SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — Five horses at an undisclosed facility in Orange County were reported by the California Department of Food and Agriculture last week as confirmed cases of the neuropathic strain of the Equine Herpes Virus-1, the same virus that eight months earlier was responsible for horse deaths and a widespread quarantine after a Utah cutting horse event.

No euthanizations of horses have been announced in last week’s cases by the CDFA, which reported the first case on Wednesday, Jan. 11, of a gelding that had been isolated, quarantined and placed under veterinary care. The location was not specified, other than describing it as a “large multi-discipline facility” that had been quarantined with no movement of horses on or off the property.

Other potentially exposed horses on the premises were monitored, and a full epidemiologic investigation at the affected premises was initiated by the CDFA Animal Health Branch.

The next day, the CDFA reported two additional cases, followed by a subsequent report 24 hours later that an additional two horses with the virus were confirmed, bringing the total to five.

A Confirmed Case is described as a horse that displays compatible clinical signs and also has a positive laboratory diagnostic test for the neuropathogenic strain of EHV-1. Clinical signs include fever, nasal discharge, ataxia, hind end weakness, diminished tail tone, and/or recumbency. Any horse that has been in close contact with a confirmed case of EHV-1 within the previous 14 days is classified as an “exposed horse.”