ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
A disabling parasitic disease has afflicted hundreds of horses in Virginia and has owners worrying it could become widespread in the state's $1 billion equine industry, veterinarians said Monday.
``It has owners really concerned, because a lot of horses are affected,'' said Dr. Michael Murray, an internal medicine specialist with Virginia Tech's Equine Medical Center in Leesburg.
About 40 percent of the state's 225,000 horses probably have been exposed to the parasite, Murray said, but it is unknown how many will get the neurological disease called equine protozoal myeloencephalitis, or EPM.
The parasite normally lives its life cycle by moving from wild birds to opossums and other small mammals. If a horse ingests contaminated feed or water, it can be infected if the parasite enters its brain and spine.
The infection is deadly about half of the time, but a horse cannot spread the disease to another horse. Symptoms vary from lameness to seizures.
More than 150 horse owners came to Ingleside Resort in Verona on Saturday night to learn about EPM, and Murray said there have been similar turnouts for EPM seminars in Northern Virginia.
``I feel like it is on the increase,'' said Dr. Don Crome of the Westwood Animal Hospital in Staunton. ``I have seen more in the last year and a half than in the past 10 years.''
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