In April 2015, a police horse from the city of Vitoria, located over 500 kilometres from Rio, was diagnosed with glanders. This horse had left the Army Equestrian School in Deodoro site of the Olympic Equestrian venue in November, 2014, having previously tested negative to glanders three times. As this horse had resided in the army stables six months previously, the State of Rio de Janeiro Agriculture Department tested all 141 horses that had also been resident in these stables as a precaution. One horse tested positive to glanders at the end of June, despite displaying no clinical signs of the disease. Test results from a second horse were inconclusive. Both these horses were immediately isolated and removed to a Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MAPA) quarantine facility in Sao Paolo, 684 km from Rio.

As a precaution, all army horses in the Deodoro neighbourhood continue to undergo further testing and samples are being sent to both the laboratory in Brazil and the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) laboratory in Germany. MAPA is confident that there is no threat to the horses that will compete in the “Aquece Rio” Test Event, August 6-9, 2015.

What is glanders?

Glanders is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia mallei in horses, donkeys, and mules and is highly contagious in equines in close contact. The most common source of infection is ingestion of contaminated food or water. Other sources of infection include aerosol transmission (over very limited distances, unlike the flu) and shared equipment, e.g. grooming supplies, tack, etc. Glanders bacteria can also enter the body through skin lesions/abrasions or mucosa.

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