Editor’s note: This article is part of TheHorse.com’s ongoing coverage of topics presented at the 2012 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, held May 30 – June 2 in New Orleans, La.

Colorado State University (CSU) researchers are one step closer to understanding how to slow the rate of neurologic equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) infection.

At the 2012 American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, held May 30 – June 2 in New Orleans, La., Lutz Goehring, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, associate professor of equine medicine at the CSU College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, discussed recent study results supporting the use of anti-inflammatory drugs during the viremic phase of EHV-1 infection.

Goehring explained that his team hypothesized that anti-inflammatory drug administration would decrease the number of contact molecules on endothelial cells, the inner lining of a blood vessel, and on virus-carrying cells (white blood cells or leukocytes) during EHV-1 viremia. This would reduce the interaction between virus-carrying cells and central-nervous-system endothelial cells, which he considers the most likely initiating cause of neurologic EHV-1