LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With the Kentucky Derby around the corner, horses from across the world are coming to Kentucky. But with them can come communicable diseases.
Churchill Downs has a number of protocols in place to stop the spread of diseases, like herpes, among racehorses.
“Just as when you take a bunch of schoolchildren and you bring all the school children together, the sniffles, the sneezing, the coughs tend to go through a classroom at school," said William Farmer, equine medical director at Churchill Downs. "We see the same thing with horses."
In a racetrack like Churchill Downs, which can hold up to 1,400 horses, the animals are in close quarters, making it easier for viruses to spread.
"When you do have a herpes outbreak, it can certainly be devastating to a racetrack, because it is a communicable disease," Farmer said. "And we don't want to spread that disease to other places, because racehorses tend to travel a whole bunch between racetracks.”
That's why Rusty Ford, equine operations consultant for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said they're keeping an eye on cases happening in other parts of the county.
"We have been watching, with interest, some disease events up in Pennsylvania right now at a couple different racetracks up there," Ford said. "We've got restrictions imposed on those horses and ... we may look for testing of those horses before they're allowed entry onto a Kentucky racetrack."
Kentucky already requires horses to be vaccinated for the virus, and any horses coming into Churchill Downs are required to be examined by a veterinarian within the last 72 hours.
The racetrack also has three quarantine barns that any horses coming from out of the country are automatically placed in in case they have been exposed to a disease in another country.
The virus is similar to COVID-19, in that a horse could have it but not show any symptoms. So, Churchill Downs requires trainers to do daily health checks to stay on top of any possible cases.
“A lot of trainers take daily temperatures," Farmer said. "One of the first signs we see with herpes virus is a temperature."
Farmer said Churchill Downs hasn't had to quarantine because of a herpes outbreak since he started in 2019. And while there have been cases in Kentucky, state officials said they're usually able to contain and mitigate it quickly.
“I think people are definitely more vigilant, and we're just making sure that we dot all our Is cross all of our Ts," Farmer said. "But again, it's really the same before Derby and after Derby, because we just want to make sure [the horses are] as healthy as possible."
Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
