Report: Assiniboia Downs is under 45-day anemia quarantine

Assiniboia Downs is under a quarantine after the track discovered that a horse on the premises was carrying equine infectious anemia.

The quarantine will last for a 45-day period according to a report from the Winnipeg Free Press.

After the horse was discovered to be carrying EIA, all other horses on the grounds were subjected to a Coggins test, which reveals whether a horse is infected with EIA. According to the report, all of the horses at Assiniboia tested negative. There will be a follow-up round of Coggins testing on Friday.

Though horses at Assiniboia cannot travel between tracks during the quarantine, they can continue to race and train as long as Coggins tests continue to come back negative.

A negative Coggins test is commonly required to travel between racetracks in order to prevent the spread of EIA. The disease can be fatal and once a horse is infected they carry the disease for the rest of their lives. The horse who was carrying the virus was unnamed in the report, though Winnipeg Free Press noted that the horse had been humanely euthanized.

“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Assiniboia Downs chief executive officer Darren Dunn told Winnipeg Free Press. “But it shows our protocols that we have in place work…We follow the direction of the federal regulatory body that was involved. It’s just a very defined process to follow, which hasn’t been difficult. With the timely response that we had, this was controlled very quickly.”