Four Laurel Park Barns Quarantined After EHV-1 Case

Four barns at Laurel Park have been quarantined after a horse displayed neurological indications of EHV-1 over the weekend, officials said in a Zoom video meeting March 9 hosted by the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. The unidentified horse is responding well to treatment at Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., officials said.

The quarantine of the four barns, determined by contact tracing, will last for 14 days, provided no more cases of EHV-1 develop. A barn's quarantine could be extended if additional horses within it test positive for EHV-1. No horses other than the one sent off-site had shown clinical signs as of the meeting Tuesday afternoon. 

Officials are encouraging Laurel horsemen to report any horses on track grounds running a temperature above 102 degrees or showing neurological impairments.

Laurel is also restricting movements from horses exiting its premises. Horses can continue to van into Laurel but they must remain onsite under the current two-week restriction, except for circumstances such as a horse making a return trip to Pimlico Race Course, another track in the state.

EHV-1, from the family of the equine herpesvirus, is a common DNA virus that can cause respiratory and neurological disease and abortion in pregnant mares. Contagious, it can spread directly from horse-to-horse contact and can be passed to horses by humans from the use of contaminated clothing, tack, feed and water buckets, and equipment. The air around the horse that is shedding the virus can also carry it.

Officials want interactions between the general horse population and affected barns limited as much as possible.

Steve Koch, senior vice president of racing for The Stronach Group, which owns the Maryland Jockey Club—the operator of Laurel and Pimlico—said no training took place Tuesday for the horses in the affected stables, Barns 1,4,10, and 11. Officials hope to make training accommodations for horses stabled in those barns beginning by March 10.

"I know the racing office is working on how that schedule works; it's more complicated than just extending training hours," Koch said.

EHV-1 procedures for racing had not been finalized by Tuesday, he told those attending the video meeting. Later on Tuesday, the March 12 card at Laurel was cancelled due to the number of entered horses under quarantine.

A case of EHV-1 at Laurel comes when veterinarians and health officials are taking note of multiple occurrences of the virus over the past week. A second unrelated horse in Maryland stabled at a private barn in Cecil County began displaying clinical signs last week and was euthanized March 6, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture. The breed of horse was not specified. 

Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant for the Office of the Kentucky State Veterinarian, issued a caution March 7, noting a barn in Ocala, Fla., with confirmed EHV-1 cases and that EHV-1 had impacted recent equine events in several European countries.

"Additionally, as we are coming to the time of year that we historically see an increase in movement of equine exhibition and racing stock into Kentucky, I want to remind all associated parties that mitigating risk of disease introduction is a shared responsibility that requires commitment from each individual exhibitor, trainer, event managers, facility operators, veterinarians, and animal health officials," he wrote.