Community Corner

Equine Virus Outbreak Elicits Caution, Not Panic in Woodside

There have been no recent cutting horse events in Woodside, alleviating worries for horse owners.

Update 6/1:

As of 12 noon, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) site lists a total of 20 confirmed EHV-1 cases statewide. None are in San Mateo County.

The breakdown by county:

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Amador (1), Colusa (1), Glenn (3), Kern (2), Los Angeles (1), Marin (1), Napa (1), Placer (3), Plumas (1), Sacramento (1), Shasta (1), Stanislaus (3) and Ventura (1).

16 out of the 20 cases were in Ogden, Utah participating in the Western National Championships of the National Cutting Horse Association.

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All 20 cases are currently under a state quarantine.

Update 5/20:

The California Department of Food and Agriculture reports that as of 5/19 at 8 a.m., there are three more cases in California (Two cases in Glenn County and one in Los Angeles County), which brings the total of confirmed EHV-1 cases in the state to 13. These new cases, along with the other 10 confirmed cases, have been placed in state quarantine.

Lee Berger doesn't own a cutting horse at her Woodside home. "We don't have any cutting horses right around here."  That the four equines she stables are not of the cutting variety brings her relief.

An outbreak of EHV-1 (Equine Herpes Virus) during a cutting horse event in Ogden, Utah on April 29 - May 8 has put some horse owners in the western portions of the United States on guard.  Horses exhibiting symptoms associated with EHV-1 such as high fever above 102 degrees, hind end weakness, nasal discharge, and lethargy are being isolated and kept away from other horses.  There is no equine vaccine that protects from the strain of this virus. The virus is highly contagious, but can not be transferred to humans.

As a long-time horse owner, Berger says she has received 40-50 e-mails in the past few days in her mailbox from various equine organizations, all about the outbreak. "I have one from The Horse Park at Woodside, telling us not to be concerned," says Berger. "It's the cutting horses that went to this Utah championship that could possibly have it."

Cutting horses at competitions are cut out of a group, led through a particular set of demonstrations for the audience. The name comes from days when cowboys would use particular horses to "cut" herds of cattle.

"We had another outbreak of this about 2-3 years ago in Montara, or one of those towns on the other side of the hills here, up near Half Moon Bay, there was an outbreak of it, and they had to put a horse down, had to put a horse to sleep, but it never got away from that barn, and we never heard where it came from, how that horse had contracted it," says Berger. "This is different; you actually know where to be looking, not over your shoulder all the time. If you know cutting horses that went to this event, the probability of them contracting this (virus) is pretty good.  I don't know any cutting horses."

In fact, The Horse Park at Woodside website, updated this morning, states: We have no cutting horses and/or horses that attended the above event housed at the Horse Park.

The site goes on to say: If you reside in California there is no reason to be alarmed at this time, just cautious.

A check of the events calendar on the website of the National Cutting Horse Association shows the cancellation of virtually every cutting horse exhibition scheduled around the country in May, including two events in California.  One was scheduled for Lebec this weekend, another for Paso Robles May 28th.

Mounted Search and Rescue, a volunteer arm of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, noted the March, 2007 Montara and Moss Beach outbreak on a page of its website, stating six horses contracted the virus.  Three were euthanized, three were treated.  The origin of the virus was never isolated. The same strain of the virus was also found in a horse at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley in late December, 2006, which led to brief quarantines of the racetrack, as well as quarantines at Bay Meadows in San Mateo and at the Pleasanton Racetrack.

Berger is not entirely without caution.  "I am very, very careful, keeping my hands clean, keeping the tak clean, keeping the surfaces clean." She continues, "Say I was trailriding, they have these big water basins where horses can drink from, I would never let my horse drink from there.  You never know how well inoculated another person's horse might be."

As of May 18, there were 10 confirmed cases of the virus in California:

All confirmed cases are Cutting Horses who participated in the Odgen, Utah National Cutting Horse Association’s Western National Championships.

The positive confirmed cases are located in the following counties: Amador(1), Kern (2), Napa (1), Stanislaus(4), and Placer (2).

One positive horse was euthanized after showing severe neurological signs associated with the disease while at the Kern County Cutting Horse Event on May 13 in Bakersfield, CA.

A second positive horse was transported from the Bakersfield event on May 13 to the University of California at Davis and is undergoing treatment.

All positive confirmed cases are under quarantine.


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