Horse 'Aids' fuels debate

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

A little-known viral disease terrorizing equine animals is heating up discussions among local and statewide horse owners, says County Extension educator Clark Montgomery, hampering the ability of county and state officials to resolve the issue.

Equine infectious anemia -- EIA -- has been pushed to the forefront of discussions by the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, county-level officials and horse owners across the state recently due to three outbreaks of the disease discovered in recent years, even prompting more than 250 Minnesota horse owners -- some driving hundreds of miles -- to attend a forum on the issue in January in Bemidji.

The issue seems simple at first. If a horse contracts EIA it can become violently ill, eventually dying, and pose a threat to any other horse with which it comes in contact. The threat of EIA is prompting state and local officials to call for regulations that would require testing of horses so infected ones can be eliminated.

So, why should such a simple issue -- a disease detected in only 40 to 50 horses a year in Minnesota -- attract 250 people to a forum in Bemidji in the winter?

First, Montgomery said, state officials would like to see the problem solved on a local level. And second, the personal relationship between owner and horse is making discussions concerning regulations on a local level difficult.

There are few federal and state regulations regarding EIA, he said, and none in sight in the near future that would end the debate. That leaves the decision making to the local level.

Montgomery said the state board has left the decision to regulate to county officials for varying reasons. Horses are owned by few people so they are not a large economic concern to the state -- such as the hog industry is -- and therefore there has been little incentive for the board to act.

But, Dr. Keith Friendshuh, assistant executive director of the Board of Animal Health, said the board would rather counties regulate the disease because horses in certain counties are at a higher risk than others, meaning a blanket policy is irrational. For instance, he said, horses in Beltrami and its surrounding counties are at risk more than horses in northeastern Minnesota counties because they are geographically low-lying swampy areas.

"If something is going to get done, the board needs to take a firmer stand on the issue. The board's feeling is that if counties want regulations, they will implement them. But county officials say 'If the board wants testing done we'll do it,'" Montgomery said. "If there's more leadership by the board, there will probably be more regulations put in place."

However Montgomery admits he ultimately would like to see the issue resolved locally as well, he said, because if the state passes legislation requiring testing, horse owners may be offended because it is one more law being "jammed down their throat."

"It's a horse owner problem," he said. "We ought to let the horse owners work it out."

What creates a dilemma is that whether to test for EIA at the Beltrami County Fair and other local horse exhibitions have people taking sids.

Some say the probability of a horse contracting EIA at such an exhibition is low because of the clean environment and horses are well attended. Others say that public horse events are the most logical place to test horses, and they view sending their horses to events where an EIA test is not required much like sending their kids to kindergarten where polio vaccinations are not required.

"Would you want your kids going to school if polio immunizations weren't required?" he said. "Now that may sound far-fetched, but some of the horse owners are really attached to their horses. They're like family members."

The most likely type of regulations to be developed would require a negative test to enter horses in county fairs or show them at exhibitions. Montgomery said any possible legislation would probably resemble current 4-H regulations in which a horse is not allowed to participate in a 4-H event if it has not been tested for EIA.

Being there is no prevention for the disease, and once contracted there is no cure for EIA either., testing for the disease and killing contaminated horses is the most logical answer to eradicating EIA, Montgomery said. But being horses are raised more as pets than as livestock, peoples' emotions are making the issue hard to resolve.

Whoever does it, Julie Sandstrom, owner of the Walker, Minn.,-based Sandy Hills Stables, would like to see something accomplished soon.

She said any horses brought to her facilities for breeding or boarding must test negative or be quarantined until they can be tested.

"Most good horse people ... if they care about their bones ... test. We want to do anything to stop the disease, even putting the horse down. It's only logical to test horses. It's part of this business," she said "I certainly wouldn't want to sell one that had it, and I certainly wouldn't want to buy one that had it.

"If you've ever watched a horse die of (EIA), it's a very slow, painful death. Usually pneumonia takes them in the end. They get weak, stop eating and are awful looking," she said. "Why would you want to watch that?"

And Sandstrom is not alone. According to a survey of 150 northern Minnesota horse owners conducted by the state board, about 85 percent also agreed that EIA tests should be required for horses participating in open horse shows, clinics, 4-H shows, organized trail rides and horse auctions.

The survey also showed that 63 percent of the owners found the few current EIA regulations "unclear," and 80 percent felt owners of horses should be required to test their horses in a "reasonable amount of time."

But despite the seemingly overwhelming support, Montgomery said unfortunately the debate has not run its course in Beltrami County yet, and it more than likely will continue to cause hard feelings until some regulation is passed, which he hopes is soon.

"This has gotten way out of proportion. If something were done," he said, "the situation would be put to rest. A lot of people are getting hurt over the issue."