A dead horse

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Mar 23, 2005 by Matt Moline Capital-Journal

EQUINE SALMONELLA

Symptoms in horses: Weight loss, dehydration, diarrhea, pasty stools

Preventive measures: Vaccinate and deworm animals as recommended by veterinarians; compost manure and hay removed from pens, stables and pastures

SOURCE: Kansas Animal Health Department

Horse ranch quarantined for salmonella

HOLTON --- An outbreak of equine salmonella that quarantined a rural Jackson County ranch last month may be linked to a pair of new horses introduced to the privately owned herd a year ago, Holton veterinarian Timothy Parks suggested this week.

The salmonella outbreak is believed to have killed as many as eight horses this winter belonging to Ron and Phyllis Morris, prompting a quarantine of the couple's herd last month by the Kansas Animal Health Department, authorities said.

"It was probably a healthy horse that came in 'shedding' some of the salmonella bacteria," Parks said Monday. "A lot of times these healthy animals' antibodies keep the salmonella in check, but through the buildup and concentration of bacteria, some of the older, weaker animals became more susceptible."

Kansas Livestock Commissioner George Teagarden imposed the quarantine order Feb. 15 on the Morrises' 53-animal herd, a few days after Parks reported to the agency results of a positive laboratory test for salmonella conducted on one of the couple's first equine victims. The tests were conducted at Kansas State University's veterinary medical center. None of the other dead horses has been tested for the presence of the bacteria, officials said.

The quarantine prohibits the Morrises from selling or removing any of the animals from the premises for at least six weeks after all physical symptoms have disappeared, said KAHD investigator Paul Grosdidier.

The agency routinely doesn't publicly announce herd quarantines. Grosdidier said that at any given time, about 30 percent of all horses will carry salmonella bacteria. It generally doesn't cause problems for the animal unless it suffers stress or another illness, he said.

Although some strains of salmonella are highly contagious to humans, the disease is generally spread only through direct contact with infected feces, authorities said.

"Like most everything, good sanitation will take care of most of these exposure problems, such as washing your hands before you eat, good sanitation practices such as that," Grosdidier said.

On a pre-quarantine inspection Feb. 14, Grosdidier said, a sewage lagoon area was fully closed off to the animals with a 6-foot fence, and the property's large pond contained no animal carcasses.

Grosdidier said the Morrises had been asked to perform an environmental cleanup of the property, including breaking up congealed mixtures of soggy manure, mud and hay, and to begin composting the mixture, which will have the effect of destroying salmonella bacteria via heat generated by natural decomposition.

Grosdidier said the Morrises also had been asked to deworm the remaining horses in the herd, a procedure Parks recommends all horse owners carry out on a regular basis.

The Morrises' son, Brett Morris, of Milan, Mo., has drained off five smaller stock ponds to reduce the environmental impact of mud and other organic debris that might have been incubating the salmonella in the Morrises' small water impoundments.

"There are no dead (horse) bodies in the ponds out here. I buried them all myself in the ground," Morris said. "The plain fact is that salmonella was found in only one test animal. The rest of the horses were all separated, and there were some older horses that were thinned. They can't tell me that all our horses died of salmonella."

Brett Morris said the surviving horses have remained symptom- free since the quarantine went into effect. He said he hoped the quarantine might be lifted in another two weeks.

Matt Moline can be reached at moline@networksplus.net.

Please see RANCH, Page 10A

Continued from Page 1A

Ranch: Owners' son says ponds are clean and horses remain symptom- free