On Friday March 2, 2018, the Arizona state veterinarian received notification confirming the diagnosis of equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM) in a 9-year-old Quarter Horse gelding. That gelding had tested positive for EHV-1 wild type on nasal swab while under treatment at a referral hospital. The gelding had been at South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, earlier in the month for a cutting horse event and also had attended the Arizona Cutting Horse Association show in Queen Creek the weekend prior to developing neurological signs.
The training facility is under quarantine. As a precaution, the State Veterinarian of Nevada is reaching out to 18 states that had participants at the event not including Nevada and Arizona.
The Arizona Cutting Horse Association is also reaching out to all contestants to inform them that all horses that attended the events and horses in barns should be observed for signs of illness and contact their veterinarians for testing as they might have been exposed.
The event center at Queen Creek is in the process of doing a second disinfection of the facility. The next cutting event scheduled for Paso Robles, California, has been postponed as a precaution
This information was provided by the Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC), which works to protect horses and the horse industry from the threat of infectious diseases in North America.
