TRC Equine Herpes Update 5/23/11.

Good News.  Both Memorial Day ropings in Show Low and Flagstaff are officially (still) ON after overcoming what was seen as the final hurdle today.

With reports just back (Monday) from a USDA meeting of the Western State Veterinarians scare of EHV-1 virus there is a consensus that the known EHV-1 outbreak is still contained at the quarantined barns.  This is the good information that we were waiting on.  Also the Arizona State Veterinarian’s office in a call this AM said once again that the department has issued no travel or event restrictions.  They repeated what they said on Friday (5/22) it is “business as usual”.   So Arizona is not requiring any health paperwork to transport horses within or outside (coming or going) of the state.    If you want to confirm or ask questions their office can be reached at (602) 542-4373 option 2, option 4 or online at http://www.azda.gov/ .

 There is also some “not so good news” that was discussed in the USDA conference call where because of the extensive testing that has been done in the past couple of days it was recognized that the “titters” for the nEHV-1 are more active in horses in the West than previously thought (since it has previously been an Eastern US phenomenon only).  Anyway this is should only encourage horse owners going forward to be more careful about sharing water troughs and other personal items with outside horses. 

We have discussed this at length with Denny Gentry of the World Series of Team Roping and he has recommended that we proceed this Memorial Day weekend on strong advice from veterinarians that considering the current data the risk is low this weekend AND will be no greater than next week or next month or next year.  Please read his 5/23/11 report following the State Veterinarian conference call at http://www.wstroping.com/article-509-ehv-good-news-and-bad-news.html.

So if you have any questions please call Cory at 480.540.8405 and give Jack a break.