(edited press release)

The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) released its hold order on Laurel Park’s Barn 9 on Friday, March 3, which means 34 horses that tested negative for equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) at the Laurel, Md., facility were permitted to return to their normal training and racing activities. Two additional horses in the barn that were free of clinical signs of the virus, but did not clear the testing process, were relocated to an isolated barn on the grandstand side of the Bowie Training Center in Bowie, Md., where they will stay until they test negative.

A filly stabled in Laurel’s Barn 9 was euthanatized on Jan. 26, and test results confirmed she had neurologic EHV-1.

Meanwhile, at Pimlico Race Course near Baltimore, Md., four of the six horses in the detention barn tested negative for EHV-1 on both blood samples and nasal swab tests and have been moved back to their original barns to resume normal activities. The two that did not clear are not showing clinical signs of EHV-1, but they are prohibited from mixing with the general horse population until they test negative