Revised:  11/12/2009

American Horse Council Press Release   February 25, 2009

Equine Piroplasmosis Eradicated From Florida, Canadian Restrictions Lifted

     The Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced that the last premises that was determined to have horses infected with Equine Piroplasmosis (EP) has now been released from quarantine, concluding the disease outbreak investigation.

     The disease investigation began in August 2008 when a horse was diagnosed with EP, a blood-borne parasitic disease of horses that is primarily transmitted by ticks or contaminated needles. EP is a foreign animal disease that the U.S. has been free of since the 1980s, until this outbreak.

     During the disease investigation, 25 premises were quarantined and 201 horses were tested for the disease. Out of the 201 tested horses, a total of 20 horses on 7 premises tested positive for EP, although the majority of the horses did not show any symptoms. Currently no horses testing positive for the disease remain in Florida.

     All premises have now been released from quarantine, having met the requirements that all horses must test negative for EP, no exotic ticks are found on the premises, and no domestic ticks determined to be infected with the EP organism are found. Despite extensive tick surveillance, no ticks that carried the disease were found, concluding that the disease was spread due to management practices through contaminated needles or blood transfusion rather than natural transmission via ticks.

     Now that the last quarantine has been released, Florida and the U.S. are considered free of the EP disease.

     Since being notified of the conclusion of this disease investigation, Canada has released all additional export requirements related to EP for horses from Florida, which were the only increased export requirements in place because of this EP outbreak.