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  Discussion on Strangles outbreak in layover barn
Author Message
Member:
lisabel

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 4:51 am:

Next month I am flying in a two year old colt to Amsterdam from the US. I have a friend with a breeding farm in Holland where I had planned to layover a few days before driving home to Denmark.

Now she has an outbreak of strangles, including one horse with severe purpura hemorrhagica. All of the affected horses are in a barn and pastures that are about 300 meters away from the barn and paddock where my colt would be.

I know that it is transmitted my nasal discharge. If there is no contact with the affected horses or their direct environment, how much of a risk is there to my own colt? My first impulse of course was to cancel the layover, but I would like to know if I am being overly protective or paranoid.

To make matters worse, we had also planned to overnight at another breeding farm in Northern Germany. I certainly don't want to be responsible for being the vector that carries S.equi from the one farm to the next farm, and then eventually home to my own farm.


Thanks in advance, Lisa
Member:
mrose

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 11:42 am:

While you are waiting for Dr. O's comments, you might want to check quaratine rules, or perhaps someone else will be familiar with them and post them. Sometimes going from country to country, or in the US even state to state, you are restricted if your horse doesn't have a clean bill of health, or has been exposed to communicable disease within a certain period of time, which would include being on a farm, or in some cases even in the same county or state, where there is known disease. In my opinion it would be best to find another facility for your horse. Maybe the owners could refer you to someone?
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 11:46 am:

Hello Lisa,
Were any of the sick horses ever in the barn and paddock areas or do folks travel back and forth from the barn and pastures? We have quite a bit on environmental persistence and transmission in the article on Strangles.
DrO
Member:
hpyhaulr

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 2:07 pm:

Lisa,
We transport a lot of horses to several different quarantine facilities in preparation for their trip overseas.
I expect you already know which facility yours will be going to. Coming from the USA, horses will go into a 30 day quarantine which is strictly guarded. When we deliver, our dog has to be in the LQ. We cannot take a chance he can dart of the truck when Walt opens the door. They are that strictly guarded. The horses are kept in a barn separate from any others on premises. I am not sure how many hundreds of feet they must be separated. Prior to interstate ground shipment, each horse must have the regular negative coggins and current health certificate. Upon completion of the quarantine, they are again examined and tested, certified by a USDA veterinarian, put in a horse trailer which is then sealed by a USDA vet. This seal cannot be broken by ANYONE but a USDA vet. Even if they are in an accident on the way to the airport, authorities must break the seal(which has never made sense to me, cause I figure that the trip would pretty much be a 'nogo' at this point). ANYWAY, once at the airport, they are transferred to a restricted quarantine before loading onto the pallets and boarded on the plane. Vitals are again taken prior to loading and tests are again reviewed. At least one quarantine staff member will accompany the horses on the plane and maintains responsibility until touchdown in the destination country at which point THEIR veterinary regulatory agency takes over. Most of the EU flights will touch down in Amsterdam and then the EU testing and exam is done. Your issue of concern seems to be after this point, however. 3 years ago we had an incidence of horses coming from Germany to the US. Although the mares were sealed into a trailer and taken to a quarantine facility in Ky, others were shipped on around the country. Turns out, there was an infectious transmission through a non symptomatic'Typhoid Mary' who was discovered through subsequent testing after several other non breeding stock had moved on to infect other barns. Lack of information and ground travel became our enemy and if y'all remember this had a serious impact on several horse communities, Southern Florida being the worst.They lived nightmare for several months. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of an abundance of caution here. That incidence nearly put us out of business as it became apparent that there were unknown entities moving around and without definitive direction, we had the potential to do more harm than good. We had to pull off the road for 3 months until the USDA could track them all down. That is exactly what brought me to HA, a search for answers and how we could prevent spreading this disease. I believe in sweating the small stuff and justify that in knowing that there are too many others who don't. I would find another layover barn. It is far easier to do that than backpedal the problem if it knocks on your door. There is enough stress inherent in a trip like this, why take unnecessary risks? We all want you to have a marvelous trip and a safe return, without worry or guilt.
Member:
lisabel

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 7:09 pm:

Hi Cyndy, Sara and Dr. O,

Thanks for the input. After the colt is released to me at the airport, there are no further health checks necessary, even though I am traveling through Holland and Germany to reach Denmark. But that is just the official side of the issue.

I read the article and understand about the persistence of the bacteria. However, none of the affected horses have been in the barn where my colt would be staying, and there are no shared fencelines so he wouldn't be rubbing noses with any of the sick horses. Their pastures are quite a ways away. The only source of contamination would be the people caring for the horses since they most certainly had not taken extra precautions not to carry infection from one barn to the other since they only just realized what they were dealing with. The horse with purpura comes about two weeks after several other's had snotty noses.

I am afraid I will have to try to find a neighboring farm to put up my colt for the couple of days I had planned to layover, but if that isn't possible, it might be better to skip the layover altogether and just drive on home?
Member:
andym

Posted on Saturday, May 1, 2010 - 9:15 pm:

Lisa,
I have a very good friend who lives on a small farm in Torup, Denmark with her husband and two children. Has a barn and two horses. She rides to the hunt and is on the board of the hunt club. I'm not familiar enough with the geography of your travels but if her location would be of any help, I'm sure she would be overjoyed to do so. She has been to our house and we have been to her's. If so, let me know by reply, and I'll give you her address and email.
Good luck on your trip. Sounds like a wonderful adventure in the making.

Andy M
Member:
lisabel

Posted on Sunday, May 2, 2010 - 3:14 am:

Hi Andy,

Denmark is a little country, so once I am in Denmark, I might as well drive on home. But thank you for the idea!

And yes, this is an adventure, and this colt is the result of several years of planning. He is a custom breeding for me, and I am sending over a colt who is a custom breeding for the breeder in the US. So the last thing I want to mess around with is him getting ill at this late date (or transmitting disease to anyone else).

I don't want to be hysterical if there is no real risk but I don't want to take unnecessary risks either.

Cheers, Lisa
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