Texas Equine Veterinary Association

One night in February a few years ago, I received a call from a concerned trainer that her Welsh pony was dull, standing in the back of the stall with a fever of 102 F. She asked in a restless tone, "Can you bring your thermometer because mine might be broken. It's really old and I haven't used it recently." As an official horse show veterinarian, the word "fever" always sends shivers down my spine. I was the only attending veterinarian at this horse show and was just beginning to respond to a variety of emergencies in the wee hours of the night. To say the facility was large would be an understatement. Enormous was more like it. It was fully enclosed, temperature-regulated and housed up to 1,500 horses. I always hope as a veterinarian that the cause of any horse's elevated temperature is obvious, like cellulitis or a history of traveling 20 hours on a trailer. When it comes to my personal life, family, and friends, I tend to have an optimistic view of the world. When it comes to medicine, I tend to fear the worst. This 3 a.m. call didn't turn out to be an ordinary case of "give NSAIDs and antibiotics q12h." Indeed, the Welsh pony gelding had an elevated 102 F temperature. And so did the trainer's gray Warmblood mare stalled next to the pony, munching away on her hay as if nothing in her world was abnormal. Typical, isn't it? I calmly asked the trainer to continue temping her other horses while I anxiously waited for the serum amyloid A (SAA) reader to render results. I was already planning the worst-case scenario. The results came in…Elevated SAA →→ quarantine →→ nasal swab →→ communicate →→ supportive care →→ wait for PCR results, in that order. Please don't be herpesvirus! It was 5 a.m. when I received a phone call from another trainer in another isle, stating her horse seemed "off." (TPR: 101.7, 44, 24, SAA – 450). There were now three infected horses in close proximity in two different barns. It wasn't a coincidence—it was the early signs of a biosecurity event. And so it began. The innate but also learned skills/ experiences that no one can truly prepare you for in school: communication, leadership, poise, setting boundaries, the hours of anxiously waiting for lab results to come in. The juggling of phone calls between owners, trainers, owners' home veterinarians, show officials, show management, the governing body of the horse show, state veterinarians, even managers of other shows and their official show veterinarians. Can someone please turn off my phone? No one prepares you for this. This equine influenza virus (EIV) strain, a highly transmissible but not very virulent pathogen, had a disturbing impact on the horse show and affected numerous training operations. Many horses were ill, but no lives were lost. Horses were quarantined, vaccination records checked, bloodwork run and care rendered until SAA was at 0 or a negative PCR result came in. Some trainers took their horses home and self-quarantined; others ran SAAs on all their horses and left horses at the show if levels were above 50ug/mL, indicating early signs of infection. Several trainers stayed and continued to show healthy animals. Because EIV is a non-reportable disease, SHOW-STOPPING EQUINE INFECTIOUS Diseases HOLLY J HELBIG, DVM, Equine Technical Services Veterinarian Zoetis 51

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