During 2001 and 2002, central Kentucky horse farms suffered
an epidemic of early and late fetal losses called Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS) that resulted in loss of thousands of foals in utero and estimated economic loss of $336M. This disaster coincided with a massive regional outbreak of eastern tent caterpillars (ETC), and epidemiological surveys and more recent empirical studies strongly implicated exposure to ETC and/or their frass in MRLS. This paper briefly reviews MRLS and the ETC hypothesis, as well as recent research evaluating reduced-risk tactics for managing ETC in this environmentally-sensitive system.
Species 1: Lepidoptera Lasiocampidae Malacosoma americanum (eastern tent caterpillar)
Keywords: spinosad, Bacillus thuringiensis
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