Laboratory tests have pinpointed the equine virus suspected of triggering an outbreak of a respiratory illness that has killed at least 95 captive wild horses in less than a week at a federal corral in Colorado, U.S. government officials said on Thursday.
Results of polymerase chain reaction tests from two leading U.S. veterinary diagnostic labs detected the equine influenza virus in nasal and lung tissue samples taken from several horses, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said in a statement.
The outbreak emerged April 23 at the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Corrals in Canon City, Colorado, about 120 miles southwest of Denver, housing more than 2,500 wild mustangs rounded up from public range lands in the region. Most of the sickened horses had been transported from Rio Blanco County in Colorado, near the Utah state line, in an emergency roundup last fall following a wildfire in the area, BLM said.
The stricken horses suffered pneumonia-like symptoms characterized by fluid in their lungs, fever, coughing and labored breathing, according to the vet report.
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