The blood test must be a complement fixation test or a serum neutralization test. It is recommended that anyone wishing to ship a horse into Kentucky from the states of Colorado, California, Nevada or Utah check with the Kentucky state veterinarian's office in advance. Any horses that arrive in California from Arizona and New Mexico must have a negative test for VS before they can enter the enclosure of a racetrack or California Horse Racing Board approved training center. This requirement for testing applies only for entry to the racetracks or training centers. However, the disease rarely seems to spread from an infected premises to the adjoining premises but tends instead to be sporadic.
Cases predominantly occur in close proximity to water ways.
Animals that have had little or no fly control or were stressed or in poor condition were more likely to show clinical signs of Vesicular Stomatitis. While healthy animals were exposed to VSV, they did not demonstrate vesicular symptoms, even though they did have an immune response to the virus exposure. International movement restrictions have also been imposed. Canada will not accept horses from Arizona or New Mexico but requires no additional testing or certification for horses from other countries. The horse has not been in contact with livestock which have been resident in infected holdings in the previous 60 days.