

All of this was in the name of precaution, not mandatory measures.

“The important thing is, this is a voluntary quarantine,” Dr Baus stressed. “The federal vet was informed, but there is no action from them. The state is also informed, but again, the quarantine is voluntary. We will determine the optimum quarantine period based on the information we receive from special disease specialists.”

Working in the hospital’s favor was the timing of the appearance of the virus. The hospital was closed on Christmas Eve, so traffic was already minimized.

The airborne virus is not harmful to humans. Precautions are taken to protect horses from each other.

“The staff that deals with him does not deal with any other horse, so he’s had a dedicated staff,” said Dr Baus. “They personally are not in any kind of danger, and we have counseled them on how to approach or see any of their personal horses.

“We feel that no other horse was put at significant risk,” stressed Dr Baus. A notice on the hospital’s website reiterated that, saying in part, “be assured that our doctors [who] are seeing horses at surrounding stables have had no exposure to the infected horse in our hospital.”

“We’ve taken a lot of extra steps up front, we’ve been very open with information,” Dr Baus said. “People should have no reservations about coming back, about continuing to bring their horses here for care.”

Founded in 1989, Fairfield Equine Associates is the largest privately owned equine hospital on the East Coast. Its new facility opened in November 2000.

Fairfield Equine Associates will continue to post updates every 48 hours at the hospital’s website, FairfieldEquine.com. For additional information the hospital may be reached by calling 270-3600.