A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official has predicted that the West Coast will be hit hard with West Nile virus (WNV) next year, particularly California.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Lyle Peterson, MD, acting director of CDC’s division of vector-borne diseases, said in a speech Oct. 1 at the University of California’s Berkeley campus that the area of

A recent study completed by French and Brazilian veterinarians showed that administration of ivermectin/praziquantel paste, a common equine dewormer combination, is safe for pregnant mares and their foals. Dewormers of this type have not yet been labeled for safety in pregnant mares and their foals in the United States.

Patrick Mercier, DVM, of the medical department of Virbac

Cats Don’t Dance, one of two Saddlebreds which survived malicious attacks in late June, is sound and has been started back under saddle, according to his owner, Sally Jackson of Overland Park, Kan. The 6-year-old gelding and four other Saddlebreds at Double D Ranch in Versailles, Ky., were injected with a necrotizing substance in their left forelegs in late June. The unidentified substance

An online diary following the training of two mounted police horse prospects is underway, and since it’s a new undertaking for TheHorse.com, we hope you’ll share your comments and questions as we guide the educational process of these two weanlings.

Since December 2001, the donors have been vaccinated multiple times with the WNV vaccine. The company had to prove purity, safety, and reasonable expectation of efficacy to have the plasma conditionally licensed for treating WNV.

Yankee, a 30-year-old bay gelding, is one fortunate survivor of the rampant California wildfires that have plagued the San Diego and San Bernardino areas, and other parts of the state, since late October. Owner Carol Prida’s home in Wildcat Canyon burned and fell on his stall Oct. 26, before he could be evacuated. Everything plastic in Yankee’s stall (including his buckets) melted from the

Mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS) has been a primary research project for many veterinarians and scientists since it began causing early and late term abortions, sickness in foals, pericarditis (heart problems), and uveitis (eye problems) in horses in the spring of 2001. Manu Sebastian, DVM, MS, a resident in Veterinary Pathology, and a PhD student at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck

Feed contaminated with a cattle weight gain medication (monensin) killed 12 Belgians in Wisconsin and sickened several others, said a Wisconsin Ag Connection report. The horses, owned by Wayne Huston of Cottage Grove, were treated at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM). As of Sept. 5, five of them had died and three remained seriously ill.

A Veterinary Advisory Board made up of equine practitioners in Virginia and Maryland has been created for the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va. Like members of the Equine Medical Center’s Council, Veterinary Advisory Board Members will provide advice and counsel to the Center’s director and staff in order to meet the needs of the equine industry and of the

The operation to straighten the joint lasted six hours, including the hoof wall reshaping, and cast application. “We broke down all the bony callous, placed the lower limb back in alignment with her cannon bone, and plated it with a dynamic hip screw,” said Stewart.

Steve Reed, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, a professor and head of equine medicine and surgery at The Ohio State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, recently was selected as the winner of the 2003 World Equine Veterinary Association Award for Applied Research, which is funded by a grant from Schering-Plough Animal Health Corporation.

According to an article in the Oct. 15

Horse owners everywhere cold-hose or ice their horses’ legs to help reduce inflammation, but there hasn’t been much agreement among researchers on its effects, or the success of various methods of cooling.

According to an Oct. 15 news release, the Equine Protection Network (EPN) has begun a national horse slaughter awareness billboard campaign in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Indiana. The group also has launched a new web site, SaveAmericasHorses.com, giving EPN’s views on equine slaughter.

“Research polls show that most

A horse was struck by a truck and killed on the evening of Oct. 11 on Rt. 93 near Sugar Creek, Ohio, according to the Times Reporter of Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio.

State troopers reported driver Tim L. Sigrist, 32, was northbound about 9:10 pm when the horse ran into the road and was hit, said the Times Reporter article. The horse flipped into the bed of the truck

A 19-year-old stallion was hit by a car near the village of Sydenham in Ontario, Canada, last week, according to an article in the Ottawa Citizen.

Early on Oct. 9, a woman hit the horse at 70 kilometers per hour (about 45 mph) as she was passing another vehicle in the morning fog.

Despite his injuries, the horse, Serenade, walked back to his home. His owner, farmer

An Oct. 12 ProMED-mail posting reported that Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) has re-emerged in Venezuela after being controlled by health authorities for more than three years. This virus hasn’t been reported in the United States for more than 30 years.

The ProMED posting said that representatives of the National Breeders’ Federation reported that the disease has affected animals