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

Farm Wife Leaves Sheep Farmer To Fend For Himself!

Video: Farm Wife Leaves Sheep Farmer To Fend For Himself!

I officially left the farm today and abandoned Arnie to fend for himself on the sheep farm and in the kitchen. Watch as a sheep farmer copes with farm life minus the farm wife! You will see as he cooks two of his go-to meals, looks after the sheep dogs, plus lets the sheep out to the field and checks for tapeworms. He even takes you into the hayloft of the sheep barn to see where we used to store hay.