“When you hear hoofbeats on the covered bridge, please think about the zebra!” said Corrie Brown, DVM, PhD, Dipl. American College of Veterinary Pathology, vice chair of the Cornell Committee for Animal Diseases. Her point was that when veterinarians are making diagnoses, they need to consider foreign animal diseases. “The amount of damage that a foreign animal disease will cause is directly proportional to the time between introduction and accurate diagnosis,” she said. “In other words, we have to accurately recognize a foreign animal disease at first blush if we are to implement effective control measures. It is imperative that practitioners consider foreign animal diseases in their diagnostic rule-outs.”

Among the diseases that Brown discussed was African horse sickness, glanders, Hendra virus, epizootic lymphangitis, trypanosomal diseases, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis