Recently, both the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) and American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) updated their policies to provide competing members with guidelines for the use of Zimeta.

Samples taken from the dog’s mouth and nose all returned a ‘weak positive’ result for the virus. The Hong Kong authorities believe this finding may indicate the dog has a low level of infection, indicating a potential case of human-to-animal transmission of the virus. The dog has not shown any clinical signs of disease and is currently being held in quarantine.

Whether they go into practice or stay in academia, most veterinarians come to their careers because they love animals—but they may not have the skill set to build a practice or commercialize their innovations.

According to research done at UK, the disease will sometimes result in the loss of the foal, but other times may only show up as a change or series of changes in the placenta with no noticeable effect on the foal. Because the bacterial infection is limited to the placenta, the foal itself is not infected. The foal can be underweight at birth or born healthy with the only sign anything was amiss being the telltale lesions found on the placenta.

This discovery helps explain the popular “splashed white” pattern common to Paint Horses, and offers the opportunity to test horses for another white spotting pattern through an APHA partner laboratory.