The potential for widespread quarantine of horses across the American West is a possibility, due to the sale of horses who many have had contact with a horse from Colorado diagnosed with a cureless disease.
On Aug. 24, a gelding tested positive for equine infectious anemia (EIA), a virus that spreads via bloodsucking insects and has no cure. According to a Denver Post report re-published by the Fort Morgan (Colo.) Times, the EIA-positive horse may have had contact with 240 horses that were sold to people in 20 states while also himself being shipped to a buyer in Wyoming before test results confirmed the disease.
The hundreds of horses potentially affected may be subject to euthanisation or quarantine, however Colorado law prohibits the release of the name of the seller of the sick horse, thus muddying the waters for many who bought horses in the region and potentially exacerbating the spread of EIA.