Source:
Rhode Island State Veterinarian
Number Confirmed: 1;Number Exposed: 47;Clinical Signs: Coughing, Fever, Nasal Discharge, Lymphadenopathy; Horse Status: Affected And Alive; Vaccination Status: Status Unknown;Notes: A 40+ horse boarding facility in Providence County, RI began experiencing mild respiratory disease in mid-September. Signs were mild fever, nasal discharge and cough. There are several attending veterinarians for the stable and one was consulted. This veterinarian obtained nasopharyngeal samples from 3 horses and submitted them for a respiratory panel where Equine Rhinovirus-B was discovered in 2 horses and Streptococcus equi zooepidemicus in all three. The farm owner separated the sick horses from well ones until the sick ones were clinically normal for greater than a week (all horses had temps monitored twice daily). Upon reintroducing the horses that were formerly showing signs, the well horses began showing similar signs with some also experiencing lymphadenitis and lymphadenopathy. To date approximately 26 horses have experienced some respiratory signs and 21 have not. A second veterinarian examined a single horse with the aforementioned signs and she obtained a nasopharyngeal sample that was qPCR positive for EHV-4 and Streptococcus equi equi. Upon this diagnosis the state veterinarian issued an order of quarantine. The owner had been maintaining strict biosecurity prior to the new diagnosis but two horses left the property to go to another boarding facility in the same town. There was no quarantine in place when they moved. There is no known disease at that farm and those horses moved about 3 weeks prior to the diagnosis of S. equ and EHV-4. ;