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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.
Social relationships in a herd of Sorraia horses Part I. Correlates of social dominance and contexts of aggression. Factors related to dominance rank and the functions of aggression were studied in a herd of Sorraia horses, Equus caballus, under extensive management. Subjects were 10 adult mares 5-18 years old and a stallion introduced into the group for breeding. Dominance relationships among mares were clear, irrespective of rank difference, and remained stable after introduction of the stallion. The dominance hierarchy was significantly linear and rank was positively correlated with age and total aggressiveness. Higher-ranking mares received lower frequency and intensity of agonistic interactions. Nevert...
[The influence of the socio-economic structure of the breeding farms of Franches-Montagnes horses on the conditions of husbandry]. The socio-economic structure of the breeding farms of Franches-Montagnes horses (FM) in Switzerland is evaluated on the basis of an investigation carried out in 2002 by the Swiss FM breeding federation. Questionnaires were sent to 3500 of its members and the results include data from 968 breeding enterprises, housing a total of 3965 FM. The quality of the husbandry of FM varies according to factors such as the altitude and the geographical situation of the farms and studs. Socio-economic parameters, such as the role of FM in the business, their use (breeding, driving, riding) and the age and l...
[Evaluation of the quality of husbandry of Franches-Montagnes horses in their breeding farms]. The quality of husbandry of Franches-Montagnes horses (FM) in Switzerland is evaluated on the basis of an investigation carried out in 2002 by the Swiss FM breeding federation. Questionnaires were sent to 3500 of its members and the results include data from 968 breeding enterprises, housing a total of 3965 FM: 46.1% were breeding mares (61.0% with foal at foot), 26.5% young stock, 1.3% stallions and 26.0% non breeding stock (74.6% of which were pleasure horses and 25.4% working horses). 57.6% of the FM were housed in individual boxes with or without permanent outdoor access, 25.4% were hold i...
Blastocyst development in equine oocytes with low meiotic competence after suppression of meiosis with roscovitine prior to in vitro maturation. This study was conducted to evaluate the in vitro development of equine oocytes with compact cumuli that had been subjected to a period of meiotic suppression with roscovitine before in vitro maturation. In experiment 1, oocytes were recovered from slaughterhouse-derived ovaries and held in M199 + 10% fetal bovine serum containing 66 microM roscovitine with or without an overlay of mineral oil in 5% CO2 in air at 38.2 degrees C for 16-18 or 24 h. No oocytes treated with roscovitine in the absence of an oil overlay for 16-18 h were maturing, compared with 2-4% of oocytes in other treatments. In...
Five-year surveillance of West Nile and eastern equine encephalitis viruses in Southeastern Virginia. To investigate the occurrence of West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEE) in southeastern Virginia, the Bureau of Laboratories at the Norfolk Department of Public Health (NDPH) analyzed mosquito pools and the sera of sentinel chickens from the southeastern Virginia area each year from 2000 to 2004. Mosquito pool supernatants were screened for the presence of viral RNA by conventional reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Taqman RT-PCR with the i-Cycler. Mosquito pools were also tested for virus activity by Vero cell culture. The primary enzootic ...
Antibodies to West Nile virus in asymptomatic mammals, birds, and reptiles in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Surveillance for evidence of West Nile virus (WNV) infection in taxonomically diverse vertebrates was conducted in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 2003 and 2004. Sera from 144 horses on Cozumel Island, Quintana Roo State, 415 vertebrates (257 birds, 52 mammals, and 106 reptiles) belonging to 61 species from the Merida Zoo, Yucatan State, and 7 farmed crocodiles in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche State were assayed for antibodies to flaviviruses. Ninety (62%) horses on Cozumel Island had epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) antibodies to flaviviruses, of which 75 (52%) were...
Gastrointestinal parasitic worms in equines in the Paraíba Valley, State of São Paulo, Brazil. Over a period of 12 years, from 1988 to 2000, a total of 20 individual equines (16 horses and 4 mules) were selected at random, from 10 municipalities in the Paraíba Valley, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, and then subjected to necropsy for collection of gastrointestinal worms. Individual samples of 10% of the intestinal contents were also taken for counting and identifying the species present, and to establish the prevalence of worms in equine species in the Paraíba Valley. In the sample considered, the presence of parasites ranged from 155 to 1249 worms. Tapeworms (Cestoidea) were pres...
The new E.U. Animal Transport Regulation: improved welfare and health or increased administration? There is public discussion of the new E.U. Animal Transport Regulation No 1/2005 of Dec. 2004 and its advantages and draw-backs. This Regulation is no longer a Directive, so that it is directly applicable in the Members States. Although the Regulation is recognised to have great potential to improve welfare and health of transported animals, it will also increase administrative work. Most improvements will come through better education and the increased responsibilities of animal attendants, drivers, keepers and transport organisers, and through the stricter control mechanisms (log book, train...
A nonnatural head-neck position (Rollkur) during training results in less acute stress in elite, trained, dressage horses. This study measured parameters of stress in recreational, trained horses (REC; n = 7) and elite (International Grand Prix level) trained, dressage horses (DRES; n = 5). The training of the DRES horses uses an unnatural head-neck position (Rollkur), whereas in the REC horses such training techniques are not common. The study measured stress by using heart rate variability analysis for 30 min postfeeding in the morning and 30 min postexercise after a morning training session. The study found no significant difference at rest between the REC and DRES horses. During the posttraining measurements, ...
Dentoalveolar and mandibular body fractures caused by a horse kick: report of a case. A rare case of multiple mandibular fractures and severe facial laceration is presented. The cause was a horse hoof kick to an unmounted equestrian. The pertinent literature is reviewed and the maxillofacial injuries associated with animal interaction are discussed.
Validation of the sperm mobility assay in boars and stallions. The sperm mobility assay used in the present study measures the rate of sperm penetration in a biologically inert cell-separation solution (Accudenz). When a sample of sperm is overlaid in a cuvette containing Accudenz, sperm penetrate the solution and absorbance of the sample can be measured with a spectrophotometer. This assay has been successfully used to select chicken and turkey semen donors. We validated this assay for semen from boars and stallions. Absorbance was measured after overlaying fresh semen from each species in prefilled cuvettes for 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 40 min. There were n...
Comparison of an extender containing defined milk protein fractions with a skim milk-based extender for storage of equine semen at 5 degrees C. A problem of semen extenders based on milk or egg yolk is the fact that these biological products consist of a variety of substances. Extenders containing only components with clearly protective effects on spermatozoa would thus be an advantage. In this study, we have compared the effects of an extender containing defined caseinates and whey proteins only (EquiPro, defined milk protein extender) with skim milk extender on equine spermatozoa during cooled storage. The defined milk protein extender was used with and without the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC). In a second experiment, semen w...
A human-horse comparative map based on equine BAC end sequences. In an effort to increase the density of sequence-based markers for the horse genome we generated 9473 BAC end sequences (BESs) from the CHORI-241 BAC library with an average read length of 677 bp. BLASTN searches with the BESs revealed 4036 meaningful hits (E <or= 10(-5)) in the human genome that provide useful markers for the human-horse comparative map. The 4036 BLASTN hits allowed the anchoring of 3079 BAC clones to the human genome, on average one corresponding equine BAC clone per megabase of human DNA. We used the BLASTN anchored BESs for an in silico prediction of the gene content an...
[Fat and content of yakutan horse fat tissue]. The gas chromatography method the fat acid content of the young Yakut horse meat fat tissue lipids was studied in relation to the age group, various parts of the body and anatomic topographic location of the fat/It was determined that the of sixth-month young horse is the source of the PUFA omega-3 that allows to recommend horse meat as a dietary product for atherosclerosis prevention. By medial chain fat content the lipids of the 6 month young horses are close to the lipids of milk fat.
The variability of cranial morphology in modern horses. Horses bred nowadays are characterized by high variability of the body build. The variability concerns exterior features and skeleton features. From among the skeleton parts the skull is an element influenced by selection and environmental adaptation. The aim of these investigations was to find whether cranial traits exhibit variability in relation to the body build of horses. To do this, metric parameters of skulls of 43 horses used in the investigations were analysed with various statistical techniques. On the basis of ANOVA, Principal Components Analysis and Canonical Discriminant Analysis ...
Prediction of equine risk of West Nile virus infection based on dead bird surveillance. Since the introduction of West Nile Virus (WNV) to the United States in 1999, the efficacy of dead bird surveillance for the prediction of human and veterinary WNV infection has been an issue of debate. We utilized South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control surveillance data from 2003 to determine whether dead bird surveillance accurately predicts equine WNV infection on a county level. We adjusted for human population density as a potential confounder of an association between WNV-positive dead bird counts and mammalian WNV risk. We found a strong positive association bet...
Sequence analysis of a 212 kb defensin gene cluster on ECA 27q17. Defensins are a family of evolutionary ancient antimicrobial peptides consisting of three sub-families: alpha-, beta- and theta-defensins. This investigation was focused on the genomic characterization of equine beta-defensins and the investigation of the potential clustering of beta-defensin genes in the equine genome. Six genomic BAC clones were isolated from the CHORI-241 library and one of these was mapped by FISH to ECA 27q17. This location was confirmed by RH-mapping. The contiguous 212 kb sequence of this clone was determined. Sequence analysis revealed the identification of ten pseudog...
Construction of a medium-density horse gene map. A medium-density map of the horse genome (Equus caballus) was constructed using genes evenly distributed over the human genome. Three hundred and twenty-three exonic primer pairs were used to screen the INRA and the CHORI-241 equine BAC libraries by polymerase chain reaction and by filter hybridization respectively. Two hundred and thirty-seven BACs containing equine gene orthologues, confirmed by sequencing, were isolated. The BACs were localized to horse chromosomes by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Overall, 165 genes were assigned to the equine genomic map by radiation hybrid (RH...
The effect of simulated censored data on estimates of heritability of longevity in the Thoroughbred racing industry. We examined the impact of censored data on estimates of heritability of longevity. Longevity, defined as the length of productive racing life of an individual, is influenced by many factors. A simulated data set, modelled on the Irish Thoroughbred industry, was used to estimate heritabilities of longevity. Several scenarios representing various levels of censoring of performance data were created. The heritability of longevity was estimated for each scenario and compared to the estimated heritability of 0.120 for the complete data set. It was found that the estimates of heritability (0.107, 0....
Holding immature equine oocytes in the absence of meiotic inhibitors: effect on germinal vesicle chromatin and blastocyst development after intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Holding immature oocytes before the onset of maturation simplifies oocyte transport and aids in scheduling later manipulations. We report here a method for holding equine oocytes in the absence of meiotic inhibitors. In Experiment 1, immature oocytes with expanded cumuli were cultured at 38.2 degrees C in medium containing cycloheximide, or were held at room-temperature in M199 with Hanks' salts, for 16-18 h before maturation. Control oocytes were matured immediately after recovery. Oocytes were fertilized by intracytoplasmic sperm injection and cultured for 4d. Embryo development was not diff...
