FBI and State Officials Seek Horses Removed from Quarantine After Testing Positive for Disease in Missouri

The Missouri Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that two quarantined horses that tested positive for equine piroplasmosis are missing from a Raytown, Missouri equine center, located in Jackson County. Equine piroplasmosis is a bloodborne disease only transmitted to horses by ticks and mechanically from animal to animal by contaminated needles. Humans are at no risk of being affected by this disease.

On June 4, the Department of Agriculture was notified of a piroplasmosis-positive horse and immediately took action by placing a quarantine on the Raytown Equine Center; all of the horses at the facility were put on 24-hour surveillance. The quarantine, enacted by the Missouri State Veterinarian, was put in place to prevent movement of any horses from the equine center. Two horses were illegally removed from the premises Wednesday night, when locks were cut from building doors and stalls. These horses are micro-chipped.

The Department is working with local, county and state officials as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation to locate the horses.

Seven horses tested positive for equine piroplasmosis on June 9. Thursday, with consent of the horse's owners, five piroplasmosis-positive horses were euthanized. An equine piroplasmosis-infected horse will show symptoms in mild forms such as weakness and lack of appetite. More acute cases include fever, anemia, jaundice, a swollen abdomen and labored breathing. Horses that survive the acute phase of infection may continue to carry the parasites for long periods of time. There is no cure for equine piroplasmosis.

For more information, please contact the Missouri Department of Agriculture at (573) 751-3377, which supplied the information for this blog post through its Missouri Ag Connection network.

Great News for 2010 World Equestrian Games: Piraplasmosis Will Not Prevent Horses or Nations from Competing

Note: This press release arrived today and is a great advancement for a true "world" World Equestrian Games (WEG) in 2010 at the Kentucky Horse Park. For many years, horses from countries where piraplasmosis is a problem have been prevented from entering the USA. This restriction has caused disappointment for many countries in the past. Today's announcement is great news!

I am posting the entire press release from the USA WEG offices so blog readers can learn more about the new procedure and also more about this international disease control issue. Here's the official news:

After years of research and planning, a much awaited plan that allows piroplasmosis positive horses to compete in the Alltech 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) was announced at November’s FEI General Assembly, by the World Games 2010 Foundation in coordination with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The Games will be held in Lexington, Kentucky at the Kentucky Horse Park September 25 to October 10, 2010.

“Effectively negating the piroplasmosis risk for both competition horses and the domestic horse population is a primary focus for our team, as part of our overall importation and quarantine plan,” said Dr. Kent Allen DVM, 2010 Games Veterinary Services Coordinator. “We want all horses to enter a healthy environment, and to leave the Games from a healthy environment.”

Piroplasmosis is an equine blood-borne disease, causing sickness in horses that have not been exposed to the disease before. In areas of the world where the disease is more common, it can be transmitted by carrier horses that have encountered the disease previously and carry both the organism and antibodies in their blood.

The piroplasmosis organism requires specific tick species to complete its life cycle. For the organism to spread, this species of tick must feed on an infected horse, then drop off and feed on a non-infected horse. The protective control plan consists of multiple factors designed to reduce the prevalence and introduction of ticks to the environment in and around the Kentucky Horse Park.

Over the past several years, the USDA, KDA, and APHIS have conducted extensive studies and testing to better understand the area’s tick population. The studies identified that the tick population drops significantly during the fall season when the Games will be held.

“The health and well-being of the horse is at the core of everything we must do in preparation for these Games,” said World Games Foundation Chairman John Long. “We are fortunate to have a team of state and federal agencies working with veterinary officials and experts to ensure that all horses enter and leave the country in the best environmental circumstances.”

Multiple tick mitigation practices and policy will be implemented to further reduce risk. These practices include natural tick barriers, establishing designated grazing areas treated with tick retardant agents, and separate stabling and frequent inspection of horses upon reentry into the stables.

Horses will be treated with an equine de-wormer that effectively kills attached ticks prior to entry. In addition, piroplasmosis-positive horses will be shipped directly from their federally-mandated quarantine center to special stables within the Kentucky Horse Park, and will also be required to leave the country directly from these stables.

“The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is confident that these procedures will protect all horses at the 2010 Games,” said Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer. “We are supportive of the Foundation’s efforts to ensure the health and safety of both competition horses and the domestic horse population.”

These protective strategies will allow the entire park to be utilized by all competition horses during the 2010 Games, while providing the needed assurance that the U.S. domestic horse population is not put at risk.

Video: Watch Dutch Dressage Team Horses Enter Quarantine for Olympics

There are two women in the world who can get away with the appellation "dressage queen" without it being an exaggeration. Both are about to embark on the trip of a lifetime to Hong Kong, and are likely to be one-two/gold-silver (ah, but which one on top?) at the Hong Kong Olympic Dressage competition next month.

The horses of both Germany's Isabel Werth and the Netherlands' Anky van Grunsven are settling into quarantine. Anky's horses are in Handel, Holland for isolation and observation before they are flown to Hong Kong. They will be in isolation for the next eight days.

Luckily for us, Dutch television filmed the departure of Anky's Salinero and Painted Blank, and you can see a little behind-the-scenes glimpse of the training center for Anky and Svef Jepsen, the Dutch chef d'equipe. The horse vans are amazing; the "Hunter Douglas" one really is related to those honeycomb blinds in your house. The company sponsors the #2 horse on the Dutch team, Hunter Douglas Sunrise, a beautiful mare ridden by Imke Schellekens-Bartels. That combination will surely be at or near the top in Hong Kong.

You will see the vet taking swabs from the nostrils of the horses before they are allowed to unload at the quarantine facility.

The Olympics will be here before we know it!