As Normandy prepares for the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, French scientists are performing biosecurity research to prevent the spread of equine disease. In particular, they’re looking into a syndrome they’re calling “piro-like.”

Piro-like—a temporary name given to the syndrome, also sometimes called isolated fever syndrome—results from several different diseases, including piroplasmosis (hence the current term of choice). Detailed investigation of this syndrome, including its pathogens and presence throughout France, will lead to improved biosecurity and disease management at an international level, said Charlène Daix, MSc, epidemiology technician at the French Network for Epidemiosurveillance of Equine Diseases (RESPE) in Caen. Daix presented her group’s research at the 2014 French Equine Research Day held March 18 in Paris.

As a result of their research, the RESPE has now included piro-like syndrome in its database.

Daix said piro-like syndrome is characterized by fever of apparently unknown origin, lethargy, anorexia, anemia, and sometimes depression. It’s important to note, however, that the piro-like syndrome is not the disease itself, she said, but the consequence of various primary infections that lead to it