The Mystery of Mad Horse Disease on Easter Island

Sunday 17 April 2011

This is a sad story, but it could have a happy ending. Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands on earth. In the 1860s horses and cows were introduced by missionaries. The few thousand people who live there now depend on the animals for transportation for food. However, recently some of the horses have become emaciated, slowly dying.

For the past twenty years the horses had been getting sick with what the islanders called Mad Horse Disease (aka Caballa Loco). No one knew where it came from or what caused it. He made a discovery – that the livers of horses had been poisoned. Then, a holiday visit to the island by Jonathan Arzt, a veterinary, led to a discovery which could mean a solution.

This film was directed, shot, written and edited by Laura J Boyd.

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