On June 26, the Office International des Epizooties (O.I.E.) Reference Laboratory for Equine Viral Arteritis at the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture’s Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, confirmed an outbreak of equine arteritis virus infection involving fetal losses among mares on a Quarter Horse breeding farm in New Mexico.

This was based on the widespread prevalence of high antibody levels to the virus in both mares and stallions, plus virus isolation from the semen of two stallions. On the same day, the outbreak was reported to the New Mexico Livestock Board in Albuquerque, N.M., which is now investigating the potential for spread of the infection to other premises