Equine Disease Communication Center Simplifies Disease Reporting

How the EDCC’s ability to provide real-time information helps the industry respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

The Equine Disease Communication Center (EDCC) in Lexington, Kentucky, was the brainchild of Nathaniel A. White II, DVM, DACVS, who was looking for a way to help horse owners protect their horses against the threat of infectious disease in North America.

The genesis of the EDCC formulated after an Equine Herpesvirus-Neurologic (EHV-1) outbreak at a horse show in Ogden, Utah, in May of 2011, which spread to impact horses in 19 states.

“That outbreak resulted in rapid spreading of misinformation and rumors,” Dr. White said. “There were around 400 shows in California that were closed or canceled because of the risk.”

And this wasn’t the first time he had seen distortions of the truth impact horse owners. In 2007, while Dr. White was the director of Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center, a teaching hospital in Leesburg, Virginia, he was faced with an equine herpesvirus outbreak which forced his hospital to close. Again, misinformation and confusion about the disease curtailed numerous horse events around the state.

But after the EHV-1 outbreak, Dr. White was asked to chair a task force for the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) to find solutions for future outbreaks. Simultaneously, Dr. White was collaborating with the American Horse Council and United States Department of Agriculture to create the National Equine Health Plan.

“We were discussing how the industry would respond to another outbreak,” White said. “We knew we needed a way to discuss what was going on in the industry so gossip doesn’t shut down places that don’t need to shut down.”

Working with other industry representatives, Dr. White led the formation of the EDCC, where he currently serves as director. Its mission is simple: to seek and report real-time information about infectious disease outbreaks and help prevent the spread of infectious disease in horses.

The evolution

The EDCC was first presented to the industry in October of 2013 at the United States Animal Health Association’s annual meeting, though Dr. White noted there were plenty of doubts that a national communication program could work.

But people wanted it to succeed. Funds were raised and people in the industry donated time and equipment to make it all possible, such as USEF donating a website.

In 2015, the USDA awarded a $75,000 Cooperative Agreement grant which provided two years of startup funding, allowing a communication manager position to be hired to manage alerts seven days per week.

“Our communication manager [Leslie Barlow] is responsible to receive the alerts, post them, send out emails, and helps with fundraising and articles on the history of different diseases.”

Additionally, EDCC works with Keith Kleine, AAEP’s director of industry relations, who helps with fundraising and is the link to the AAEP board of directors.

“We also have a new EDCC veterinarian, Krista Estell,” White said. “We have funding enough now so I don’t have to be on duty every day.”

To effectively track and manage the spread of infectious diseases, the EDCC compiles reports on cases and diseases submitted by state animal health officials and attending veterinarians. Veterinarians are urged to report all instances of confirmed infectious or vector-borne diseases, including outbreaks and even non-reportable cases.

“We’ve been recording alerts from mostly state veterinarians, but also practitioners of diseases, with the most important ones being horses that travel to and from places where exposures may spread,” White said. “We’ve seen several outbreaks, and you can see everything on the website.”

While the original communications to the EDCC was done by email, with information posted on websites by whoever was handling the incoming correspondence, eventually the system was designed so alerts would automatically be created for the website when a tangible threat came in. Dr. White believes AI will eventually make the process even easier and faster.

Today, EDCC, which is supported by donations from individuals, companies, associations and grants, provides accurate disease, biosecurity information and news on the website. This is made possible by the subject matter experts on the AAEP’s infectious disease committee, which reviews all disease information on the website.

In September of 2024, 98 alerts went out reporting on 114 confirmed cases. These included Contagious Equine Metritis, Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Equine Infectious Anemia, Pigeon Fever, Potomac Horse Fever, West Nile Virus and Strangles.

“The feedback we get is from surveys and word of mouth, so we know people are using it, and we’ve had nearly 2 million people come to the website since we started, most of those to the alert page,” White said. “One survey went out asking the question, ‘Has EDCC changed the management of your horses, and about 70% said ‘yes.’ So, we know people see value in this. The information people need is on the website.”

In addition to alerts, the EDCC website includes information on infectious diseases, biosecurity, vaccination and other important resources.

“I’ve always thought we should keep things simple and remember our goal of what we are trying to accomplish,” White said. “What we need is more state veterinarians to send in alerts and not all of them do. If we want to stay on top of these diseases and prevent spread, the communication has to be there.”

For more information, visit the Equine Disease Communication Center www.equinediseasecc.org, which is on a mission to improve the health and welfare of horses to help prevent and mitigate equine infectious disease.