The FEI Veterinary Department would like to alert the equestrian community to an Equine Herpes Virus-1 (EHV-1) neurological outbreak in France.
The outbreak is linked to a national jumping event that took place in Le Mans on November 1–3, 2024 and as of November 20 has resulted in fatalities and cases in three different French departments.
An FEI event took place at the same venue in the following week (November 8-11, 2024). The FEI horses were housed in different stables than the horses competing in the national event and there were no direct contacts between the national and FEI horses at Le Mans.
EHV-1 is an air-borne disease that can be transmitted up to five metres via coughing, but also through direct contact, via people and shared equipment. It can cause respiratory and neurological signs, abortion in pregnant mares and death of young foals.
However, as this disease is easily transmitted, contact between horses must be kept to the absolute minimum and we therefore strongly recommend that you should not participate in any training events, breeding activities etc. with your horses.
In response to the outbreak, we request that our community remains vigilant and monitors the health of their horses carefully, for clinical signs of infectious disease. Further information relating to EHV-1 can be found on the EHV-1 hub.
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