Virginia animal health officials reported Aug. 16 that there have been no new confirmed cases of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) since two cases were diagnosed earlier this week.

On Aug. 15, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ (VDACS) reported that its Animal Health Laboratory in Warrenton confirmed EHV-1 in two horses from Culpeper County. One horse is undergoing supportive therapy at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center (EMC) in Leesburg and the other was euthanized.

The infected horses originated from a small private farm in Culpeper County. All exposed horses are under quarantine and are being monitored twice daily for fever (temperature over 101.5°F) and other clinical signs. If no new cases occur, the farm will remain quarantined with no equids allowed on or off until Sept. 4. There had been no movement of horses off the premises in the month preceding the first diagnosed case on the farm.

The EMC is not under quarantine. Staff there worked with VDACS earlier to develop a plan to hospitalize infectious horses, specifically EHM (equine herpes myeloencephalopathy, the neurologic form of the virus), following isolation and biosecurity protocols, and those protocols were followed in this case