INTERVIEW BY XAVIER LIBBRECHT
PHOTOGRAPHY: COURTESY EQUITECHNIC

At the end of 2025, Equitechnic, a leading equine reproduction center in France (insemination, freezing, and semen storage), was hit by viral arteritis (EVA). Often, in these kinds of situations, a lack of transparency is the norm.

However, in this case, Marc Spalart, its director, took the opposite approach, managing the crisis as a responsible professional; that is to say, with complete transparency towards the relevant health authorities and his clients, in the best interests of the industry.
After two months of tireless effort, everything is back to normal. Here’s the story… For your information.
◆ When, how, and why did this outbreak of viral arteritis occur?
A stallion arrived at the center at the end of September carrying the virus in his respiratory tract, but his infection must have been so recent that he hadn’t yet produced enough antibodies to be detectable in the initial serological test. It was during the second blood test, 15 days later, that the stallion tested positive. Unfortunately, he’d had time to infect the other stallions through the air.
The clinical signs are very subtle and are not always indicative of viral arteritis. In this case, there was no fever, cough, or nasal discharge, only slight swelling of the limbs, a condition all breeders can experience during the winter or after a competition. When this occurs in a gelding or a mare, it can go completely unnoticed. However, when this happens to a stallion, the virus tends to lodge itself in the genital tract and without having any impact on its sporting career, it will reappear during health tests to produce semen.
◆ How did you manage the crisis?
There is currently no antiviral treatment on the market, so initially, we had to ‘wait’. We stopped production and halted all horse movements. The stallions tested negative very quickly in their respiratory tracts thanks to antibody production, and in less than a month the virus was no longer circulating, neither in their noses nor in their blood. The horses were therefore no longer contagious to other horses and could resume competition without any risk to their stables. Semen production was not affected.
There is a vaccine in the United States that is currently banned in Europe, and an ‘inactivated’ vaccine authorized in France but relatively expensive: over €300 per dose with a booster one month after the first injection, then at six months, and then annually. As a result,breeders hardly use it, and it is often out of stock...

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