Laboratory tests have pinpointed the equine virus suspected of triggering an outbreak of a respiratory illness that has killed at least 95 captive wild horses in less than a week at a federal corral in Colorado, U.S. government officials said on Thursday.
Highlights
- Outbreak emerged April 23 at the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Corrals in Canon City, Colorado.
- Virus strain, an equine influenza designated “subtype H3N8,” is not uncommon in both wild and domestic horses.
- The outbreak is unrelated to an outbreak of a highly contagious bird flu striking wild birds and poultry across the United States in recent days.
- Most of the sickened horses had been transported from Rio Blanco County in Colorado, near the Utah state line, in an emergency roundup last fall.
- Smoke inhalation and extremely dusty conditions in the pens where the horses were kept may have left them especially susceptible to respiratory infection.