In early September, the first 2014 equine case of West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis was confirmed in Kentucky. The 5-year old horse was euthanized after advanced neurologic symptoms developed. She had no history of being vaccinated for WNV.

The cost of euthanasia and disposal was much more than any WNV vaccine.

And yet the same story happens year after year, not only in Kentucky, but around the country with a disease for which there are safe, efficacious vaccines.

West Nile virus was first discovered in 1937 in Africa, but prior to 1999, few Americans had any reason to know about it since it was a foreign animal disease. No one worried about it. After all, it was an ocean away and someone else’s problem … until the first cases were diagnosed in New York