CEMO Contagious Equine Metritis Organism, qPCR

If infection withequigenitalisis suspected in any mare, stallion or teaser on the basis of clinical signs, all breeding activities must cease immediately.

The affected horse(s) should be isolated and swabbed by the attending veterinary surgeon.

Arrange swabbing of any at risk horse.

Disinfect all equipment used for breeding procedures.

Inform all owners of mares booked to the stallion, including any which have already left the premises;

Inform people to whom semen from the stallion has been sent;

Arrange for one straw from every ejaculate of stored semen from infected and at risk stallions to be tested by a laboratory. If a straw from any ejaculate is infected, all straws from that ejaculate should be destroyed;

Any at risk pregnant mare must be foaled in isolation. The placenta must be incinerated. Foals born to these mares should be swabbed three times, at intervals of not less than seven days, before three months of age.

Any mares with an abnormal vaginal exudate, or returning to oestrus prematurely, should be investigated and managed as though infected withequigenitalisuntil results of laboratory testing prove otherwise.

If carriers ofequigenitalisare detected, the organism can be eliminated by treatment with systemic and/or local antibiotics combined with antiseptic washing of the sites of persistence in the mare and the stallion.