Project Overview
This study assessed how widely Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Virus (EHDV) has affected livestock in New York. Testing nearly 5,700 cattle, sheep, and goats between 2022 and 2025 revealed that only 0.6% showed evidence of past infection, with cases concentrated primarily in cattle and in regions already impacted by deer outbreaks. No goats tested positive, and overall exposure in domestic animals remained low.
These findings provide the first large-scale evidence in the Northeastern U.S. that EHDV exposure in livestock is limited but present, helping veterinarians and regulators better distinguish EHDV from more serious foreign diseases like Foot and Mouth Disease. This reduces unnecessary quarantines and disruptions while supporting more informed disease surveillance, livestock management, and protection of the dairy industry.
The Impacts
A very small but not insignificant percentage of animals showed evidence of past EHDV infection. Only 0.6%, or 34 out of 5,698, had antibodies to EHDV. Of those animals, 31 were cattle and 3 were sheep. No goats were positive. Nineteen of the positive animals came from counties where large numbers of deer had died from EHDV or where EHDV was diagnosed in sick cattle. Overall, the results show that between 2022 and 2025, a small number of cattle and sheep in New York were exposed to EHDV. Frye presented these findings at multiple meetings for animal health and veterinary specialists.
This study is the first of its kind looking at prevalence of EHDV in cattle, sheep, and goats in the Northeastern US, and it is a very large sample size compared to other available data sets. Understanding the prevalence of EHDV in wild and domestic animals is important for managing natural ecosystems and for supporting the dairy industry.
Source : cornell.edu