Texas state veterinarian activates Animal Health Network to inform horse owners about Equine Herpesvirus 1
The Texas state veterinarian has activated the Animal Health Network to support the Texas Animal Health Commission’s efforts to inform horse owners about the potential spread of Equine Herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), a highly contagious and potentially devastating equine disease.
The state veterinarian’s office asked Texas AgriLife Extension to activate the network on May 24. Texas became the third state – after Colorado and Michigan – to activate its Animal Health Network since animal health officials recently became concerned about a possible EHV-1 outbreak.
Developed by FAZD Center, the Animal Health Network is a tool designed to reach non-commercial owners of horses, livestock and poultry with critical alerts and animal health information authored by the state veterinarian. Non-commercial owners are often the most difficult to reach with timely information about disease outbreaks. The Animal Health Network distributes this information to these owners through local feed retailers and county Extension agents.
Under the management of co-principal investigators Dr. Andy Vestal and Dr. Shannon Degenhart, the Animal Health Network (AnimalHealthNetwork.org.)
is in the process of adoption in 11 states. Dr. Vestal is a professor and Extension specialist with Texas AgriLife Extension; Dr. Degenhart is an Extension program specialist. Co-partners with the FAZD Center on the Animal Health Network are the National Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), a program of the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Texas AgriLife Extension.
The Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) is tracing exposed horses that attended the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championships event that ended on May 8 in Ogden, Utah.
For authoritative news and information about the EHV-1 situation in Texas, FAZD Center suggests the TAHC website at www.tahc.state.tx.us.
For horse owners who want to test for EHV-1, the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory strongly recommends requesting an Equine Herpesvirus type 1 PCR (EHV-1 PCR). Turnaround time for PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing is no more than five working days. Acceptable samples are nasal swabs and whole blood (EDTA anticoagulant). For euthanized animals or abortion cases, TVMDL recommends fresh tissues (liver, spleen, brain), aborted fetus or placenta. In these cases, suitable tests are EHV-1 PCR and histopathology. Serology testing from a single sample has limited diagnostic value in this situation due to widespread EHV-1 exposure and vaccination in the general equine population.