ND mare quarantined to check for disease exposure

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- In a first for the state, a northwestern North Dakota mare has been quarantined to check for exposure to a highly contagious venereal disease found in horses, the state veterinarian says.

Dr. Susan Keller said the mare was artificially bred with semen from one of four Kentucky stallions that have been diagnosed with contagious equine metritis, or CEM. The disease causes infertility in mares and may cause spontaneous abortions. It can be treated with antibiotics and disinfectants without killing the horse.

Keller said Tuesday that she is not releasing the name of the owner because the case is still under investigation. The information about the mare—the first such case in North Dakota—came from Kentucky animal health officials who traced the semen from the stallions, she said.

“It’s hard to say whether this mare actually was exposed, but we’re going to take precautions anyway,” Keller said Tuesday.

The mare, bred around May 1, is pregnant, Keller said. The mare shows no sign of aborting and poses no risk to other horses, but three negative tests are required before the quarantine can be lifted, the veterinarian said.

All other horses on the premises have been quarantined and no other horses are allowed on or off the property, Keller said. She said Tuesday she did not know how many horses were on the property.

Keller said the organism that causes CEM was discovered Dec. 10, by veterinary pathologists at the University of Kentucky. Since then, officials said, three other stallions from the same place have tested positive for the disease.

Federal officials are tracing horses to owners in 24 states. Keller said about 160 mares were exposed to the four infected Kentucky stallions but no mares have tested positive for CEM so far.

The only two outbreaks of CEM reported earlier in the U.S. were in 1978 in Kentucky and in 1979 in Missouri, she said.

Keller said it could be weeks before the results of the North Dakota mare’s tests are known.

“We will go ahead and test her before she would be due to foal,” Keller said. “Because she’s safely in foal, we could be very lucky ... we’re probably the luckiest state out of the 24.”