A 7-year-old warmblood stallion from Germany is at the center of a storm of controversy after testing positive for contagious equine metritis (CEM) upon importation to Canada. The horse, appropriately named What’s Going On, had tested negative for CEM before leaving Germany.

CEM is a sexually transmitted disease that causes no symptoms in stallions, but can cause temporary infertility in mares. Since Canada is officially CEM-free, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) officials declared that owner Evelyn Frei had two options for the horse—return him to Germany, or have him destroyed.

Test results conflicted because Germany uses a seven-day incubation period for cultured samples taken from breeding stock. Canada, by contrast, requires a 14-day incubation period, based on CFIA data indicating that some samples only test positive after 10-13 days of incubation. Canadian regulations also stipulate that imported stallions, aged two and older, must be test-bred to two mares, which subsequently must test negative for CEM.

Frei’s stallion highlighted long-standing inconsistencies in import procedures from Germany and led to the Canadian government halting all equine imports from Germany as of July 6 until the German government’s testing procedures more closely match Canadian requirements. While Germany has indicated it is willing to adjust those procedures, it has closed its borders to Canadian horses in retaliation, effectively making it impossible to return the horse.

“It’s really become a political standoff at this point,” Frei explains. “It’s got nothing to do with my horse or with CEM anymore