Distemper outbreak kills wild horses at Herriman center

Federal wild-horse managers are suspending adoptions from their Herriman center and placing a quarantine on about 500 animals because of an equine-distemper outbreak. Eleven horses have died — some on their own and some from euthanasia after being badly stricken — and two- or three-dozen more show signs of the upper-respiratory infection, said Gus Warr, head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Utah wild-horse and burro program. An outbreak happens just about every year, Warr said Tuesday, but this one is unusual in the number of animals it is affecting at one time. The BLM is separating the sick horses and working to disinfect their areas, he said. The agency plans to monitor all the horses for 30 to 45 days to see if the outbreak has run its course before resuming adoptions...more

Sure hope BLM doesn't have a roll in managing Obamacare.