Kansas is fourth state to find viral disease in horses this year

The vesicular stomatitis virus has been discovered in horses in Butler County, making Kansas the fourth state to detect the disease in 2020, the Kansas Department of Agriculture said this week.

The virus was discovered Tuesday and the horses on three properties are being quarantined. A “number of other animals in the region” of south-central Kansas have shown symptoms of the virus and lab results are pending. The virus has also been found this year in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas, according to the KDOA.

The virus, which is rarely deadly, “is a viral disease that primarily affects horses and cattle and occasionally swine, sheep, goats, llamas, and alpacas,” the KDOA said in a news release, adding that the virus can be spread between animals with nose-to-nose contact. “Humans can also become infected with the disease when handling affected animals, resulting in flu-like symptoms, but this is a rare event.”

In horses, the virus usually manifests as a fever and blister-like lesions on the mouth, other areas of the face and hooves.

“Infected animals may refuse to eat and drink, which can lead to weight loss,” the agriculture department said. “Vesicular stomatitis can be painful for infected animals and costly to their owners.”

The virus, which is mainly transmitted by biting insects such as black flies, sand flies and midges, usually runs its course in five to seven days, though it can take the animal up to another week to recover from symptom.

Animals should be quarantined for at least 14 days after the last animal is diagnosed, the state said.

The KDOA said there are no USDA-approved vaccines and the infection likely means fewer states will be willing to import livestock from Kansas. Kansas was one of eight states to have reports of the virus in 2019.