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Topic:Animal Health
Animal Health encompasses a broad range of topics focused on maintaining and improving the well-being of equine species. This field addresses various aspects of horse care, including disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of health conditions. Key areas of interest include equine nutrition, vaccination protocols, parasite control, dental care, and the management of chronic conditions such as laminitis and colic. Additionally, animal health research in horses investigates the impact of exercise and training on physical health, the role of genetics in disease susceptibility, and the development of new therapeutic approaches. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the latest advancements, challenges, and best practices in preserving and enhancing the health of horses.
Measurement of C-peptide concentrations and responses to somatostatin, glucose infusion, and insulin resistance in horses. Hyperinsulinaemia is detected in horses with insulin resistance (IR) and has previously been attributed to increased pancreatic insulin secretion. Connecting peptide (C-peptide) can be measured to assess pancreatic function because it is secreted in equimolar amounts with insulin and does not undergo hepatic clearance. Objective: A human double antibody radioimmunoassay (RIA) detects C-peptide in equine serum and concentrations would reflect responses to different stimuli and conditions. Methods: A validation procedure was performed to assess the RIA. Six mature mares were selected and somatos...
Isolation and cultivation of equine corneal keratocytes, fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. To establish an in vitro model for the investigation of equine corneal wound healing. To accomplish this goal, a protocol to isolate and culture equine corneal keratocytes, fibroblasts and myofibroblasts was developed. ANIMAL MATERIAL: Equine corneal buttons were aseptically harvested from healthy research horses undergoing humane euthanasia for reasons unrelated to this study. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy was performed prior to euthanasia by a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist to ensure that all samples were harvested from horses free of anterior segment disease. Methods: Equine corneal s...
Gene-based vaccines: Recent developments. Gene-based vaccines are under development for a broad variety of applications, ranging from vaccines to immunotherapies for infectious diseases, cancer, autoimmune diseases and allergy. In addition, following the licensing of DNA vaccines for use in fish and horses, and DNA immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer in dogs, several veterinary uses of vaccines have been demonstrated for species ranging from fish and shrimp to cattle and horses. A variety of publications describing preclinical and clinical studies of the technologies used to increase the potency of gene-based vaccines, and resea...
Clinical update on the use of mesenchymal stem cells in equine orthopaedics. Stem cells have received much attention in recent times because of their potential to improve healing of othropaedic problems. This manuscript presents the genesis, issues and current state of stem cell treatment in equine medicine. Current literature supports the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for treatment of orthopaedic problems.
ELISA-seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in draught horses in Greater Cairo, Egypt. Toxoplasma gondii is one of the important zoonotic parasites of worldwide. In this paper the seroprevalence of T. gondii in draught horses (3-15 years) including 90 males and 10 females in the first half of the year 2009 was studied. The result showed that the overall ELISA-T. gondii antibodies were 25% of the horses in Greater Cairo, 50% (females) and 22.2% (males).
Plasma disposition and fecal elimination of doramectin after oral or intramuscular administration in horses. A study was done to compare plasma disposition kinetics and the fecal elimination profile of doramectin (DRM) after oral or intramuscular (IM) administration in horses. Ten clinically healthy horses, 328-502 kg body weight (bw), were assigned to 2 experimental groups of 5 horses each. Group 1 was treated with an oral dose of 0.2 mg DRM/kg bw, while Group 2 was treated with 0.2 mg DRM/kg bw by IM route. Blood and fecal samples were collected at different times between 0.5h and 60 days post-treatment. After plasma and fecal drug extraction and derivatization, samples were analysed by high perfor...
An unexpected advantage of whiteness in horses: the most horsefly-proof horse has a depolarizing white coat. White horses frequently suffer from malign skin cancer and visual deficiencies owing to their high sensitivity to the ultraviolet solar radiation. Furthermore, in the wild, white horses suffer a larger predation risk than dark individuals because they can more easily be detected. In spite of their greater vulnerability, white horses have been highly appreciated for centuries owing to their natural rarity. Here, we show that blood-sucking tabanid flies, known to transmit disease agents to mammals, are less attracted to white than dark horses. We also demonstrate that tabanids use reflected pola...
An inactivated Vero cell-grown Japanese encephalitis vaccine formulated with Advax, a novel inulin-based adjuvant, induces protective neutralizing antibody against homologous and heterologous flaviviruses. Advax is a polysaccharide-based adjuvant that potently stimulates vaccine immunogenicity without the increased reactogenicity seen with other adjuvants. This study investigated the immunogenicity of a novel Advax-adjuvanted Vero cell culture candidate vaccine against Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) in mice and horses. The results showed that, in mice, a two-immunization, low-dose (50 ng JEV antigen) regimen with adjuvanted vaccine produced solid neutralizing immunity comparable to that elicited with live ChimeriVax-JE immunization and superior to that elicited with tenfold higher doses of a ...
Effect of diet on plasma tryptophan and serotonin in trained mares and geldings. Concentrations of tryptophan (TRP) and serotonin (5-HT) in plasma were measured in 36 moderately trained Dutch warmblood horses after eight weeks on a high fibre (n=18) or high starch (n=18) diet. Samples were taken three hours after feeding, when the horse was at rest, either at 11.00 or 14.00 hours. Plasma 5-HT and pH were significantly higher in horses fed a high fibre diet than those fed a high starch diet (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively), and significantly higher levels of TRP were found in mares than geldings (P<0.05). Plasma 5-HT may therefore be a good marker of serotonergic activity....
Prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus colonization in horses in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. This study estimated the prevalence of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in nasal swabs of 458 horses in western Canada. The rate of colonization was 1.3% +/- 5.84% [95% confidence interval (CI)], a rate similar to those reported elsewhere. Colonization tended to be transient and seemed unrelated to stress or administration of antimicrobials. Five of the 6 isolates were Canadian epidemic MRSA-5, a human clone that appears to predominate in horses in North America. The other isolate was spa type 539 (t034), a sequence type 398 strain, and this is the first report of this clone ...
Squamous cell carcinoma and suspect peripheral nerve sheath tumor in a 10-year-old Paint horse. A round mass 4 cm in diameter was present on the proximal rostro-lateral border of the right pinna of a 10-year-old, gelded, Paint horse. A preliminary histopathological diagnosis of a potential squamous cell carcinoma and peripheral nerve sheath tumor was made, and the lesion was resected at the base of the lateral edge of the ear. Une masse ronde de 4 cm de diamètre était présente sur le bord rostrolatéral proximal du pavillon de l’oreille droite d’un Paint horse castré âgé de 10 ans. Un diagnostic histopathologique préliminaire d’un carcinome squameux et d’une tumeur de la ...
Effect of treatment with a topical ophthalmic preparation of 1% nalbuphine solution on corneal sensitivity in clinically normal horses. To assess the effect of treatment with a topical ophthalmic preparation of 1.2% nalbuphine solution on corneal sensitivity in clinically normal horses. Methods: 8 horses. Methods: Baseline corneal touch threshold (CTT) was measured (defined as the mean filament length [mm] at which a consistent blink response was elicited) for both eyes of each horse by use of a Cochet-Bonnet aesthesiometer. Subsequently, 0.2 mL of 1.2% nalbuphine solution was instilled in 1 randomly selected eye of each horse, and 0.2 mL of artificial tears solution was instilled in the contralateral eye (control treatment). ...
Fecal egg counts after anthelmintic administration to aged horses and horses with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction. To determine effects of pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (Cushing's disease) and age on fecal egg count and time to egg reappearance after anthelmintic treatment in horses residing in similar environments. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: 29 healthy horses (4 to 35 years old) and 13 horses with PPID (13 to 33 years old). Methods: Fecal egg counts were performed by use of a modified Wisconsin flotation method at 2-week intervals before and after ivermectin treatment. Results: Horses with PPID had higher fecal egg counts before and 8, 10, and 12 weeks after ivermectin treatment, com...
Detection of three distinct genetic lineages in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates from animals and veterinary personnel. This study involved the phenotypic and molecular characterization of a population of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from animals and from veterinary personnel in Ireland. Isolates from 77 animals (dogs, n=44; cats, n=4; horses, n=29) and from 28 veterinary personnel were characterized using their antimicrobial resistance profiles and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns. In addition, a representative number of these isolates (n=52) were further analysed using spa-typing techniques. The results obtained identified the presence of three distinct clonal complexes, CC5, ...
Reductive nitrosylation of ferric cyanide horse heart myoglobin is limited by cyanide dissociation. Cyanide binds to ferric heme-proteins with a very high affinity, reflecting the very low dissociation rate constant (k(off)). Since no techniques are available to estimate k(off), we report herewith a method to determine k(off) based on the irreversible reductive nitrosylation reaction to trap ferric myoglobin (Mb(III)). The k(off) value for cyanide dissociation from ferric cyanide horse heart myoglobin (Mb(III)-cyanide) was determined at pH 9.2 and 20.0 degrees C. Mixing Mb(III)-cyanide and NO solutions brings about absorption spectral changes reflecting the disappearance of Mb(III)-cyanide w...
Isolation and genetic characterization of H3N8 equine influenza virus from donkeys in China. During the 2007 outbreak of equine influenza (EIV) in China, an influenza virus designated A/donkey/Xinjiang/5/2007 (donkey/Xinjiang/2007) was isolated from a symptomatic donkey in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. To analyze the genetic evolution of the new isolate, the hemagglutinin (HA) gene of donkey/Xinjiang/2007 was amplified and sequenced. Sequence alignment, prediction of glycosylation sites and phylogenetic analysis of the HA1 protein of donkey/Xinjiang/2007 showed most similarity to the Florida sublineage clade 2 of the American lineage of equine influenza viruses. The HA1 seq...
The prevalence of cardiac murmurs among standardbred racehorses presented with poor performance. Seven hundreds fifty-two Standardbreds, with poor performance, underwent a thorough diagnostic protocol. In 157 out of 233 horses, with cardiac murmurs, echocardiography and color flow Doppler (CFD) mapping were performed. Murmur of tricuspid valve regurgitation was identified in 185 horses, while murmurs of mitral (23), aortic (9) and pulmonary (3) valve regurgitations were detected less frequently. Functional systolic, functional pre-systolic, and functional early diastolic murmurs were identified in 10, 11 and 2 horses. Two-dimensional and M-mode echocardiography showed no abnormality in 14...
Species specific thyroid signal transduction: conserved physiology, divergent mechanisms. In the literature, data obtained in signal transduction from various species thyroids and cells lines are often integrated in a common model. We investigate qualitatively and systematically, using the same protocol, the control by TSH of the two main functions of the thyrocytes, the synthesis and the secretion of thyroid hormones. In all species investigated, the TSH receptor activates both. In some species, including humans, rats and mice, the TSH receptor activates both the cAMP and phospholipase C-PIP2 cascades, in others (e.g. dog) it only stimulates the first. The cAMP pathway activates t...
Spatial niche competition among helminth parasites in horse’s large intestine. The spatial distribution of large intestinal helminth parasites of 50 horses was studied. Both adult and mucosal larval stages were examined and counted within the ventral colon, dorsal colon and caecum. Thirty-three species of adult parasites were identified and their distribution in the three large intestinal regions reported, together with the localization of cyathostome encysted larvae and of empty mucosal cysts. In order to highlight interspecific interactions, both Spearman pairwise correlation (among all parasites) and multivariable negative binomial regression (among the most abundant ...
Numerical sex chromosome aberrations and abnormal sex development in horse and sheep. Gonadal dysgenesis and heterosexual conditions are often associated with sex chromosome abnormalities. In this study we report on 2 cases of abnormal sex development involving numerical sex chromosome aberrations in both horse and sheep. A 17-month-old Standardbred filly was sent to an equine fertility centre as an embryo donor due to its reduced size, being much smaller than a racehorse filly of the same age, which excluded it from an athletic career. External genitalia were clinically normal but manual palpation of the reproductive tract showed the presence of a small underdeveloped uterus a...
Preliminary study of jointed snaffle vs. crossunder bitless bridles: quantified comparison of behaviour in four horses. The study tested the null hypothesis that if a horse is ridden in a snaffle bridle and then a crossunder bitless bridle, there will be no change in its behaviour. It was predicted that there would be change and that behaviour would improve when bitless. Four horses, none of which had ever been ridden in a crossunder bitless bridle, were ridden through two 4 min, exercise tests, first bitted then bitless. An independent judge marked the 27 phases of each test on a 10 point scale and comments and scores were recorded on a video soundtrack. The results refuted the null hypothesis and upheld the p...
Collection of equine cord blood and placental tissues in 40 thoroughbred mares. Stem cells derived from umbilical cord tissue (UCT) and umbilical cord blood (UCB) in human subjects and horses can be obtained in a minimally invasive fashion with successful propagation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Currently there are no detailed protocols documenting a procedure to harvest UCB and UCT safely for equine stem cell propagation. Objective: UCB and UCT could be collected without harm to mare or foal. Objective: To develop a standard and safe method for UCB and UCT collection, and prospectively to compare foal and mare health between groups of animals where tissue was and wa...
Equine laminitis model: lamellar histopathology seven days after induction with oligofructose. The histopathology of laminitis during its transition from the acute to the chronic phase has not been previously documented. Studying hoof lamellar tissues 7 days after induction of laminitis may provide insight into the intractable nature of the chronic phase of the disease. Objective: To induce laminitis and investigate hoof wall lamellar tissues 7 days after dosing. Methods: Laminitis was induced using oligofructose in 6 normal Standardbred horses. The dorsal hoof lamellar tissues of these and 12 normal horses were processed and examined by light microscopy. Serial sections of a lamellar t...
Prevalence of infiltrative lymphocytic mural folliculitis in equine inflammatory skin diseases. Infiltrative lymphocytic mural folliculitis (ILMF) is a histopathological reaction pattern reported to occur in a small number of equine inflammatory dermatoses. However, the prevalence of ILMF in a variety of equine dermatoses has not been reported. Skin biopsy specimens from 250 horses with inflammatory dermatoses and from 27 horses with physically healthy skin were therefore evaluated. ILMF was present in 82% of the diseased skin specimens examined. ILMF was not seen in physically healthy skin. It appears that ILMF is frequently seen in a wide variety of equine inflammatory dermatoses and t...
Equine laminitis model: cryotherapy reduces the severity of lesions evaluated seven days after induction with oligofructose. A previous preliminary study demonstrated the potential of distal limb cryotherapy (DLC) for preventing laminitis. Clinically, DLC must be effective for periods longer than 48 h and the preventive effect must extend beyond its discontinuation. Objective: To evaluate the effect of DLC, applied during the developmental phase of induced laminitis, on the severity of clinical laminitis and lamellar histopathology 7 days after dosing. Methods: Eighteen normal Standardbred horses were divided into 3 groups of 6. Continuous cryotherapy was applied for 72 h to the distal limbs of the first group. The ...
Pharmacokinetics and effects of cetirizine in horses with insect bite hypersensitivity. Horses with insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) have difficulty in completely avoiding allergens, so effective treatment options are required. A randomised, placebo controlled and double blinded field study was conducted to determine the pharmacokinetics and efficacy in reducing dermatitis of the antihistamine cetirizine given orally at 0.4 mg/kg twice daily for 3 weeks. The influence of protection blankets and stabling were also investigated. The estimated maximum plasma concentration (C(max)) and trough plasma concentration of cetirizine were 135 ng/mL and 18 ng/mL, respectively. There was no...
Methicillin-resistant staphylococci isolated from healthy horses and horse personnel in Italy. Methicillin-resistant staphylococci (MRS) were isolated from nasal swabs of 56 of 159 (35.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 27.9-43.2%) healthy horses. Two nasal swabs were collected from each horse; 43 of 159 (27%; 95% CI: 20.5-34.8%) of the cohort were colonized by MRS strains in 1 nostril, while in the remaining 13 of 159 (8.2%; 95% CI: 4.6-13.9%), different or identical MRS strains were isolated in both nostrils. Of the 29 humans in close contact with the horses tested, 4 (13.8%; 95% CI: 4.5-32.6%) were found to be carriers of MRS. All isolates were coagulase negative with the exception of...
