Along The Rails

Florida doesn’t come to mind right off to outsiders as a hotbed of horse breeding or training, but the central part of the state–a lovely area called Ocala–is quite the incubator alley.  Quarterhorse racing takes place in other areas as well.  And it’s just as susceptible to the occasional equine epidemic.

There’s one spreading hot right now, and because I’ll never get the wording right myself, I am gonna use my blogger quoting privilege:

“So far 160 horses have been tested, with 18 of the animals showing positive results for equine piroplasmosis, a blood-borne disease transmitted by an exotic tick species or the use of common needles to inject multiple horses.

“All of the positive horses have been linked to the 7-year-old gelding quarter horse diagnosed with the disease on Aug. 13 and later euthanized.”

The disease seems to be spread by ticks… or needle sharing at bush (makeshift) tracks, where pick-up meets take place without much oversight.  The Agriculture Department has been called in to deal with the matter.

Be careful out there.

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