LOUISVILLE — State figures show that horses are being shipped out of Kentucky at about twice the normal rate as owners react to an unknown illness causing widespread foal deaths and mare miscarriages.

        From May 1 through May 16, 1,723 horses left Kentucky. That compares with 1,539 for the entire month last year, said Rusty Ford, equine programs manager for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

        The numbers are based on health certificates signed by a veterinarian, a requirement for any horse leaving the state.

        Owners of pregnant mares have been taking them home early or shipping them temporarily out of Kentucky, where they had sent them for breeding, in hopes of protecting them from the mysterious disease causing the deaths.

        Horse van companies have been inundated with calls after word spread during Kentucky Derby weekend that large numbers of mares in Kentucky were aborting or delivering stillborn or sick foals.

        “We got a lot more — a lot, lot more calls,” said Keith Boyer, Lexington office manager for Brook Ledge Horse Transportation. “I'd say we were between 50 and 75 percent over normal. It was mostly mares and babies.”

        Mr. Boyer said business has been a little slower this week but still above average.

        Florida, the country's second-biggest producer of thoroughbred foals after Kentucky, has taken in 360 Kentucky horses. The state began requiring permits for Kentucky horses on May 8.

        “Many of these mares would have come back to Florida, anyway,” said Dr. Lee Coffman, state veterinarian and director of Florida's animal industry program. “They're just coming back early” after mating with a Kentucky stallion.

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