Indio Polo Horse Added To Statewide Outbreak Of Equine Herpes
Test results confirm a polo horse at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio was infected with EHV-1, the equine herpes virus.
Dr. Michael Manno, a veterinarian for the polo grounds, said the test results came back from a lab at the University of California at Davis, prompting immediate action by California Animal Health officials.
“We have instituted a complete quarantine of all horses stabled near the Forum field,” he said. “Entrance through and exit from the gate near the Empire arena will be monitored and restricted to only essential personnel tending to those horses.
“The track next to the Forum field will be available only to the horses in the quarantined area. No other horses or people will be allowed in and out,” he said.
State veterinarians from Sacramento and the Ontario branch of the California Animal Health and Food Safety division will meet with the polo grounds staff on Tuesday morning. It’s then they will see if the virus has spread to other horses in Indio and estimate how long the quarantine will last.
How this might effect the polo season or HITS horse show scheduled for this weekend cannot be determined, Manno said.
This infection is the 15th reported to state officials, this month.
Most of them have been found in Orange County with one of them being euthanized on Jan. 18.
The website “The Horse” has been closely following the outbreak.
On Wednesday, it reported on another horse in Riverside County that had also been put down.
“The horse reportedly exhibited hind limb in-coordination and urine dribbling, became recumbent, and was subsequently euthanized,” the website reported.
According to the American Quarter Horse Association, EHV-1 causes respiratory disease, abortion in mares, neonatal foal death and/or neurologic disease.
It first made news when 54 were cases were reported at an event in Ogden, Utah, at the end of April.
Thirteen horses associated with the outbreak died or were euthanized. Nine of those horses attended the show in Utah.
The AQHA said the fast action by state veterinarians and show officials to limit the travel of horses kept the development of few new cases quite low.
But the virus is tricky.
As many as 80 percent of horses become infected with the virus but show no symptoms. It rests dormant in the horse’s lymph nodes, which can serve as reservoirs for the disease.
It’s only when the latently infected horse is stressed by trailering, a horse show or intense training that it might start shedding the virus without showing clinical signs, making containment of the virus very difficult.
