Farms.com Home   News

Veterinary Diagnostic Lab Confirms 10 West Nile Virus Cases

The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory known as WADDL [pronounced, “waddle”], has confirmed 10 cases of West Nile Fever in horses since August 9.

The laboratory, located within Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, tested only 38 horses since Jan. 1; a number far below their capacity for testing.  All 10 cases confirmed positive recently were in unvaccinated horses in Spokane, Lincoln, and Pend Oreille counties in Washington and Boundary County in northern Idaho.  All 10 also had neurological disease that occurs with West Nile encephalitis characterized by inflammation of the central nervous system.

The West Nile Fever cases reported here are unrelated to the Equine Herpes Virus-1 case confirmed by WADDL last week in a hospitalized horse at WSU’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.  The EHV-1 horse has since been humanely euthanized.

The exact reason for the spike in West Nile cases is unknown, however these most recent cases are located further north than detections in previous years.  Veterinarians in WADDL are urging horse owners to contact their veterinarians and seek their advice on vaccination and how to eliminate mosquitoes where they keep horses.

Source: wsu.edu


Trending Video

Evening Hay Feeding To Avoid The Heat!

Video: Evening Hay Feeding To Avoid The Heat!

Evening hay feeding to avoid the heat at Ewetopia Farms today! With the intense heat and humidity gripping our region of Canada, we’ve had to shift most of our sheep chores to the cooler evenings. In today’s episode of our sheep farming vlog, we take you through our evening feeding routine—what we lovingly call bedtime snacks—as the sheep finally get their appetites back after a long, sweltering day.