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October 5, 1998 Equine Placement Network, Inc. equineprotectionnetwork.com |
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New Holland, PA- On October 5, 1998 before District Justice Good, New Holland, PA, Timothy W. Ryan, Elizabethtown, KY entered a plea agreement of guilty on one charge of not having a Coggins Test on one of 12 horses brought into Pennsylvania from Kentucky. Mr Ryan paid a $100.00 fine,the minimum fine, and $34.50 in court costs. The charges on the other 11 horses were dropped.
On July 6, 1998 Trooper Burgis of the PA State Police in Lancaster arrested Mr. Ryan at the New Holland Sales Stables, New Holland, PA for not having the required Coggins Tests on the 12 horses he brought into Pennsylvania from Kentucky as required by PA law.
According to PA state law, Title 7. AGRICULTURE, Chapter 3, Health Requirements For Importation And Intrastate Transportation Of Animals, Subchapter D which refers to horses,
"3.102. Dangerous transmissible disease. Equine infectious anemia, commonly known as "swamp fever," and caused by a virus which is infectious in nature, is hereby considered by the Department (meaning the Department of Agriculture) to be a dangerous transmissible disease.
3.103. Agar gel immunodiffusion blood test. (a) Equidae imported into this Commonwealth for other than immediate slaughter shall be negative to an official agar gel immunodiffusion blood test (commonly called The Coggins Test), conducted by a Federally approved laboratory within 12 months prior to date of entry. A copy of the official test shall accompany the animal to its final destination. (b) Foals under 6 months of age, accompanied by dam with negative agar gel immunodiffusion test, do not require a negative test.
The horse auction in New Holland sells an average of 250 horses per week with horses being brought from several states. In the winter of 1996/97 a horse purchased from the sale tested Positive within a month of having passed through the sale. The horse was subsequently destroyed.
Positive horses must be destroyed or quarantined for life. The sale, unlike many horse sales, horse shows and all racetracks, does not require proof of a negative Coggins Test or health papers to enter a horse in the sale. Several of PA's neigboring states require horses to have negative Coggins Tests before the horse can be sold. In a 1996 USDA survey, EIA was cited by 24% of horse owners as the horse disease which concerned them the most.
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