CANON CITY, Colo. — An unknown but highly contagious disease has killed dozens of horses at a wild horse facility south of Denver, authorities said.
In a news release, the Bureau of Land Management said 85 wild horses have died since the outbreak began Saturday.
The facility in Cañon City, located about 115 miles south of Denver, has been voluntarily quarantined, KUSA-TV reported. Local, state and federal officials are trying to determine the exact cause of the animals’ deaths, the Bureau of Land Management said in its release.
At least 85 wild horses have died from an “unknown yet highly contagious” disease at a facility in Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management said.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 28, 2022
It’s the second time in recent weeks that the bureau closed a horse facility because of widespread illness.https://t.co/AyYx5cyAVI
There are currently 2,550 horses at the Cañon City facility, according to the agency.
The bureau, which is in charge of caring for the nation’s wild horses, said in a news release that 57 horses had died since the outbreak began. By Wednesday evening, 28 more deaths were recorded, The New York Times reported.
“We are working with local, state and federal officials to determine what is impacting horses in the facility and how we can respond as effectively as possible,” Stephen Leonard, the Bureau of Land Management’s Colorado wild horse and burro program manager, said in a statement.
In late March, a facility in Wyoming was closed and an adoption event for wild horses was postponed because some animals developed a bacterial infection similar to strep throat, according to the Times.
Carol Walker, a wild horse advocate, told KUSA she was concerned to hear about the horses’ deaths. She adopted a young horse named Helios from the facility last fall.
“I know and care about those horses, and I don’t want to see them die,” Walker told the television station.
Leonard told KUSA that a private veterinarian, federal veterinarian and experts from Colorado State University and the University of California at Davis were helping investigate and manage the outbreak.
“We definitely can understand the disappointment, the sadness and in some cases the anger from people out there over having an outbreak like this at a wild horse facility,” Leonard told the television station. “We’re doing everything that we can from a veterinary standpoint. (We’re doing) what we can to isolate the horses and we’ve voluntarily quarantined the entire facility.”
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