The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) has approved $5,407,739.00 in low-interest loans for breeders in Central Kentucky who were negatively impacted by mare reproductive loss syndrome.

The program was developed by the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders and the American Horse Council. The organizations worked closely with members of Kentucky’s

The Central Kentucky Riding for the Handicapped (CKRH) is having its sixth annual Halloween Trail Ride/Ride-A-Thon. The ride is open to participants of any age, riding experience, and discipline. The marked trail (over 10 miles) will be open from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Riders may ride as much of the trail as they would like with as many breaks as needed while the trail is open. Horses are not

In the last month, 16 of the 19 horses at Brookhill Stables in Goble, Ore., and two horses from a nearby private farm, have showed respiratory and/or neurologic signs consistent with equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), although not all have been tested for the disease. To date, three older victims have been euthanized–one from Brookhill Stables and the two horses from the private farm, which

Hair remnants, resembling Eastern tent caterpillar (ETC) setae (hair-like projections on the outside of the caterpillar), were found embedded in the submucosa of the digestive tract of one mare fed ETC larvae. Examination of this mare represents the initial step of a controlled experiment with the purpose of investigating the role of the ETC exoskeleton (cuticle) in MRLS (see also

With Hurricane Isabel poised to hit land late in the week of Sept. 15, Colonial Downs in Virginia has once again opened its barns to area horses that may have to seek safety from the storm.

“We’ve done this each of the past couple years, but not to this extent,” said Iain Woolnough, director of treasury management at Colonial Downs. “When I came into my office (Sept. 15), there were 2

Seventeen horses have been found slashed in the throat on a guest ranch in Tucson, Ariz., since early July. The latest attack happened between midnight and 4 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 9, on the Tanque Verde Guest Ranch, according to Pima County Sheriff’s Detective John Mawhinney. All of the horses have been slashed in the same location on the throat, resulting in jagged wounds from one inch to

A bomb strapped to a horse exploded in a plaza in a small town in northeast Colombia on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, including a toddler, and injuring 20 others, stated the Army in a report in the Kansas City Star.

The military blamed the attack on leftist rebels

A 3-year-old pony named Socks is recovering from a seven-inch long knife wound to his chest, according to a report by the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette’s online edition. Surgery was performed on the afternoon of Tuesday, Sept. 16th, after Mark Devonport found his stepson’s pony untied and injured in the field on the South Bank estate in the United Kingdom.

“I was shocked by

Rain, cooler temperatures, and tenacious firefighters are finally extinguishing many of the fires that have burned in British Columbia, Canada, for the last six weeks. Owners of one Thoroughbred farm are rebuilding after flames took two barns, while two others are rejoicing after a close call.

Lightning ignited the first major fire near Kamloops on July 30. By Aug. 1, the flames

Plans for rebuilding Cavel International, the horse-slaughtering plant in DeKalb, Ill., that burned down in 2002, have been finalized, according to the Northern Star of Northern Illinois University.

James Tucker, controller for Cavel, said the slaughterhouse plans to reopen in February 2004. No cause for the fire was identified by the DeKalb Fire Department or by the Bureau o

The Association of American Feed Control Officials, Inc. (AAFCO) announced to its members and to the feed industry on Aug. 4, 2003, that kava should not be used as an ingredient in animal feeds. An enforcement strategy event for kava in animal feeds, recommended to begin on Dec. 2, 2003, follows a notification period informing manufacturers and distributors of animal feed that many of the

Eastern tent caterpillars (ETC), plus some bacteria, plus a mechanism to deliver bacteria to blood, equals MRLS (mare reproductive loss syndrome). This summary of a hypothesis based on accumulating data was presented at a regular weekly meeting of the entomology group at the University of Kentucky to graduate students, researchers, and a few industry visitors.

Early in the foal loss

Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Associates PLLC are hosting the International Bluegrass Equine Veterinary Symposium in Panama City, Panama, Jan. 7–10, 2004. The program, held in the Intercontinental Miramar Panama Hotel, will feature hands-on wet labs and lectures that will highlight the most recent diagnostic and treatment techniques in reproduction, ophthalmology, and lameness, as well as programs o

Studies to determine the cause of mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS) have led investigators to associate the syndrome with exposure to the Eastern tent caterpillar. Although the exact cause of MRLS remains unknown, some component of the outer covering of the caterpillar (its “exoskeleton” or “integument”) appears to be involved.

In the first study to implicate the integument

Another new word has been added to the equine world–setae (prounced see-tay). Why? Horses have hair, caterpillars have setae. There are some researchers who hold the belief that these hair-like projections on the skin of Eastern tent caterpillars (ETC) might have something to do with all the health problems seen in horses in Kentucky and surrounding states in 2001 and 2002. What has become

While we all were irritated to some extent by the massive amounts of caterpillars in 2001 and 2002–stepping on them, having them climb our fences, houses, cars, gates, and everything else around our homes and farms–there is new evidence that the setae (hair-like projections) on the caterpillars can become embedded in the lining of the alimentary tract (GI tract) of animals and cause