| Summary: | Equid Herpesvirus Myeloencephalopathy (EHM) is a multifactorial disease following an EHV-1 infection in Equidae. We investigated a total of 589 horses on 13 premises in Europe in search of risk factors for the development of EHM. We found that fever (<i>p</i> < 0.001), increasing age (<i>p</i> = 0.032), and female sex (<i>p</i> = 0.042) were risk factors for EHM in a logistic mixed model. Some breeds had a decreased risk to develop EHM compared to others (Shetland and Welsh ponies; <i>p</i> = 0.017; <i>p</i> = 0.031), and fewer EHV-1-vaccinated horses were affected by EHM compared to unvaccinated horses (<i>p</i> = 0.02). Data evaluation was complex due to high variability between outbreaks with regards to construction and environment; viral characteristics and the virus’s transmissibility were affected by operational management. This study confirms earlier suspected host-specific risk factors, and our data support the benefit of high vaccine coverage at high-traffic boarding facilities.
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