Rusty Ford, equine programs manager for the Kentucky State Veterinarian’s office, sent out a report at 3:45 p.m. Eastern today to try and clarify some of the media reports that are circulating in the industry. Following is his report:
There is apparently ‘misinformation’ circulating through social media and other channels relative to the EHV-1 investigations underway in Kentucky.
Strategically, our situation here in Kentucky is unchanged – we are continuing to investigate and manage two (2) disease instances – on separate premises. The investigations, both involving premises in Oldham County, are unrelated, with one involving the ‘wild strain’ of EHV-1 and the second associated with the mutated strain of EHV-1. Details of each investigation/status were made available on 1/13/17, and there has been no significant new developments.
Update January 19, 2017
The investigation and status on Premises 1 is unchanged – there have been no additional cases develop, daily monitoring and evaluation continues.
The investigation and status on Premises 2 – we continue to have one barn on premises 2 under quarantine. Daily monitoring and evaluation of all other barns on the premises continues to provide evidence that our strategies utilized thus far have been effective in containing the virus to the original index barn. There is no evidence indicating or suggesting the virus has spread on the premises.
Current Racing in Kentucky
Live racing continues at Turfway Park in Northern Kentucky with disease mitigating strategies being effectively utilized. These strategies include control and oversight by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture of horses moving onto and off the track, restriction of racing ship-ins to the receiving barn, as well as elevating our daily biosecurity practices to include enhanced race day cleaning/disinfecting of common areas and equipment, that includes the starting gate between races, receiving barn, test barn, etc. We appreciate the sacrifice made by horsemen, track management, veterinarians, Turfway Park’s security officers and the backside ground crew.
Fair Grounds
Published reports indicate that the quarantines currently in place at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans may begin being released later this week. Our position today is unchanged in that we will disallow horses from those areas to gain entry to a Kentucky track or sanctioned training facility based on the directive issued on January 3, 2017. We will continue to evaluate the current disease status in Louisiana and will adjust our strategies as facts become more clear and understandable.
Equine updates available at www.kyagr.com/statevet/equine-infectious-diseases.html.
