Tack Box Talk
Tack Box Talk
Equine Herpes Virus Outbreak: The story on how to keep events safe and moving forward
Dr. Betsy Greene, Extension Specialist at the University of Arizona, and Dr. Christina Brownlee, University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine, discuss the recent EHV-1/EHM outbreak in southern barrel horses and roping horses. We discuss best practices and how this outbreak may be unique.
For more information: Equine Disease Communication Center.
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Kris Hiney: Welcome to Extension Horses Tack Box Talk series, Horse Stories with a Purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Kris Hiney with Oklahoma State University, and today we're going to have a little chat about a little disease called EHV1, which, horse people, I know you've been hearing about it. So with us today are two, faculty members from the University of Arizona, so Extension Specialist Dr. Betsy Green. Welcome back, Betsy.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Hello!
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Kris Hiney: And a first-timer, so with University of Arizona Vet School, Dr. Christina Brownlee. So welcome, Dr. Brownlee.
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Christina Brownlee: Thanks, everyone, for having me.
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Kris Hiney: So you guys in Arizona, I'll just be real honest, are having a little bit easier time of it than some of your southern neighbors, of having EHV1, this current outbreak, that everybody is talking about.
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Kris Hiney: So, we thought we'd visit a little bit about some of the ins and outs, symptoms, maybe why this outbreak may be a little bit different than others, but first of all, let's just start with the basics. EHV1 and EHM
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Kris Hiney: Same virus, right?
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Christina Brownlee: So, yeah, so EHV, has multiple different types to it. We have EHV1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. When we're talking about, EHVs that cause respiratory illness, or abortion, or neurologic disease, usually we're talking about EHV1, but sometimes we can be talking about EHV4 as well. EHV1 is the one that we see most commonly.
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Christina Brownlee: With the equine neurologic form, but just so that everyone's kind of aware, there's multiple different types of EHV, out there, different strains, and there's constant genotyping that is being done to try and figure out the types of virus that are out there.
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Christina Brownlee: And so, the genotypes that have been identified in Arizona, which I will speak to, is the genotype D752 and N752. And these both strains are able to cause the equine neurologic form. The D752 is the neuropathogenic form, and the N752 is the wild type. And so, it's a lot of.
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Christina Brownlee: You know, words and phrases and things like that, but it's important to understand that there's different variants to this.
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Christina Brownlee: Because, when we're talking about things like prevention and vaccinations, it's going to be very, very difficult for us to cover all of these genotypes, with that type of vaccination. So, there are multiple strains, kind of circulating out there.
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Kris Hiney: So it'd be similar to, like, when people, you know, you get a different flu vaccine each year. So, they are trying to find the strain that's most common, so this is for people. Just, I better say that real quick. So, people flu vaccine, we don't go mixy-matchy on horses that much, but it's the same idea, right? So we're trying to find what is the most, prevalent strain or brilliant strain of the season, and they create
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Kris Hiney: a vaccine for that, but with… I guess with horses, we really don't…
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Kris Hiney: do that same process per year, right?
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, no, and herpes viruses, luckily, unlike RNA viruses such as influenza, don't do as much reassortment and things of that nature, so we're not dealing with huge, huge changes, in that virus, but we still are different… dealing with different strains and types.
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Christina Brownlee: And so, yes, you're absolutely correct. The vaccines that we do have, typically are only, for specific strains, and so they don't provide, complete coverage, but what they will do is, hopefully reduce, the clinical signs and the viremia associated with animals that are affected.
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Kris Hiney: So,
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Kris Hiney: If you can, so some horses that are gonna, get this respiratory disease, that's really what they get, right? So they present with respiratory, symptoms, but then, for some reason.
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Kris Hiney: Some of the horses, not all the cohort, will present with the neurologic signs. Is that with a strain that is causing more of those neurologic symptoms?
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Christina Brownlee: So…
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Christina Brownlee: I am not actually entirely sure on this, but, I do know that, the neurologic forms
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Christina Brownlee: you know, we can expect that EHV1 is a type that will cause neurologic manifestations, and I'm trying to find the percentage of ones that, will go neurologic.
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Christina Brownlee: Just from my notes here.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: But, like, when they're… when the vet's testing and finding a positive horse, they're not saying to the… the client, this is the form, the type, and the numbers, and the letters, and all that. They're just saying positive, right?
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Christina Brownlee: Yes, I would imagine so, but I imagine genotyping is being done on these cases as they are reportable, so I imagine they might not be communicating that to the owner, but they are very interested in what the variant is. Whether that's being communicated to the owner, I… I don't know.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yeah.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, I don't think so. I think they just met, like, this one presents with neurologic signs.
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Christina Brownlee: And this…
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Kris Hiney: This one does not.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: This one is positive and asymptomatic, or not showing signs.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah.
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Kris Hiney: So, we've had, so while you're kind of trying to figure out for us what percent may end up with neurologic signs, EHV, equine herpes virus, right? So, maybe do a little, background on herpes virus. It is one that… it's persistent, right? It's a herpes virus.
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Kris Hiney: So, why… why do we sometimes see, like, this tended to be a bigger deal, maybe it was because it was at an event that a lot of horses were at, and then a lot of horses left and went everywhere. It took a while for the horses to be symptomatic.
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Kris Hiney: Why, or if you had any speculation or what's going on, like, why did this one become a big deal if everybody's got herpes virus all the time?
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Christina Brownlee: probably just a perfect storm, right? Why… why is anything, becoming an outbreak right now? I think, you know, you kind of described the perfect storm right there. It's just we have a lot of horses traveling, and it was really kind of interesting to see the distribution after the, the show in Waco, is that
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Christina Brownlee: these animals are coming from, you know, all over. There are several cases that have, popped up originating from that, that show in…
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Christina Brownlee: in Texas and Canada, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, I mean, they're just distributed all over the place. And so, you know, you get big shows that are happening, everyone travels to them. Horses, if you ever want to immunosuppress a horse, you put them on a trailer and travel them somewhere. And so, I think you just got, you know, kind of that perfect environment where you've got a big show.
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Christina Brownlee: And, a lot of animals that maybe were immunosuppressed due to stress of traveling, and just allowed for kind of that to just run rampant. And you've got a perfect environment where it can spread from animal to animal. I know we didn't kind of chat about that, but this is very easily aerosolized, nose-to-nose contact. You put animals in a barn, in a stuffy barn, that it's cold outside, everyone wants to be in the barn.
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Christina Brownlee: And it's really easy for someone, a person to walk up and down the aisle with their horse who might be infected, and they walk by a stall, they do just a nose touch, and that's just enough for this to kind of spread and kind of go everywhere. I do have those numbers when you're ready.
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Kris Hiney: Sure, let's hear them, and then I'll ask you some questions about that.
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Christina Brownlee: So I have, roughly for studies, EHV1 causing a morbidity, so that means how often those animals get sick, 80-90%, so very, very commonly, the animals are going to get, an illness from this. Of the ones that have…
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Christina Brownlee: excuse me, that have, EHV1, anywhere between, like, 30-40% of them will develop, the neurologic form, of, basically the viremia going to their brain and causing the neurologic condition, that we're, that we're familiar with. And then about 15-30% of those animals that develop the neurologic form, may have, a mortality from that, so they might
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Christina Brownlee: actually succumb, to that infection.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, so that's…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yeah, rough ways.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Roughly 85 get sick out of 100 horses, and then about 20-ish get neurological, and then about…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: What, 5 to 7 might… will die, based on those numbers, out of 100?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Somewhere around that, bad math.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: That's a lot.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, it's not insignificant, and I think what's really telling is, you know.
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Christina Brownlee: And any of these genotypes, any of these variants that have been identified are… do have the ability to cause the neurologic form, and the neurologic form is the one we really worry about because, those are very progressive signs. Those are signs that affect the… the brain, so those animals have trouble ambulating.
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Christina Brownlee: They have trouble standing, those animals tend to lay down, and usually when we're dealing with a neurologic animal, we're looking at hospitalizing those animals, because if anyone's ever seen a downed horse, you know that they can't spend much time down on the ground. They go into states of GI stasis, where, you know, they colic and have all sorts of other
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Christina Brownlee: comorbidities that occur, because of that. They also get muscle atrophy and basically don't return to standing and are ended up being euthanized because of, poor quality of life. So, we really worry a lot about the neurologic form of this and it progressing to that, and which is why we really want to identify those animals, early on in the disease process.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And, you know, Kris? Oh, go ahead.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Sorry, this was not, like, the first super spreader event. Back in, like, 2011, at that cutting horse event in Utah, they had, it was spread over, you know, even farther
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: around the country, and they had… I remember I was teaching my class, and the students in there, we did this, you know, Oklahoma students were putting… this is back when students were on Facebook.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: They were posting about how they had huge outbreaks, like, I think it was at Findlay or something, but had traced back from…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: That event, and so it was kind of like an inside look at all these horses
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: in the indoor arena, because they couldn't stand, and if they couldn't get them up in the stalls and things like that. And it was traumatic for the students, so this is not the first time by any means, but it's been a while, because that was, you know, 2011, I think.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, that was the last really big one. And maybe, Dr. Brother, you could talk about this a little bit, because it's always around, right? So this one maybe just had the right circumstances, but, I mean, we've had EHV here in Oklahoma at our… at our racetrack, which was a little easier to… those horses don't…
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Kris Hiney: move around as much when they're at a race meet. And then we had, a couple years ago, I can't remember, that we're in some reining horses at a competition, but
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Kris Hiney: But it seems like this one…
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Kris Hiney: the horses left before they had symptoms, and that might have been the… the key, right? Because then you just go to life as normal, and that… there's so many more touchpoints.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one of the things that I think people might forget is that, you know, these viruses have incubation periods, and so, the clinical signs, we, you know, we talk about, you know, what are those initial clinical signs? Okay, that animal's got a fever, may have respiratory signs, may be lethargic.
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Christina Brownlee: And I think the number one clinical sign is that they might be asymptomatic. They might not show any sort of clinical signs. And so, one of the big pushes that we have, is to, you know, temp horses, to really make sure that their temperatures are checked.
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Christina Brownlee: Because, that can be one of the earliest signs, that that animal is affected, and might kind of raise a red flag, but I don't know about you, I don't know if many people at shows are temping their horses, are temping their horses before they go to the show, and so, you know, you could have an animal that…
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Christina Brownlee: maybe is asymptomatic with kind of these earlier signs. They go to a show, they get stressed out, they have maybe the latent form of this, that's kind of present in nerve ganglion, and that stress allows for that viremia to occur and for them to be, become shedders.
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Christina Brownlee: I also heard an interesting thing about, mules being, super shedders. I don't know if you guys have heard that.
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Kris Hiney: Oh, that's a new one, let's talk.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, mules being kind of, notorious for being asymptomatic for this, and so, I'm not super familiar with the Waco Show, but maybe there's some mules there?
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Christina Brownlee: And they could be the super shedders, but that… that is one other thing, is that this does affect all equids, and so not downplaying the fact that this could be shed from other animals that maybe don't show as, you know, robust clinical signs as some of our horses do.
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Kris Hiney: Well, let's not go hating on the mule. I'm not sure how many barrel racing mules there are, but hey, maybe people are gonna tell us that this is a lot more common, than… than we think.
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Christina Brownlee: They're mule companions. Mule companions.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: I can't see a mule taking the effort to go chasing around a barrel time after time.
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Christina Brownlee: Thank you.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: time.
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Kris Hiney: Too smart for that. So, I think, you know, maybe to talk to some basics for horse owners, there's a couple points maybe I want to go back to. So…
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Kris Hiney: you talked about the stress response and being immunocompromised. Like, you talked about trailering, but let's be honest, there is a lot going on at these big events that is stressful. So it's not just the ride getting there. Typically.
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Kris Hiney: you know, the horses are maybe worked more than normal, they're kept up at night, so they're not sleeping, they're commingled, so there may be some stress responses there. The people are stressed, which feeds into the horses, so…
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Kris Hiney: there's… there's a lot there, so is there any advice, kind of from that veterinary perspective? You know, I would be like, okay, well, haul nicely, give them breaks, get there early, let them sleep, don't be mean to your horse, like, those kind of… like, is there anything that owners can do that
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Kris Hiney: Because you know they're going to try, right? These are barrel racers. I might have to lead that part, but, they could try for two, right? Because they're going to want to, to boost the immune system for horses at stressful events.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, so you're 100% correct,
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Christina Brownlee: going to any sort of show is going to be stressful. I don't know if there's a 100% way to eliminate stress.
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Christina Brownlee: You know, people talk about, you know, exposing those animals to those environments more frequently, so maybe animals that I've shown more frequently are used to those sorts of environments. But as far as, you know, preventing it completely, I don't think that that's going to be possible. And I know that many times, you know, these animals are offloaded, they're put into a new barn, a new space, all of those things can affect
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Christina Brownlee: that as well. So, I don't know if there's a way to 100% prevent it.
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Christina Brownlee: I know that there's been a lot of talk, in some of the, like, Facebook groups and things like that about supplementations with, like, lysine and things of that nature, thinking that if, you know, my horse has, these herpes viruses, maybe if I give lysine, I can maybe
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Christina Brownlee: reduced shedding. There's been some information on feline herpes patients.
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Christina Brownlee: Our feline herpes virus, patients that have, lysine, L-lysine has been helpful for that, but there just isn't really the research out there, and so that… that has been something I've seen floating around, is, trying to give animals, a lysine to try and, you know, reduce stress and…
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Christina Brownlee: Maybe prevent that shedding, etc.
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Christina Brownlee: I don't know, Betsy, if you have any… any recommendations or things that you hear people doing that might reduce stress?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Well, and I think just some of the common sense things can actually help, making sure that you're… if your horse is… if you're traveling with your horse, that you… whether you're bringing water or getting your horse used to flavored water so that they'll drink normal amounts and not slow down on drinking, and having plenty of your own
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Horse, you know, your hay and feed and everything you can do to make things as close to normal as possible.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: But also, going back to those simple biosecurity things that Chris and I have talked about so many times, even just if you have the common barn hose, if nothing else, disinfect it, the end of it, and before you water your horses or bring your own hose.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And don't put the end of the hose in the water buckets and things like that.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Using your own equipment, if you're building, you know, if you have several horses and you have a tax stall, put that tax doll in between your horses and the next set of horses. Little things that you can do to try and make things as…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: quote, normal as possible for them, but also to monitor, you know, like you guys both said, temping the horse, and also
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Just maybe having quiet time, like, shutting out… shutting out the area of the barn, saying, hey guys, not… not now, my horses need some downtime.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Things like that.
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Kris Hiney: they've, in some of the, equestrian competitions, they have mandated that it's dark hours, at some horse shows, so that's a novel concept for us over here, because people tend to ride all night, right? And so.
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Kris Hiney: We… we definitely know that… I'm not going to quote any of the research papers, but they're out there, right? That lack of sleep,
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Kris Hiney: Affects the immune system.
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Kris Hiney: I mean, we… you have to know that as being a person, right? So, like, when you can't really run down, guess what happens?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yeah, and I guess the other thing to think about is, you know, in Arizona, of course, on Facebook, when we had a couple horses that were asymptomatic but tested positive, and we had an EHM version as well.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: But we had the Facebook warrior, keyboard warrior, saying that the state vet was killing horses, and all these silly things. And the, you know, talking about trying to stop everything, and stop horse showing, and all that, and of course.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: The common sense thing is, if you actually…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: go and want your horse to work with and for you for years and years. It's much better to put off some things or make choices so that you're not exposed, because maybe your horse is not exposed, but do you guarantee or trust that the other horses are
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: or their owners are telling the truth as to whether or not the horse has been exposed. I mean, we all have seen barns that say, well.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: There's a horse with strangles, but we don't want anyone to know, because we don't want to get labeled. And so people will…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: to say that there's… whether it's fearmongering, or they just want to show, regardless of whether they might be exposing a bunch of other horses, you know, we've had a lot of people that
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: In fact, we had… I think we have several premises, much… many more premises that are quarantined than we have positive horses, because those horses were traveling, you know, or moving around to events or whatever before they got identified as positive.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, and you know, I definitely, like, I've seen different states have handled this very, very, very differently, so, and it almost puzzles me, the states that are…
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Kris Hiney: further removed from the incident. Actually, I've been more stringent about shutting everything down in travel, and… and you know, I'll just be real honest, Oklahoma is a horse show state, right? We are. We have a lot of big events here.
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Kris Hiney: we're having horse shows, right? And so, I know that, like, freaked out a lot of people, so I don't know if you guys want to speak to that or not, like, is it possible to still have horse shows, when we've had, EHV1 outbreak?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Well, it can be, but there's… it's a whole lot smarter to actually try and at least
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: postpone a little bit for the 14-day… Arizona's 14 days right now for if a horse tests positive. They have to, I think, test negative twice, is that right? Maybe…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Don't know, Christine, I'm not sure.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: But test negative twice.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: you know, 14 days later, or something like that, before they can be removed from their quarantine. But the bottom line is, if you actually take a little bit of a step back and control the situation, then you're more likely to actually be able to move forward faster.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: If that makes sense.
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Christina Brownlee: I think everyone's just kind of, you know, we all want to be able to show… go to that show and do these activities, and it's hard to tell people that that's, you know, by kind of going off what Dr. Green is describing, is
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Christina Brownlee: by doing that, we actually end up setting ourselves back for future shows, and maybe even having animals that die, at these shows, or a post, show. And that… I think we just need to be really mindful of that, and realize that
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Christina Brownlee: you know, there's definitely a risk, in going to these, and we can take all the necessary precautions, but, you know, it's still a risk. It's most definitely still a risk, and so it's something that people are going to have to weigh, on whether or not that they want to put their animal at risk, that they want to be that person in the barn that brings it back, and there's so many things out there that are talking about how to be preventive
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Christina Brownlee: And so, if you are traveling to these shows, be a good neighbor. Practice good biosecurity while you're there, and when you return, make sure that your animal is quarantined and that you're observing them.
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Christina Brownlee: I think that taking those necessary precautions and
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Christina Brownlee: kind of just following good guidelines, and I think also just being really cognizant of what those guidelines are. Like, we were just having a chat with the state vet about, you know, people are coming back without the necessary health papers, or didn't go with the necessary health papers, didn't have their animals vetted before they left.
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Christina Brownlee: And so, that just really opens us up. Follow the rules and try and, you know, be a good neighbor to those other individuals that have
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Christina Brownlee: You know, horses and want to… want to be able to show.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And it's interesting, because the people that don't, you know… I know Chris could tell you, too, that when you teach, okay, if you have horses and you're traveling, you need this paperwork, this paperwork, you're supposed to stop at weigh stations and everything else.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: But you know that if you pulled your horse trailer into the weigh station, 95% of them would be like, why are you pulling in here? But, as far as legal, what you're supposed to do, and that includes the health certificates, the veterinary inspection, the interstate veterinary inspection certificates.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And they were immediately… in Arizona, they were immediately canceled, all that were existing, and any new ones were only good for 5 days, and that's the current situation right now.
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Christina Brownlee: But the people that came in, came back home without health certificates.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: got the quarantine regardless, and, you know, some of them were not very happy. It's like, well, wait a minute. It's like, hey, if you didn't follow the rules, you got away with it all the time until we had this super spreader event, and now you got caught with the rules.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And so there's… there's been some frustrations that have been, you know, going on there, but then I had a student in class tell me that some people didn't want to have the vet test their horses because they didn't want to know if they were positive, because then they'd have to deal with it. And that's pretty scary.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: That's the way that we keep this stuff going around, and people need to think about that.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, I mean, it's a… it's a challenge, and I know,
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Kris Hiney: And I'm not saying that Oklahoma is, you know, we're unique or anything, because I know Texas has had to do the same thing, is thread the needle, because this is the time of the year that it's not like a little horse show that happens.
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Kris Hiney: he's a big horse show, right? And so… so these are things that… these are kind of those penultimate events that people have been working on for years, so it's… I get it, right? And there's huge economic impact on the cities and the businesses and everything that
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Kris Hiney: That hosts these… these major events. So, it's just, man, a bad time of year, right? So the… the late fall, early winter is just super horse show season, at least in my neck of the woods.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And you know, winter here is major.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: shows.
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Christina Brownlee: Exactly.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: They're coming!
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Kris Hiney: January!
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, the great horse migration to Arizona, especially our Canadian neighbors, a lot of, you know, international travel. Yeah, it's a big deal.
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Kris Hiney: Yeah, and that, you know, it's something I think, you know, that…
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Kris Hiney: you know, and I wouldn't say smaller, but there's, you know, everybody has different levels of competition or activities that you do, and if you're…
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Kris Hiney: only involved at one level, you may not realize the massive migration of horses, right, that come into Texas, come into Oklahoma, yes, that go to Florida in the winter, that then go to Arizona. Like, there are huge horse
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Kris Hiney: movements, that my guess is, yeah, those CVIs, Certificate of Veterinary Inspection, are going to be a little bit more important when a suncircuit happens, huh?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yeah.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yeah, and now, they're very important, and now people are looking, too. So, if you're out there and you've been getting away without it.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: It's not the time to try… try your luck, because certainly we have known outbreak, and we're trying to minimize that impact of that across all of the states.
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Kris Hiney: So let's… let me just… maybe we'll kind of wrap up with some… some back-to-basics stuff here. So the recommendation for people who think their horse has been exposed, right? So this is if you're…
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Kris Hiney: what… not primary, because obviously, if you were at the barrel race, then you probably know about it, but secondary, tertiary, right? The horse was there to sell to another horse, and maybe the… the next level of… of trans…
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Kris Hiney: transmission, why do we ask people to tempt them
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Kris Hiney: Twice a day, for 14 days.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: I mean, I guess the main point is that's one of the first signs that you usually see. And so, if you can catch a temp.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And then you can look closer and isolate further, if that's the case. That would probably be the main reason, because they… and, you know, twice a day.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: the… the temp… it can develop. I mean, we're talking 2 to 10 or 14 days of incubation. It can come on. You might catch… the sooner you catch it.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: the sooner you'll be able to kind of control movement of that animal and all that. But I guess the thing is, you're not going to temp your horse every hour, or you might get kicked in the head.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, I think right on is that, you know, that is kind of the first clinical sign that can be seen, and I don't know, I think it's really important for owners to be comfortable temping their horses.
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Christina Brownlee: I find horses actually tolerate it quite well. We just were out at, on Navajo Nation and doing, you know, vaccinations and temping horses, having our students do it.
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Christina Brownlee: And, you know, horses… the owner was very concerned about temping their horse, and they don't seem to mind it if it's done properly and lubricated and all those sorts of things. So, I think it's a really good method, and it's a good thing to catch early. I also have heard that there's, like, you know, microchips and things like that that you can put in horses to monitor their temperature, so you can get kind of techy with it, too. But, a good old-fashioned thermometer in the butt will work just
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Christina Brownlee: as well. And one of the things that that will also do is kind of give you baseline normal for your horse, you know? Like, what does your horse normally run? You know, in Arizona, I know that we have a lot of fluctuations in temperature depending on ambient temperature, and so on really hot days, you know, temperatures might elevate, but, you know, it's cool outside. Your horse should kind of be in that cooler range. If it's getting up into the hundreds, and
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Christina Brownlee: Into 101, and that is… you know.
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Christina Brownlee: you haven't been monitoring it, those would be all indications that something's going on with that animal, especially if, you know, in the morning it was 99.8, and now it's at 101. Something's going on. And so, temping them twice is just a way of kind of catching that early.
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Christina Brownlee: Identifying when those animals might be asymptomatic, and trying to get kind of ahead of the eight ball.
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Christina Brownlee: With, with those animals.
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Kris Hiney: Right, because this one kind of, we like the science words, but this is an easy science word, right? So this one tends to have a biphasic, temperature response, so…
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Kris Hiney: the… when you want to catch it, right, is in phase one, and if you haven't been paying attention, right, it goes back down, and then when it comes back, that's when they're more likely to be
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Kris Hiney: More severely affected.
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Christina Brownlee: Yum.
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Kris Hiney: So, get in practice of temping your horses. So, does that mean we should always temp them when we go to a horse show?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all, because it… that and stopping or slowing down on eating can be your first signs of any kind of issues.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: And, you know, that equine disease,
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Communication Center website is actually pretty cool. If you go to the
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: equine disease, and that link is actually on that, be on the Lookout thing that you'll have in the resources.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: If you go to the equine herpes virus page of that, which that link is in there, it actually has, on the right of the page, it has the most current
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: cases and things, so you don't have to go searching. You get the information about the disease, and also can see what's most recently been reported. So Arizona popped up on that one, too. And I'm sure you've been… you've been hogging the right side of that website in Oklahoma.
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Kris Hiney: Well, you know, I… to just speak to something, you know, quickly, because I know I've heard people getting frustrated, they're like, well, we know there's more cases because of all the social media, but this is reported confirmed, right? This isn't suspicious, this is…
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Kris Hiney: Tested and covered.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Yes.
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Kris Hiney: And we have heard with…
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Kris Hiney: I mean, I've definitely heard people that are like, well, if they're only mildly symptomatic, we're just gonna keep them here and just not do anything. So those are not the cases that then end up into the final task.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: No, but those are the cases that extend this outbreak and cause more people more pain over the time, and delay the horse shows from getting started again. So get your horses isolated and or tested if they're suspected, so you can get past it.
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Kris Hiney: Well, any final thoughts as we kind of wrap up here this afternoon?
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: Good biosecurity, and being smart, and looking for the long game instead of trying to…
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: hide… hide a semi-symptomatic horse so you can get an extra ribbon, because you might… you might be the… the one that's passing it, or you might be the recipient of it, and then suddenly your horse comes down with EHM and is not able to perform.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: to, you know, down the road. So, be smart early, and we can get past this stuff and get back on with our shows.
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Christina Brownlee: Yeah, I think it's just going back, being a good neighbor, realizing that your decisions and the things that you do affect others, and just being cognizant of that. And, you know, we worry about, you know, these naive populations where maybe you've got a mare that's pregnant, or maybe you've got a young foal, or maybe you've got, you know, animals that are going to be exposed to this animal that went to a show, and,
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Christina Brownlee: it might not kill your horse, but maybe it might kill another. And so, I think that's just really, really important.
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Christina Brownlee: And, I hope that we get through this, and I hope that, you know, we've been hit with a lot of different outbreaks and diseases this year, and so it's been really tough on, you know, horse owners, but also, you know, farmers and producers, and so, I think just… just being mindful of what's out there, make sure that you're, hearing and listening to reputable sources.
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Christina Brownlee: And not fear-mongering, I think is also very important. Make sure that you are actually getting the facts and, spreading good information. I know that Dr. Green's probably going to mention this, but we also are putting out publications, for Arizona veterinarians and for producers in the state to make sure that they do have some up-to-date information on this out… this current outbreak.
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Christina Brownlee: But make sure that you're going to reputable sources.
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betsygreene@arizona.edu: That link, I think you'll put in the… in the text, or whatever.
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Kris Hiney: Well, I appreciate your time today. I'm always helping educate owners on best practices, and yeah, I think we'll… we'll manage people. We've had this before.
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Kris Hiney: It's not gonna be the last time either, so use good common sense, don't get carried away, and we'll all be just fine. So, well, again, this has been another episode of our Tack Box Talk Horse Stories with a Purpose.