Breeders’ Cup, which has plans to set up a “disease-free zone” to allow horses to ship in and out of Lone Star Park, is moving full-steam ahead with preparations for this year’s World Thoroughbred Championships even as a limited outbreak of vesicular stomatitis continues in Texas.

Horses at three sites in Texas and four in New Mexico are known to be infected with VS, a painful blistering disease of livestock such as horses, sheep, swine, and deer. The cases of the viral disease, which appears spontaneously and sporadically in the southwestern United States, are the first to be confirmed since 1998.

Thus far, the VS cases in Texas have been located at least 400 miles away from the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, where Lone Star is located. More than 1,400 horses were tested recently Lone Star and found to be disease-free.

Breeders’ Cup president D.G. Van Clief Jr. said staff was informed June 18 to continue the planning process for the Oct. 30 event. (Lone Star will kick off its special fall meet Oct. 1.) He said Breeders’ Cup remains in regular contact with the Texas Agriculture Commission, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the European Union