Five wild Utah horses euthanized due to EIA – The Horse

The Utah state veterinarian has confirmed four horses with infectious anemia (EIA) of the horses. The horses were collected with a group of wild horses and auctioned in Uintah County. A mare and foal from the group were resold to a buyer in Kansas in Box Elder County the next day, which resulted in Coggins testing. The tests were positive. Eighteen other horses were abandoned; five were euthanized.

Horses that went through the auction on the same day were tracked and tested for EIA; all are negative and waiting for a 60 day retest. An animal that was transported to Colorado is being tested.

More horses from the feral domestic horse group were rounded up and three foals were positively confirmed and euthanized. The remaining tape is checked and tested.

About RRP

Equine infectious anemia is a viral disease that attacks the horse’s immune system. The virus is transmitted from an infected to an uninfected animal through the exchange of body fluids, often through blood-sucking insects such as horseflies. It can also be transmitted through the use of instruments or needles contaminated with blood.

A Coggins test will screen horses’ blood for antibodies that indicate the presence of the EIA virus. Most US states require horses to have a negative Coggins test in order to travel across state lines.

Once infected with EIA, an animal is infected for life and can be a reservoir for the spread of disease. Not all horses show symptoms of the disease, but those who do can have:

  • Progressive Loss of State;
  • Muscle weakness;
  • Poor endurance;
  • Fever;
  • Depression; and
  • Anemia.

EIA has no vaccine and no cure. A horse diagnosed with the disease dies, is euthanized, or must be placed in extremely strict quarantine conditions (at least 200 meters from unaffected equidae) for the rest of its life.

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