The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recently confirmed the fifth and sixth equine cases of Eastern equine encephalitis in that state for 2017.

The cases were discovered in a 6-year-old pony mare in Bladen County and a 5-year-old American Quarter Horse gelding in Camden County. Neither horse had a vaccination history.

“EEE is a mosquito-borne disease that causes inflammation or swelling of the brain and spinal cord in equine and is usually fatal,” North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a Nov. 1 statement. “The disease is preventable by vaccination. If you haven’t already had your horses, mules and donkeys vaccinated, contact your veterinarian to make sure your animals are protected.”

There were nine recorded cases of EEE in horses in North Carolina in 2016

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