Disease Alerts

The Kentucky Office of State Veterinarian has confirmed a diagnosis of Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 to be affecting horses housed in barn 3 at The Thoroughbred Center in Lexington. The index case was reported on 2/13/2018 after a horse that had presented with fever of unknown origin was sampled and results of PCR testing identified the horse to be positive for EHV1 ‘wild type’ on both nasal wash and whole blood. The barn was immediately secured with no horses being allowed to move into or out of the barn and biosecurity protocols were put in place. The affected barn’s population is currently comprised of eighteen (18) horses including the index case. Two horses that moved out of the barn prior to the discovery are currently in isolation on a private farm and a barn at The Thoroughbred Center has been emptied and dedicated to serve as the quarantine barn used to isolate the positive horses. Samples collected from the exposed horses earlier today have been partially reported, and has identified six (6) additional positive cases. Five (5) horses were positive on nasal swab only and one was positive on both blood and nasal swab.  In addition to the horses exposed in the barn, the outriders have been sampled and they, too, were reported negative.