The state veterinarian with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Dr. Richard Wilkes, began lifting equine herpes virus-1 quarantines yesterday. On March 6, he released a farm in Middleburg and one farm each in Leesburg and Casanova on March 7.

While no horses on the farms ever showed any sign of illness, the horses on the three farms had possibly come into contact with an EHV-1 infected horse at the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg. After additional testing over the weekend returned negative results, Wilkes lifted the quarantine.

Currently, seven premises in four counties in Virginia remain under quarantine, three of which are the EMC, Foot Stool Farm (Bluemont) and Lynfield Farm (Hillsboro).  There are currently two horses testing positive at the EMC, and veterinarians there are waiting for test results on one more horse with neurological symptoms.  There is one horse at Foot Stool Farm and another at Lynfield Farm that have tested positive.  The VDACS is awaiting test results on additional farms, including the Marine Corps Base (Quantico).

As of yet, Wilkes has not cancelled public sales or auctions for this weekend, but he does advise that a “common sense approach” and good bio-security practices be implemented. There are no travel restrictions on horses in Virginia outside of quarantined premises.