Equine influenza in U.S. kills 102 wild horses

DENVER, the United States, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A highly contagious equine flu virus sweeping through a herd in Colorado has killed 102 horses, according to Federal officials.

They first announced the outbreak on Monday and said 57 horses had died of H3N8 equine influenza in the prior three days. And according to the latest situation report released by the agency Friday, the toll was at 102.

The wild horses, also called mustangs, were captured by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from Colorado rangeland after a huge wildfire last year and hauled to a federal holding facility on state prison grounds in Canon City, located three hours southwest of the state capital Denver.

According to the report, most of the dead mustangs were from the West Douglas range, in far western Colorado along the border with Utah.

"Post mortem examinations consistently found pneumonia characterized by severe pulmonary edema and hemorrhage," the report stated, adding about 40 to 60 percent of the West Douglas horses were showing signs of fever, nasal discharge and coughing, and about 20 percent of horses in other pens throughout the facility were showing similar symptoms.

Those horses might be particularly vulnerable to the influenza, because they were exposed last year to a wildfire that prompted their emergency roundup, the BLM's acting associate state director Ben Gruber told the local Colorado Sun.

Gruber said that the federal agency will "review operations" to prevent future outbreaks, calling the outbreak a "tragic outcome."

Equine influenza is a highly contagious respiratory disease with a high rate of transmission among horses and a short incubation time, Colorado Agriculture Department said on its official website Friday, adding the virus is spread through aerosols from coughing infected horses as well as through contact with contaminated materials, such as clothing or surfaces.

The facility on the grounds of the Colorado Department of Corrections was the new home for the 450 mustangs relocated last July and August, which joined hundreds of mustangs from a large-scale helicopter roundup last year in the Sand Wash Basin in far northwestern Colorado, along the border of Wyoming, the Sun said.

Mustang advocates are pointing to the deaths as a failure of the federal wild horse and burro program, which has plans to round up another 19,000 horses by next year, and have called on Colorado Governor Jared Polis to step in to help stop helicopter roundups and overcrowded holding pens, the article added.