The neurologic form of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) was confirmed in a North Carolina mare on Jan. 5. The horse, from a Rockingham County stable, was taken to the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) at North Carolina State University (NC State) upon becoming ill, and was directly quarantined to the equine isolation unit of the hospital. As a result, the equine hospital at NC State will only accept emergency cases for the next seven days.

"We have been fortunate that we’ve not seen this particular form of this common virus in North Carolina to date, even though it has been increasing in frequency throughout the country for almost a decade now," said State Veterinarian David Marshall, DVM. "We are working with the College of Veterinary Medicine and with the stable to implement biosecurity measures and minimize the risk of further spread."

"With the prior warning we were able to take the horse directly from the farm into our separate isolation unit so no horses currently in our hospital were exposed," Sam Jones, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, NC State professor of equine medicine, said in a statement on the CVM website. "We consulted with the State Veterinarian’s Office as well as with biosecurity experts at Colorado State University who had previous experience with the virus. We are following our formal procedures for dealing with a highly contagious infectious disease and a team of CVM veterinarians and veterinary technicians has been assigned exclusively to this case to further ensure the health of our other equine patients."

Although it’s not transmissible to humans, EHV-1 is highly contagious among horses and camelids, and it is generally passed from horse to horse via aerosol transmission (when affected animals sneeze/cough) and contact with nasal secretions. The disease can cause a variety of ailments in equines, including rhinopneumonitis (a respiratory disease usually found in young horses), abortion in broodmares, and myeloencephalopathy (EHM, the neurologic form)