Disease Alerts

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has confirmed three more cases of strangles for 2018. The first case was in a five-year-old Quarter Horse gelding from Jackson County. The horse developed nasal discharge and fever on December 14, 2018 and was later confirmed on culture to have the disease. The horse recovered well. The second case was in a 15-year-old Arabian mare in Washtenaw County that has an almost two-month history (first observed around November 1, 2018) of a cough and feed observed coming from her nostrils. The mare was subsequently found to have the disease through culture. The mare is under treatment at a premises which has had other cases of strangles confirmed this year. It is unclear if either of the above horses were vaccinated against strangles. The third case was in a 7-year-old Quarter Horse gelding from Monroe County. The horse was examined by a veterinarian on December 28, 2018 due to an having nasal discharge for an unknown timeframe and subsequently underwent confirmatory testing. The horse was unvaccinated and is recovering. No quarantines were issued. This brings the total number of confirmed 2018 strangles cases in Michigan to 22.