{"id":2360,"date":"2009-06-23T20:59:46","date_gmt":"2009-06-23T13:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/?p=2360"},"modified":"2009-06-23T20:59:46","modified_gmt":"2009-06-23T13:59:46","slug":"nation%e2%80%99s-first-case-of-vesicular-stomatitis-for-2009-detected-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/industry\/nation%e2%80%99s-first-case-of-vesicular-stomatitis-for-2009-detected-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Nation\u2019s First Case of Vesicular Stomatitis for 2009 Detected in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

News Release
\nTexas Animal Health Commission
\nBox l2966 * Austin, Texas 78711 * (800) 550-8242 * FAX (512) 719-0719
\nBob Hillman, DVM * Executive Director
\nFor info, contact Carla Everett, information officer, at 1-800-550-8242, ext. 710, or\u00a0ceverett@tahc.state.tx.us<\/a>
\nFor immediate release:<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s first case of vesicular stomatitis (VS) for 2009 has been detected in a horse in Starr County,
\nin far south Texas. VS is a sporadically occurring virus that is endemic to the U.S. Signs of the disease
\ninclude blisters, lesions and sloughing of the skin on the muzzles, tongue, teats and above the hooves of
\nsusceptible livestock, which include horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, deer and some other species of animals.
\n\u201cThe most recent outbreak was in 2006 limited to Wyoming only, where 17 horses and a dozen cattle on
\n13 premises were confirmed to have the virus,\u201d said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas\u2019 state veterinarian and head
\nof the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC), the state\u2019s livestock and poultry health regulatory
\nagency. \u201cTo prevent the spread or introduction of infection, many states and countries will place
\nadditional entry requirements or restrictions on the movement of animals from affected states, or portions
\nof the state. Call the state or country of destination before moving livestock, to ensure that all entry
\nrequirements can be met. Do not risk shipments being turned away, or worse, spreading disease and
\nfacing legal action by animal health authorities.\u201d
\n\u201cOften horses are the signal, or first, animals to be confirmed with vesicular stomatitis when the virus is
\nactive. If the blisters and lesions are seen in cattle, sheep, pigs or other cloven-hooved animals, our first
\nconcern is a possible introduction of foot-and-mouth disease, the most costly and destructive foreign
\nanimal disease. Horses are not susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease, but anytime blisters or unusual
\nsores are seen, animals should be examined by a veterinarian as soon as possible.\u201d
\n\u201cMove sick animals away from the remainder of the herd to protect against disease spread,\u201d urged Dr.
\nHillman. \u201cDo not move sick animals from the premises, and call your veterinarian or the nearest Texas
\nAnimal Health Commission area office, or the Austin headquarters at 800-550-8242. Laboratory testing
\nto confirm infection can be run at no charge to the livestock owner.
\n\u201cVesicular stomatitis is painful for affected animals, but usually, the lesions will heal within two weeks to
\na month. For some severe cases, owners may elect to have an infected animal euthanized, to put an
\nend to the suffering. In dairies, VS infection can lead to a substantial loss of production,\u201d said Dr.
\nHillman. Treatment of VS-infected animals consists of supportive care, and antibiotics may be needed to
\nprevent secondary infections in the open sores. Animal health officials in nearly all states, including
\nTexas, require VS-infected animals and their herd mates to be quarantined until at least 21 days after all
\nlesions have healed. A follow-up examination of the animals by the state veterinarian\u2019s office is required
\nprior to quarantine release.
\nVS outbreaks are extremely sporadic, and years may lapse between cases. Sand flies and black flies are
\nthought to play a role in the virus transmission, so controlling insects is important. In 2005, the VS
\noutbreak involved livestock on at least 445 premises in nine states, including Arizona, Colorado, Idaho,
\nMontana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming. In 2004, affected animals were detected in
\neight counties each in Texas and New Mexico and in 22 Colorado counties. Before the 2004 outbreak,
\nVS had been \u201csilent\u201d since 1998, when Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas had cases.
\nMore information about VS is available on the TAHC web site at:\u00a0http:\/\/www.tahc.state.tx.us<\/a>.
\n–30–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Release Texas Animal Health Commission Box l2966 * Austin, Texas 78711 * (800) 550-8242 * FAX (512) 719-0719 Bob Hillman, DVM * Executive Director For info, contact Carla Everett, information officer, at 1-800-550-8242, ext. 710, or\u00a0ceverett@tahc.state.tx.us For immediate release: The nation\u2019s first case of vesicular stomatitis (VS) for 2009 has been detected in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,27,14,31,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disease-outbrake","category-government","category-industry","category-veterinary-medicine","category-watching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2360\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}