Omneity® Pellets
All-In-One Vitamin & Mineral Pellet
Topic:Animal Science
Animal Science and horses encompass the study of equine biology, physiology, and management practices aimed at understanding and improving horse health, welfare, and performance. This field integrates various scientific disciplines, including genetics, nutrition, reproduction, and behavior, to address the needs of horses in diverse contexts such as sports, work, and companionship. Research in this area often focuses on optimizing feeding strategies, enhancing breeding programs, and developing effective health management protocols. Additionally, studies explore the genetic factors influencing traits such as athleticism and disease resistance, as well as the impact of environmental and management conditions on horse behavior and welfare. This page gathers peer-reviewed research and scholarly articles that investigate the scientific principles underpinning equine science and their practical applications in horse care and management.
Ocular manifestations of systemic disease in horses. Ocular manifestations may develop in many systemic diseases of horses; however, signs may not be observed unless ophthalmological examination is specifically undertaken. Recognition and assessment of ocular lesions in horses with systemic disease is desirable to facilitate diagnosis and determination of treatment options and diagnosis for both the underlying systemic disease and ocular manifestations. The purpose of this article is to review systemic diseases of horses that may have ocular signs as part of the disease process. Systemic diseases are discussed in categories of pathways for devel...
Targeted lamellar keratoplasty in the horse: a paradigm shift in equine corneal transplantation. Many equine keratopathies primarily affect individual layers of the cornea. Targeted lamellar keratoplasty rather than full thickness penetrating keratoplasty (PK) seems most appropriate to the microsurgical management of many of these equine keratopathies. Despite the positive results with PK in the horse the author now suggests that this procedure should be rarely utilised in the treatment of equine keratitis. Selective lamellar surgical replacement of only the diseased corneal layers while retaining unaffected normal corneal layers represents a new paradigm shift in the field of corneal tra...
Biological control of cyathostomin (Nematoda: Cyathostominae) with nematophagous fungus Monacrosporium thaumasium in tropical southeastern Brazil. Horses are hosts to a wide variety of helminthes; the most important are the cyathostomin, or small strongyles. The viability of a fungal formulation (pellets) using the nematode-trapping fungus Monacrosporium thaumasium was assessed in biological control of horse cyathostomin. Two groups (fungus-treated and control) consisted of six mares in each group, crossbred (ages of 2.5 and 3.5 years), were placed in pastures of Cynodon sp. naturally infected with horse cyathostomin larvae. In the treated group, each animal received 1g/10 kg body weight (0.2g/10 kg live weight of fungus) of pellets of s...
The cosmopolitan maternal heritage of the Thoroughbred racehorse breed shows a significant contribution from British and Irish native mares. The paternal origins of Thoroughbred racehorses trace back to a handful of Middle Eastern stallions, imported to the British Isles during the seventeenth century. Yet, few details of the foundation mares were recorded, in many cases not even their names (several different maternal lineages trace back to 'A Royal Mare'). This has fuelled intense speculation over their origins. We examined mitochondrial DNA from 1929 horses to determine the origin of Thoroughbred foundation mares. There is no evidence to support exclusive Arab maternal origins as some historical records have suggested, or a sign...
Comparison of the osteogenic potential of equine mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow, adipose tissue, umbilical cord blood, and umbilical cord tissue. To determine the optimal osteogenic source of equine mesenchymal stem cells (eMSCs) and optimize collection of and expansion conditions for those cells. Methods: 10 adult Quarter Horses and 8 newborn Thoroughbred foals. Methods: eMSCs were isolated from bone marrow (BM), adipose tissue, and umbilical cord blood and tissue, and the osteogenic potential of each type was assessed. Effects of anatomic site, aspiration volume, and serum type on eMSC yield from BM were investigated. Results: BM-eMSCs had the highest overall expression of the osteogenic genes Cbfa1, Osx, and Omd and staining for ALP ...
Heart rate variability after horse trekking in leading and following horses. Horse trekking (HT) is having a stroll on a horse along a walking trail in a forest, field, and/or sandy beach. Generally in HT, horses exercise in tandem line outside the riding facilities. Because the leading horse will be confronted with stressors in the forefront, we hypothesized that the leading horse shows higher stress responses than the following one. In order to verify the hypothesis, we compared short-term stress responses between each position in six horses. Exercise consisted of 15 min of ground riding and 45 min of HT with walking and trotting. Heart rate variability was analyzed ...
Evaluation of virulence factor profiling in the characterization of veterinary Escherichia coli isolates. Escherichia coli has been used as an indicator organism for fecal contamination of water and other environments and is often a commensal organism in healthy animals, yet a number of strains can cause disease in young or immunocompromised animals. In this study, 281 E. coli isolates from bovine, porcine, chicken, canine, equine, feline, and other veterinary sources were analyzed by BOXA1R PCR and by virulence factor profiling of 35 factors to determine whether they had utility in identifying the animal source of the isolates. The results of BOXA1R PCR analysis demonstrated a high degree of dive...
A comparison of the occurrence of common dental abnormalities in stabled and free-grazing horses. The purpose of this study was to gain evidence on the prevalence of dental abnormalities in stable-kept horses in comparison with free-living horses. It is expected that free-living horses that graze for as much as 16 h/day will have fewer dental abnormalities than stable-kept horses. In this study, the latter group was fed a diet that was based on a relatively high-energy, cereal-based feed. This was thought to be a representative of common practice in domesticated, stable-kept horses. Compound diets such as this have previously been shown to increase the frequency of chewing cycles and decre...
In memory of Alfons Bukowski on the centenary of anti-doping research. Alfons Bukowski (1858-1921) is commonly regarded as the pioneer of anti-doping research. In 1910, he developed a method to detect alkaloids in horse saliva. One hundred years later, this is a good moment to remember Bukowski, an outstanding Polish pharmacist, often mistakenly represented in world literature as a Russian chemist. It is also an occasion to mention that the real driving forces in the history of doping were events related to horse rivalry.
Virally and physically transgenized equine adipose-derived stromal cells as a cargo for paracrine secreted factors. Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells have been shown to have multiple lineage differentiation properties and to be suitable for tissues regeneration in many degenerative processes. Their use has been proposed for the therapy of joint diseases and tendon injuries in the horse. In the present report the genetic manipulation of Equine Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells has been investigated. Results: Equine Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells were successfully virally transduced as well as transiently and stably transfected with appropriate parameters, without detrimental effect on their differentiation properties...
Isolation and characterization of equine amniotic fluid-derived multipotent stem cells. Amniotic fluid (AF) is a well-known source of stem cells. However, there have been no reports regarding equine AF stem cells. We have isolated equine AF-derived multipotent stem cells (MSC) (eAF-MSC) and show that these cells exhibit self-renewal ability and multilineage differentiation. Methods: AF was obtained from thoroughbred mares and mononuclear cells (MNC) were isolated by Ficoll-Paque density gradient. We measured the cumulative population doubling level (CPDL) and characterized the immunophenotype by flow cytometry. To investigate differentiation ability, a trilineage differentiation ...
Amino acid profile during exercise and training in Standardbreds. The objective of this study is to assess the influence of acute exercise, training and intensified training on the plasma amino acid profile. In a 32-week longitudinal study using 10 Standardbred horses, training was divided into four phases, including a phase of intensified training for five horses. At the end of each phase, a standardized exercise test, SET, was performed. Plasma amino acid concentrations before and after each SET were measured. Training significantly reduced mean plasma aspartic acid concentration, whereas exercise significantly increased the plasma concentrations of alanin...
Horses (Equus caballus) use human local enhancement cues and adjust to human attention. This study evaluates the horse (Equus caballus) use of human local enhancement cues and reaction to human attention when making feeding decisions. The superior performance of dogs in observing human states of attention suggests this ability evolved with domestication. However, some species show an improved ability to read human cues through socialization and training. We observed 60 horses approach a bucket with feed in a three-way object-choice task when confronted with (a) an unfamiliar or (b) a familiar person in 4 different situations: (1) squatting behind the bucket, facing the horse (2) ...
Gene delivery in the equine cornea: a novel therapeutic strategy. To determine if hybrid adeno-associated virus serotype 2/5 (AAV5) vector can effectively deliver foreign genes into the equine cornea without causing adverse side effects. The aims of this study were to: (i) evaluate efficacy of AAV5 to deliver therapeutic genes into equine corneal fibroblasts (ECFs) using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) marker gene, and (ii) establish the safety of AAV5 vector for equine corneal gene therapy. Methods: Primary ECF cultures were harvested from healthy donor equine corneas. Cultures were maintained at 37°C in humidified atmosphere with 5% CO(2). Metho...
Host preferences of tabanid flies based on identification of blood meals by ELISA. Tabanid flies in Australia are potential vectors of the parasite Trypanosoma evansi which causes the animal disease surra. It is endemic to most of south-east Asia and could enter Australia, but evaluation of the potential impact of a surra incursion requires identification of the major hosts of Australian tabanids. This study investigated the natural pattern of feeding and host preference by tabanid flies of Townsville, north Queensland by identification of ingested blood in trap-caught tabanids using ELISA. The assays were developed for identification of horse, cow, macropod and pig blood me...
Estimates of genetic parameters for conformation measures and scores in Finnhorse and Standardbred foals. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for conformation measures and scores in the Finnhorse and the Standardbred foals presented in foal shows. Studied traits included height at withers and at croup, six subjectively evaluated conformation traits and overall grade. Data were from 10-year period (1995-2004) and consisted of 5821 Finnhorse foals (1-3 years old) with 7644 records and 2570 Standardbred foals (1-2 years old) with 2864 records. Variance components were estimated with REML - animal model using VCE4 program. The model included age class, year of judging, sex and...
Estimation of genetic parameters for racing speed at different distances in young and adult Spanish Trotter horses using the random regression model. A total of 71 522 records (from 3154 horses) with the times per kilometre (TPK), recorded in Spanish Trotter horses (individual races) from racing performances held from 1991 to 2007, were available for this study. The TPK values for the different age groups (young and adult horses) and different distances (1600-2700 m) were considered as different traits, and a bi character random regression model (RRM) was applied to estimate the (co)variance components throughout the trajectory of age groups and distances. The following effects were considered as fixed: the combination of hippodrome-dat...
Developing equine mtDNA profiling for forensic application. Horse mtDNA profiling can be useful in forensic work investigating degraded samples, hair shafts or highly dilute samples. Degraded DNA often does not allow sequencing of fragments longer than 200 nucleotides. In this study we therefore search for the most discriminatory sections within the hypervariable horse mtDNA control region. Among a random sample of 39 horses, 32 different sequences were identified in a stretch of 921 nucleotides. The sequences were assigned to the published mtDNA types A-G, and to a newly labelled minor type H. The random match probability within the analysed samples i...
Investigation of selected biochemical indicators of Equine Rhabdomyolysis in Arabian horses: pro-inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress markers. A total of 30 horses were divided into two groups, one served as a control whereas other was rhabdomyolysis diseased horses. After blood collection, the resulted sera were used for estimation of the activities of creatin kinase (CK), aspartate transaminase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), lactic acid, triacylglycerol (TAG), glucose, total protein, albumin, globulin, urea, creatinine, Triiodothyronine (T(3)), calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, chloride, vitamin E, interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis-α (TNF-α). In addition, whole blood was used for determination of selenium, reduce...
[An indirect ELISA for the detection of Babesia caballi in equine animals]. To clone and express BC48 gene of Babesia caballi, and to establish an indirect ELISA for the diagnosis of B. caballi in equine animals. Methods: The genomic DNA of B. caballi was extracted from the infected donkey blood. BC48 gene was amplified by PCR. The PCR product was cloned into expression plasmid pET28a, and expressed in E. coli BL21 with IPTG induction. The recombinant protein was purified by Ni-NTA affinity chro-matography and was used as a diagnostic antigen to establish an indirect ELISA. The reaction conditions of the indirect ELISA were optimized. Specificity and sensitivity of th...
Length difference between equine ZFX and ZFY genes and its application for molecular sex determination. we analyzed the sex chromosome-encoding ZFX-ZFY genes and tested molecular sexing using the amplification patterns of intron 9 of ZFX-ZFY in the horse. Results: the amplification of the ZFX-ZFY produced two distinct patterns, reflecting sexual dimorphism based on a length difference between the X and Y chromosomes. The amplification products from foals showed two distinct bands: one was common to all foals and mares, indicating that this band was amplified from ZFX, while the other was specific to some foals, indicating that it was from ZFY. The result based on the PCR assay was identical to t...
Administration of RRR-α-tocopherol to pregnant mares stimulates maternal IgG and IgM production in colostrum and enhances vitamin E and IgM status in foals. This study assessed the effect of a vitamin E supplement given to pregnant mares on immunoglobulins (Ig) levels in foals. In addition, the fatty acid (FA) content and composition of the mares' milk was assessed. Milk α-tocopherol concentrations were compared between pregnant Danish Warmblood mares (n = 17) given a daily oral supplement of 2500 international units (IU) RRR-α-tocopherol in the last 4 weeks of pregnancy and a group of unsupplemented mares (n = 17) receiving 170-320 IU vitamin E daily originating from the feed. Milk α-tocopherol was higher in supplemented mares (36.7, 12.4 and ...
Cotton rats and house sparrows as hosts for North and South American strains of eastern equine encephalitis virus. Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV; family Togaviridae, genus Alphavirus) is an arbovirus that causes severe disease in humans in North America and in equids throughout the Americas. The enzootic transmission cycle of EEEV in North America involves passerine birds and the ornithophilic mosquito vector, Culiseta melanura, in freshwater swamp habitats. However, the ecology of EEEV in South America is not well understood. Culex (Melanoconion) spp. mosquitoes are considered the principal vectors in Central and South America; however, a primary vertebrate host for EEEV in South America has not...
