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Date: 22 Jan 2003
From: A-Lan Banks Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

A suspected viral outbreak over the weekend killed 10 horses in the University of Findlay's student equestrian program, and veterinarians believe about 130 more horses could be infected.

About 130 of the 440 horses in the equestrian program have shown signs, which include fever and runny nose. One horse died on Tuesday. The others died over the weekend.

"We're hoping that the worst is over," Kathryn Kelly, a school spokeswoman, said Tuesday. "We don't know at this point how long we have to deal with this."

University veterinarians believe the horses are dying from an equine strain of the herpes virus, but were waiting for autopsy results.

The virus, which cannot be passed on to humans or other animals, can cause respiratory or neurological disease and kill the animals within hours.
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It attacks the brain, causing horses to fall or lie down, before moving on to the respiratory system. They have quarantined one of the university's 2 off-campus equestrian complexes where thoroughbreds and show horses are trained and cared for by students and university staff.

Retired veterinarian C.R. Beckett, chairman of the university's trustees, called the deaths "devastating beyond belief and description."

Date: 22 Jan 2003
From: A-Lan Banks Source: Toledo Blade, Ohio

9 horses from the University of Findlay's English riding program have been euthanized and another has died after contracting an equine-specific virus that, in severe cases, paralyzes the animals.

Twenty other horses have a neurological form of the illness, although none appeared to be deteriorating yesterday, said Dr. Greg Hass of University Equine Veterinary Services.

About 90 percent of the 138 horses at the James L. Child, Jr., Equestrian Complex 4 miles south of campus have had respiratory problems, runny noses, and some fever -- the first signs in all of the horses that became ill -- but most have not worsened.

The Child equestrian complex has been quarantined. "There is a ray of hope," said Dr. C.R. Beckett, chairman of the university's board of trustees and a retired veterinarian. "They are starting to show improvements."

The university has a Western riding program with 300 horses at another complex about 8 miles south of campus. No signs have shown up there.

"This is very alarming and very scary, and we need to nip it in the bud and take every precaution possible,'' Dr. Beckett said.

Within a week of the first signs, some horses had neurological symptoms and could not stand.

The first horse was euthanized Fri 17 Jan 2003. "They've been put down for humane reasons," said Kathryn Kelly, university spokesman.

"They were not going to get better." Necropsies are being performed at Ohio State University, and the first tissue samples were delivered yesterday by hand courier to the state diagnostic laboratory in Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

Test results will show whether the horses were afflicted, as veterinarians suspect, with equine herpesvirus. The laboratory will check as well for Eastern, Western, and Venezuelan Encephalomyelitis and for West Nile Virus, said Dr. Steve Reed, head of equine medicine and surgery at Ohio State.

First results won't be available for at least 4 days, he said. More than 100 equestrian students gathered Monday to learn how the horses were doing and to share the sadness.

Even veterinarians have been stunned by the virulence of the outbreak. "I have never seen anything this devastating in any situation in my life," said Dr. Beckett, who became a veterinarian in 1960 and whose efforts in the early 1970s helped lead to the university's equestrian studies programs.

Dr. Reed of Ohio State recalled a Virginia case in which 37 of 46 horses in a stable were affected and 2 died. "What's dramatic about [the Findlay outbreak] is 10 deaths," he said. "That's amazingly high."

The animals are paralyzed by the loss of blood supply to the spinal cord and nerve tissue. What's really happening is that the immune system, in trying to attack the virus, attacks small blood vessels, Dr. Reed said, and that causes inflammation and in turn pinches off the blood supply. Nerve tissue is damaged or dies as a result.

No one knows how the outbreak developed. The program has its own horses. Students may bring their horses, and the program accepts horses from private owners who wish their animals to be trained. All horse owners have to show proof of vaccination, "but no vaccine is fully protective, " Dr. Reed said. "Certainly none of the vaccines offer protection from the neurologic form of the disease."

[Equine Herpesvirus type 1 can have neurological signs. It seems likely this will be the diagnosis, but it is too early to speculate.

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