Officials have quarantined 57 horses that competed at the Meadowlands Racetrack on Monday (Nov. 6) over fears that the animals may have been exposed to the potentially dangerous equine herpesvirus.

The step was taken after officials realized that four horses trained by Mary Hartmann at Monmouth Park and taken to the Meadowlands for Monday’s race had shared a barn at Monmouth Park with a horse that has shown some of the symptoms of the virus. None of Hartmann’s four horses tested positive for the virus.

“We’re trying to be as conservative as possible,” Robert Kulina, general manager of Monmouth Park told the Asbury Park Press for Wednesday’s newspapers. Referring to Hartmann’s four horses, Kulina said, “Because they were close to the other horses at the Meadowlands in vans and on the racetrack, all the horses are being isolated as a precaution.”

Kulina said tests are being run on all of the 57 horses to see if any of them are carrying the virus.

Equine herpesvirus produces flu-like symptoms such as upper respiratory infections and a high fever. In severe cases, it can attack a horse’s nervous system and affect coordination and balance and can lead to the horse being euthanized. It does not affect humans. It is transmitted through contact between horses, similar to a human cold.

For more information on EHV-1, check out our free PDF library of EHV-related articles including images, or all our archived EHV-1 articles on TheHorse.com