April 12, 2007 — According to posts by Fran Jurga in the Jurga Report blog here on EquiSearch.com, the Spanish Riding School has publicly announced that a Lipizzaner stallion at the Piber stud farm in Austria has tested positive for the equine venereal disease known as contagious equine metritis (CEM).

Once this horse’s infection was discovered, the entire herd was tested, and then the stallions in Vienna were tested as well. Over 100 horses owned by the SRS are believed to be CEM positive.

Oddly enough, today’s news from Vienna about the CEM outbreak comes on the 25th anniversary of the publication of an account in TIME Magazine about a disastrous equine herpes virus outbreak among the SRS Lipizzaners, which killed seven mares and 27 foals at the Piber stud farm. For details, visit The Jurga Report.