Colorado State University (CSU) researchers released results March 25 from a study that examined the characteristics of 2002’s West Nile virus (WNV) equine outbreaks in Colorado and Nebraska. The study was a collaborative effort between the state veterinarians in Colorado and Nebraska, the Veterinary Diagnostic Center in Nebraska, and CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Josie Traub-Dargatz, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, and principal investigator in the study, said, “The objective of the study was to better understand the progression of clinical disease, clinical signs, and clinical outcome. The results gave researchers a clearer picture of horses’ WNV vaccination status at the time of infection and their survival rate.”

Twenty-five sophomore veterinary honors students took the epidemiology course, which involved helping design the study and the phone survey, contacting more than 500 owners of affected horses, entering data, and helping analyze the data. Tricia Salazar, DVM, MS, lead author of the report, said that the study represented nearly 1,000 hours of student effort. The state veterinarians’ offices had client contact information on the cases, but lacked the staff time to follow up with inquiries on outcome of the cases, the WNV vaccination status, and treatment of the animals