The first reported case of CEM in the U.S. occurred in the 1970’s when a Thoroughbred stallion from England came to Lexington, Kentucky with the highly contagious disease. He bred numerous mares before breeders realized the problem, and it literally halted all breeding in that region. The Thoroughbred racing industry lost millions of dollars that year due to this outbreak.
So the mares and stallions leave the airport and arrive in specially sealed trailers at Rigbie Farm’s CEM quarantine which is their temporary home for either the next 32 days for stallions, or the next 15 – 18 days for mares, assuming all CEM tests are negative.
The mares have it a little easier than stallions. The veterinar- ian at Rigbie collects three rounds of vaginal cultures on day one, day four and then day seven, and each one is hand-car- ried to the University of Maryland College Park laboratory for testing. The results for the final culture take another seven days, and assuming no problems, the mare is released. In 20 years of testing mares, Sharon states that there has only been one mare that cultured positive for CEM at her facility.
The stallions, on the other hand, have a more rigorous schedule. Using live cover, these stallions are required to breed two of Rigbie’s test mares while there. Rigbie main- tains about 24 testing mares that hang around in lush pas- tures and are cycled through the testing process. Not a bad life for a mare!
In Europe , many stallions are never gelded even when not being used for breeding. So there’s a fair amount of older stallions that come through the quarantine that have never had the breeding experience, either with live cover or with artificial insemination. The same is most likely true for the younger stallions. According to Sharon, things can get very exciting for these non-breeding stallions, and they take spe- cial care in their handling methods to minimize this new excitement. Besides some regular exercise, for example, handlers make certain the stallions are test-bred in a differ-
Sharon Clark and Liz Collard of Rigbie Farm
ent location on the farm so that they don’t think it’s breeding time every time they exit the stall!
When the stallion first arrives, the veterinarian collects an ini- tial culture specimen, sends it to the lab at the University of Maryland, and waits the seven days for the CEM results. Culture alone is not the sole method of testing to determine if CEM is present. If the culture result is negative, the stallion is moved on to breeding two test mares via live cover. The stal- lion then waits while being cleaned and treated for the next five days. The two test mares will both be cultured on days three, six and nine, and then blood tested on days 15 and 20. Once all the results of these tests and cultures prove negative for CEM, the stallion can finally be released. If any one of these results are positive for CEM, then there is a period of five days of cleaning, washing and treating the stallion, then a wait of another 21 days, and then the whole cycle has to restart as though it’s day one.
Overall the experience at Rigbie is a positive one for the hors- es, with daily walking and exercise so that they aren’t stall bound the whole time there.
Settling In
We interviewed two professionals who have imported numer- ous horses from Europe. Laura Robertson from Laurel Ridge Sport Horses of Temecula, California has imported more than 30 hunters and jumpers, primarily from Germany and occa- sionally from France. Being an amateur, she travels and selects the horses personally, with the idea that if she can ride the horse, then other amateurs can as well, making them very salable after importation.
Laura says that by the time they arrive at her farm, none of them are “crazy”and most tend to be very quiet. Only one so far came down with “shipping sickness” with a slight fever and runny nose to which she gave extra time to settle in. Laura errs on the cautious side during the adjustment period. She makes certain her newly imported horses rest a few days and drink plenty of water for hydration. She then turns them out for a few days, and carefully watches them since they need time to acclimate to the dry California climate. She feeds them a lot of timothy and Bermuda hay, along with a lower protein grain, with lower sugars and higher fat, which is differ- ent than what they ate in Europe. She watches for stomach ulcers due to the travel and food adjustment.
After one week, they receive their first set of shots and about a month later, a booster. Teeth are examined by a horse den- tist since occasionally one arrives with wolf teeth to be removed. After the first week, Laura also sets up a “beauty day,”where the horses are primped with a bath, mane pulling, and clipping. In addition, the horses are reshod since their feet actually shrink in size due to the dry ground. Laura uses a variety of topical applications to keep their feet moist since
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