Payson Park Thoroughbred Training Center, in Indiantown, Florida, was released March 16 from quarantine that was put in place after a horse residing there tested positive for equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1).

The Equine Disease Communication Center reported that “the quarantine was released after all horses in the high risk barns tested negative for the virus and no additional EHV-1 cases were detected during the quarantine period. The one affected horse remains in stable condition and will remain under quarantine for at least one additional week.”

The affected horse tested positive for EHV-1 in late February and was placed in isolation. That horse had recently traveled to Florida from a Thoroughbred training center in Fauquier County, Virginia; that facility was also quarantined after the horse tested positive for the virus.

Herpesvirus is highly contagious among horses and can cause a variety of ailments in equids, including rhinopneumonitis (a respiratory disease usually found in young horses), abortion in broodmares, and myeloencephalopathy. In many horses, fever is the only sign of EHV-1 infection, which can go undetected