Agricultural News
Vesicular Stomatitis Confirmed in Colorado, State Vet's Office Warns Livestock Owners to be on Alert
Fri, 05 Jul 2019 12:06:11 CDT
Colorado is the newest state to confirm a case of Vesicular Stomatitis in 2019. Cases of this viral disease on two premises have already been confirmed in Weld County, just west of Rocky Mountain National Park which also borders Wyoming to the north. Colorado now joins New Mexico and Texas as affected states.
Colorado's State Veterinarian has warned that this virus circulates year-round in southern Mexico and Central America. He explains that only in certain years when the climatic and ecological factors are ripe do the insect populations that are vectors move northward along the waterways and across the border to us. As the water starts to move throughout the southwest, so too do the vectors along our waterways. USDA is reportedly attempting to get samples of some of the recent Indiana strain lineages from Mexico to confirm that one of their viruses is the same as ones currently showing up in the U.S.
"If that is true, and I think there is certainly a lot of truth to it, then with all the rain and weird weather we've had in Oklahoma recently it's certainly possible that some of the vectors could make their way to our state," stated Oklahoma State Veterinarian Rod Hall in an alert issued Friday, July 5th.
So far, Hall says that all cases have been in horses, but in 2015 Nebraska and other states had large outbreaks in cattle that had to be differentiated from Foot and Mouth Disease. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food & Forestry is requesting that anyone who discovers suspicious lesions on their livestock to contact and report it with the State Veterinarian's Office.
For more information about Vesicular Stomatitis, click here.
Source - Oklahoma State Veterinarian's Office
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