The Western College of Veterinary Medicine has stopped performing elective surgeries on horses after treating an animal with a confirmed case of the neurological strain of equine herpes virus June 18.
Dr. Chris Clark, assistant professor of large animal medicine at the college, said offsite procedures would still be performed.
He also said that while equine herpes is endemic in the horse population, the much more severe neurological strain is quite rare.
Efforts to trace where the animal came into contact with the disease are ongoing. The affected animal had apparently not been off the farm in quite some time.
Clark said the college was monitoring all horses that were in the clinic at the same time as the infected animal for signs of the disease. He said in-clinic elective procedures would resume as soon as they determined there was no risk of infection for any animals that come in.
