A warehouse at Churchill Downs The 12 horses have been quarantined while veterinary officials await test results from a horse that has just been sent from Churchill to an equine clinic, said Churchill Downs Inc.’s equine medical director, Dr. Farmer said on November 29.
Farmer declined to speculate about the nature of the disease affecting the horse, though he said veterinarians had “a high suspicion” of the disease. He has no updates on the unidentified horse’s health.
Two common equine diseases that often lead to quarantine are equine herpesvirus and schistosomiasis. Both are contagious.
This year, Fonner Park and The Parx . Race quarantined the barn due to a strain of equine herpesvirus called EHV-1, while Indianapolis horseshoe and Thistle was quarantined due to strangulation.
Quarantine, intended to reduce the risk of contagion in the full horse population, is usually kept in place on horses in stables until state veterinary officials receive follow-up testing that no horses have been tested. sick or asymptomatic carrier and a specified period of time elapses. Sometimes they can last two weeks or more.
A representative from the State Veterinary Office at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, which oversees quarantines in the state, could not be reached for comment.
“We will be proactively checking all the horses in that barn tomorrow morning,” Farmer said. “We’ll make a plan when all those results come back.”
He said he anticipates those test results in the late afternoon or early evening of November 30.
Churchill Downs Inc.’s equine medical director, Dr. Will Farmer
Farmer declined to identify trainers or trainers whose horses were in the affected stables.
Late November is a busy shipping time in Kentucky, with many horses sent south near or after the end of the Churchill Downs for winter racing in warmer climates. Churchill Downs concluded the meeting on November 27.
In response to the quarantine, 1/ST Racing, works Santa Anita . Park, Golden Gate Fieldsand Gulfstream Parkamong other racetracks and properties across the country, has issued a ban on shippers from Churchill Downs, pending the publication of veterinary findings and communication with Churchill Downs.
Horses shipped from Churchill Downs Trackside, a training center owned by Churchill Downs but located 5 miles from the facility, are not affected by the ban as long as their health certificate shows they have been on the Trackside, according to Dr. Dionne Benson, director of veterinary medicine with 1/ST Race.
She said the 1/ST Racing ban could be adjusted depending on test results and updates from Kentucky Agricultural and Agricultural officials.
“We’ve been on the other side of this a few times,” she said.
