Rhinopneumonia: no longer a problem

The Royal Dutch Horse Sport Federation (K.N.H.S.) has withdrawn all negative advice regarding travel and show events involving horses. In the past few days there have been no new reports of virus outbreaks and the potential of an epidemic seems to have passed.
Of course there are now voices shouting about the excessive precaution that the K.N.H.S. exercised, that it was all a nonsense and that the shows that did go ahead just prove that is was unnecessary. The other side of the coin is that had the K.N.H.S. not done anything and there had been an epidemic, then they would have been thoroughly castigated for inaction. As such an organisation, you always end up in the firing line one way or the other!
Personally I am glad that there was attention paid to the possibility of an epidemic – at least it woke people up to the dangers. In most cases, it is of little consequence; just as with you or me, it is nothing more than a cold which we shake off in a few days. The abortion variant is less pleasant albeit that only mares in foal are affected but the neurological variant is a scare for us all. That is the one we need to be aware of and keep out of our stables; that is the variant that everyone needs to be warned about – just to be sure.