Foal Deaths Plague Ky. Horse Business
L E X I N G T O N, Ky., May 10 -- The mystery illnesskilling unborn foals could have a multimillion-dollar impact onKentucky horse country and weaken the horse-racing industry,already hampered by a shortage of mounts, experts said today.
One out of four or five mares in the nation's topthoroughbred breeding state has either miscarriedseveral-week-old fetuses or given birth to stillborn near-termfoals. On some horse farms, three out of four pregnancies areending without a live birth.
"The losses will be in the millions, maybe the hundreds ofmillions of dollars," said Frank Taylor, an owner of TaylorMade Farms near Nicholasville, Ky.
A team of Kentucky scientists has performed necropsies onsome of the 371 fetuses or dead foals delivered to a Lexingtonlaboratory to try to determine the source of the illness.
Speculation has focused on an unusually dry April thatdried out Kentucky's famed bluegrass and could have triggered atoxin-producing fungus outbreak.
'No Definitive Answer'
"There's no definitive answer," said breeder Art Zubrod atBrittany Farms in Versailles. "We lost five [foals] in aone-week period and I thought we were going to lose fivemore."
Zubrod lost one foal whose half brother sold for $365,000last year and said he has suffered at least $1.5 million inuninsured losses. He induced two mares to give birthprematurely, and those foals are sick but surviving.
Breeders were trying to limit pasture grazing and wereinstead trying to get their mares to eat an untried type offeed that is said to absorb the toxin. Some mare owners areshipping their animals out of state.
"Every year there are mares that lose foals but it has notbeen as pronounced as this year," said John Cooney of theJockey Club, which registers foals and tracks the industry.
A study of the problem estimated losses in Kentucky alonecould amount to $138 million if 20 percent of the expected cropof foals are lost, Cooney said. Since 70 percent ofKentucky-born thoroughbreds end up racing, the miscarriages andfoal deaths could result in an additional $35 million in losttraining, boarding and racing fees.
