Amarillo area vets explain impact of EHV-1 virus

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - Amarillo area experts are sharing how you can keep your horses safe after state officials confirmed an outbreak of Equine Herpesvirus Type 1 (EHV-1).

The Texas Department of Agriculture issued an alert regarding the outbreak Nov. 19.

EHV-1 is an equine herpes virus know to cause symptoms ranging from respiratory issues to death.

“It replicates really fast and you get a really intense virus load in the blood stream and a viremia. When that occurs, sometimes vessels in the brain or the spinal cord swell and you can get some neurological components to it. So then it shifts from what we call EHV-1 to EHM,” said Dr. Britt Conklin, an associate Dean for clinical programs at Texas Tech University of Veterinary Medicine.

Herpes virus is common across all species, with nine different strains affecting horses.

This type is an aggressive strain and can also be spread by humans.

“It’s transmitted through horses nose-to-nose contact — aerosol, contaminated feed buckets, water troughs, and it can also be shed by horses that are infected for hours to days prior to them showing symptoms,” said Dr. Taylor Hudspeth, West Texas Veterinary Hospital vet.

There are multiple steps you can take if your horse has come in contact with the virus.

“Right now, disinfecting tack, feed buckets, water troughs, anything that may come in contact with an infected horse,” said Dr. Hudspeth.

To keep your horse safe from this virus, bio security is most important.

“It can be spread aerosolized from horse to horse, it can be spread through different fomites, which is another word for tack, or for equipment that you might have. One of the keys to preventing the spread of it is bio security and that could be included cleaning of all that equipment cleaning foe tack being very diligent,” said Dr. Conklin.