GREAT FALLS — Horse owners are being urged to take precautions after a nationwide outbreak of Equine Herpesvirus-1, or EHV-1, was traced to major barrel racing events in Texas. The virus has now been confirmed in at least eight states, including South Dakota, Colorado, and even across the border in Alberta, Canada. While no cases have been reported in Montana, veterinarians say it’s important to stay alert.
Dr. Kelli Kolar, a mobile large-animal veterinarian serving central Montana, has been closely monitoring the outbreak because several of her clients had horses competing at the affected event. She says, “We did have some clients down there whose horses were competing, who started calling us with questions about it, and we just wanted to get information out to people quickly.”
Dr. Kolar has been advising her Montana clients on how to monitor and protect their animals. “We’ve been telling them to monitor for symptoms. So taking their temperature twice a day to monitor for fever, monitoring for any respiratory illness, being lethargic, not eating. And then, of course, any neurologic symptoms, because the neurologic part of the disease is the part that’s most concerning right now with the outbreak,” she said.
If a horse has been traveling or has to travel in the future, Dr. Kolar advises closely monitoring them and taking their temperature twice per day. Any temperature above 101.5F should be reported to your vet immediately.
EHV-1 is a virus that can present in different ways. Dr. Kolar explains: “It’s an equine herpes virus. There’s several of them that exist and cause various diseases. The most common are the equine herpes one that is causing the current outbreak. You can get a respiratory form, an abortion form, and a neurologic form.”
She says the neurologic form is what’s most concerning right now, as vaccines don’t yet protect against it. It can spread quickly, and has a relatively high mortality rate.
The virus can be spread by horse-to-horse contact, contact with contaminated objects like tack or water buckets, and through aerosol transmission.
For Montana horse owners, Dr. Kolar recommends caution and minimizing contact between animals. “The biggest thing right now is to just be limiting your horses’ contact with other horses until we kind of get through this outbreak and everything settles down a little bit. So, not going to big events, not going and riding at shows or competitions where your horses are going to have contact with other horses and just maybe taking the month off from some things and staying home to protect their health,” she says.
