FORT LUPTON - Another horse in Colorado has tested positive for a strain of deadly horse herpes known as EHV-1, or Equine Herpes Virus.
There are now three confirmed cases of the virus in Colorado. The state agriculture department said Tuesday that test results are pending on another nine showing signs of the virus in Colorado.
Kenny Platt of Fort Lupton had to euthanize one of his horses after it was confirmed to have EHV-1. Platt had brought some of his horses to the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championships in Ogden, Utah earlier this month. Platt says when he and the horses returned home to Colorado, symptoms started to show.
"When we got home, everything seemed just fine with the one horse that started showing symtpoms," Platt said. "Tuesday morning, he couldn't get up and his back legs almost wouldn't work."
After the horse was euthanized, Colorado State University performed a necropsy confirming the presence of the virus in Platt's horse. Two of his other horses started to show similar symptoms but are being treated at CSU and are expected to recover.
Colorado is now requiring permits for any horses being brought into the state because the neurological disease is highly contagious. At least 17 horses in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, California, Washington and Canada have been infected and at least three have died, including Platt's horse.
"This is a huge deal for anyone who owns horses and for anybody that shows horses," Platt said. "This is not just a Colorado problem or a problem with me or a problem for someone down the road. This is everyone's problem, everyone's responsibility."
The infected horses found in other states also attended the National Cutting Horse Association Western National Championships in Utah earlier this month. About 400 horses went to that event.
The disease poses no threat to humans, but it can easily spread among alpacas and llamas, in addition to horses.
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