As of Sept. 23, the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s (CDA) state veterinarian’s office has 46 locations in 14 counties under quarantine after horses, mules, and cattle herds tested positive for vesicular stomatitis (VS).

County Number of Currently Quarantined Premises Number of Quarantines Released
Archuleta 1 10
Boulder 2 1
Chaffee 0 1
Conejos 1 3
Delta 2 35
Douglas 1 0
Fremont 3 0
Garfield 1 1
Gunnison 0 1
Jefferson 0 7
La Plata 0 13
Larimer 5 39
Las Animas 0 2
Mesa 16 28
Mineral 1 0
Montezuma 0 11
Montrose 1 37
Ouray 0 4
Pueblo 0 1
Rio Blanco 0 2
Rio Grande 2 3
Routt 0 1
Washington 1 0
Weld 9 5
Totals 46 205

“The prolonged warm temperatures in this season have been favorable for vesicular stomatitis transmission,” said State Veterinarian Keith Roehr, DVM. “It is important for livestock owners to continue with fly control until we have a hard freeze as flies are the main means of transfer of VS.

“In the last two weeks, we had new VS cases diagnosed in Fremont, Mineral, and Washington counties. Other counties that had a significant number of cases have seen their number of current cases subside (Montrose and Delta counties) and yet we have seen a significant increase of new cases in Mesa County. I encourage all livestock owners to be aware of their county status and take the proper precautions to prevent insect populations on their property.”

A 2014 outbreak of VS created 556 livestock investigations in Colorado resulting in 370 quarantines with the final quarantines released in January 2015

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