Heather Davis at Thunder Acres Farms in Southwest Florida is on high alert as authorities monitor an outbreak of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1). According to the Equine Disease Communication Center, this virus is causing concern among horse owners.<\/p>\n
“We’re just concerned about our horses’ health,” said Heather Davis.<\/p>\n
The virus’s symptoms appear quickly and are difficult to combat once they manifest.<\/p>\n
“Symptoms come on quickly, and once they come on, it’s really hard to combat the virus,” said Davis.<\/p>\n
As of now, there have been no reported cases of EHV-1 in Florida, and Davis’s horses remain healthy. However, she remains vigilant, watching for any warning signs.<\/p>\n
“We monitor their breathing, sweating, how they\u2019re walking, just those kinds of things to make sure they\u2019re healthy,” said Davis.<\/p>\n
Nearby, a local lab is researching ways to support horse health as the virus spreads in the western United States.<\/p>\n
“EHV-1 is a fast-acting neurologic virus\u2026 and this strain is more aggressive, and they\u2019re having a harder time treating it,” said Callie, a researcher at the lab.<\/p>\n
Brian Dickerson, CEO of the lab, emphasized the importance of maintaining horse immunity, especially during this time of year.<\/p>\n
“Anybody with horses in Southwest Florida need to be making sure their horse has a strong immunity for all the horses coming down from up north,” said Dickerson.<\/p>\n
The lab is developing supplements to help keep horses like Davis’s healthy.<\/p>\n
“We grow specific plants and extract those botanicals and the flavonoids from those plants,” said Dickerson. “And we’ve got great examples of it helping horses in the past.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heather Davis at Thunder Acres Farms in Southwest Florida is on high alert as authorities monitor an outbreak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36922,36923,36924,36921,28,30,29,36925,1521,4571,36926],"class_list":{"0":"post-61212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ehv","9":"tag-ehv-1","10":"tag-equine-disease-communication-center","11":"tag-equine-herpesvirus","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-florida-headlines","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-researcher-at-the-lab","16":"tag-southwest-florida","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-western-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}