With Mysore`s and Bangalore`s preliminary ELISA test throwing up a positive for glanders, the real verdict now rests with the National Research Centre for Equines (NRCE), Hisar, the only laboratory in India authorised to perform the OIE-validated Complement Fixation Test (CFT). This is the international gold-standard test for glanders, and only a CFT result can officially confirm or rule out the disease.

Regional laboratories rely on ELISA, which is faster but not recognised by the OIE for definitive diagnosis. ELISA can flag suspicious or reactive samples, but it does not carry the authority to declare an outbreak. That responsibility lies solely with NRCE and its CFT protocols.

The samples from Mysore and Bangalore are now with NRCE, and the racing fraternity is in a tense wait. Until the OIE-validated test at Hisar reports back, no official outbreak can be declared and the future of the season hangs on what those results reveal.

For now, racing in the south is holding its breath, hoping this ends as a false alarm rather than another hammer blow to a sport already staggering under crisis.