SUFFOLK, Va. — Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services confirmed that two horses in Suffolk have been euthanized following positive test results for Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
The two horses were stabled at different locations in Suffolk.
Both horses were tested for EEE after show acute neurological signs. The first horse tested positive for EEE on July 14 and the second horse tested positive on July 15.
EEE, sometimes called sleeping sickness, is a mosquito-borne illness that causes inflammation or swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms include impaired vision, aimless wandering, head pressing, circling, inability to swallow, irregular staggering gait, paralysis, convulsions and death.
Once a horse has been bitten by an infected mosquito, it may take three to ten days for signs of the disease to appear.
