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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.
Environmental disinfection to control equine infectious diseases. Cleaning and disinfection are essential to the environmental control of infectious diseases of all animals. By understanding the types of pathogens, environment, and disinfection process, success can be attained in effectively stopping disease outbreaks.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in horses and horse personnel. Fortunately, MRSA infection and colonization are currently uncommon in veterinary medicine. Nevertheless, the increasing reports of the occurrence of MRSA infection in horses, veterinarians, and equine personnel dictate that serious consideration be given to the control of this pathogen in veterinary hospitals as well as in the equine community. It is unclear whether extrapolation from human hospitals and people in the community is appropriate; however, given the rapid increase in nosocomial MRSA in human hospitals and the recent shift of certain clones of MRSA into the community, it would be ...
A Bayesian approach to prediction of stallion daily sperm output. In equine breeding, the number of spermatozoa ejaculated is considered an important factor in fertility. Methods for predicting the number of spermatozoa have been derived from semen collection procedures. A once-daily collection period for 10 days is a standard recommendation to predict long-term daily sperm output (DSO). The first objective of this study was to determine the precision or repeatability of these DSO predictions. Semen was collected and evaluated daily during four periods for 10 days, for 15 different stallions. The analytical methods utilized hierarchal Bayesian modeling as im...
Are so many adrenergic receptor subtypes really present in domestic animal tissues? A pharmacological perspective. Adrenergic receptors (ARs) are the cellular membrane binding sites through which natural catecholamines and sympathomimetic drugs exert their physiological and pharmacological effects. In recent decades, studies to clarify the distribution and function of ARs have been performed mostly on cultured cells, laboratory animals and human target tissues, but little is known about these aspects in domestic animals. This review focuses on AR structure, classification and signalling pathways and on AR subtype distribution in target tissues of some domestic animals, namely dogs, horses and bovines. In t...
A redescription of Cylicocyclus adersi Boulenger, 1920 (Nematoda: Strongyloidea: Cyathostominae) parasitic in equids. As part of a revision of the systematics of the Cyathostominea of equids, we determined that the single type-specimen of Cylicocyclus adersi Boulenger, 1920 is missing and a modern description of this rare species parasitic in donkeys Equus asinus L. and zebras E. burchelli (Gray) and E. zebra L. is not available. Systematists at a workshop on the systematics of the Cyathostominea of horses, convened on August 11, 1997 in Sun City, South Africa, listed C. adersi as a species inquirenda . Herein, we provide a redescription of C. adersi and propose a neotype for the species. The distinctive shap...
Tenocyte response to cyclical strain and transforming growth factor beta is dependent upon age and site of origin. The effect of strain and transforming growth factor beta on equine tendon fibroblasts (tenocytes) was assessed in vitro. Tenocytes were isolated from flexor and extensor tendons of horses from foetal to 10 years of age. These cells were cultured until confluent on collagen-coated silicone dishes. Cyclic biaxial strain of 9+/-1% was applied at 0.5 Hz for 24 hours with or without added TGFbeta1 or 3 (10 ng/ml). Proliferation and synthetic responses were dependent on the tendon of origin. Neither strain nor TGFbeta caused flexor tenocytes to proliferate significantly, while strain alone did proli...
Antiparasitic activity of an ivermectin and praziquantel combination paste in horses. Modern anthelmintic use in horses has decreased the prevalence of the large strongyles, which has in turn shifted the focus of parasitologists to the pathogenic importance of the small strongyles, tapeworms, and other parasites. These studies show that a combination product containing ivermectin and praziquantel allowed efficacious treatment of horses for nematode, cestode, and bot infections. The use of this combination product may be of special benefit to horses that are mainly kept outdoors and on grazing pastures.
2000 Year-old ancient equids: an ancient-DNA lesson from pompeii remains. Ancient DNA extracted from 2000 year-old equine bones was examined in order to amplify mitochondrial and nuclear DNA fragments. A specific equine satellite-type sequence representing 3.7%-11% of the entire equine genome, proved to be a suitable target to address the question of the presence of aDNA in ancient bones. The PCR strategy designed to investigate this specific target also allowed us to calculate the molecular weight of amplifiable DNA fragments. Sequencing of a 370 bp DNA fragment of mitochondrial control region allowed the comparison of ancient DNA sequences with those of modern hor...
3-Methoxytyramine as an indicator of dopaminergic manipulation in the equine athlete. The influence of sampling variables on the concentration of the dopamine metabolites 3-methoxytyramine (3MT), dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanilic acid (HVA) was examined in equine urine. A logarithmic transformation of the data for all horses gave distribution which approximated the normal distributions for each metabolite. The mean urinary concentration of 3 MT in horses was 214 ng/mL and the application of a threshold with a probability of 1 in 10,000 gave an actionable level of 4 microg/mL. Environmental variables were not forensically significant in determining the populatio...
Hippotherapy. Hippotherapy refers to the use of the movement of the horse asa treatment tool by physical therapists, occupational therapists,and speech-language therapists to address impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities in clients with neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction, such as cerebral palsy. Hippotherapy is used as part of an integrated treatment program to achieve functional outcomes. Hippotherapy engages the client in activities on the horse that are enjoyable and challenging. In the controlled hippotherapyenvironment, the therapist modifies the horse's movement and carefully grades sens...
Morphological study of the Golgi tendon organ in equine superficial digital flexor tendon. The Golgi tendon organ (GTO) is an encapsulated fusiform mechanoreceptor siding in the musculo-tendinous junction of many animal species. Inhibitory function of afferent nerve fibers distributed from nearby motor units, the organ responds to active tension exerted onto the muscle. The morphological features of the equine GTO have not yet been elucidated. Additionally, there is some controversy regarding to the existence of the GTO in the equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT). Therefore, immunohistochemistry and immunoelectron microscopy using alcian blue (pH 2.5) staining and the sil...
Interrelationships among follicles during the common-growth phase of a follicular wave and capacity of individual follicles for dominance in mares. The changing diameter interrelationships among follicles during the interval from emergence to deviation (common-growth phase) were studied in 59 mares. All follicles of > or =6.0 mm were ablated 10 days after ovulation. The four largest follicles of the postablation wave were ranked D1, D2, D3 and D4 at the expected beginning of deviation (D1 > or = 20.0 mm), according to descending diameter. The four follicles were also ranked independently, according to order of emergence at 6.0-6.9 mm as E1 (first to emerge), E2, E3 and E4. The follicles emerged during 1.3 +/- 0.1 to 3.1 +/- 0.1 days...
Genetic variation within and relationships among five subpopulations of Slovak Thoroughbred. Genetic variation at six microsatellite loci was analysed for five Thoroughbred subpopulations to determine the magnitude of genetic differentiation and the genetic relationships among the subpopulations. Significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were shown for a number of locus-population combinations, with all subpopulations. The genetic diversities and relationships of five Thoroughbred subpopulations were evaluated using six microsatellites recommended by the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG). The allele frequencies, the effective numbers of alleles, and the obse...
[The domestic animal in heraldry; Part 3, the horse]. The author presents in her paper the historical background of the heraldic. In the coming four papers she will discuss the use and position of different domestic animals in heraldic.
Experience from Lipizzan horse and salmonid species endemic to the Adriatic river system. Examples for the application of molecular markers for preservation of biodiversity and management of animal genetic resources. Management of breeding- and free-living populations, traditionally based on phenotypic traits, relays more and more on availability of reliable information about the basic population genetic parameters as heterozygosity, mean number of alleles per locus, percentage of polymorphic loci, population structuring, genetic distances and others. Therefore, the application of molecular markers, revealing a great deal of phenotypically hidden information, becomes inevitable for population analysis. Conservation geneticists use this information for implementation of appropriate management policies. Appl...
Identification of reptilian and amphibian blood meals from mosquitoes in an eastern equine encephalomyelitis virus focus in central Alabama. Uranotaenia sapphirina, Culex erraticus, and Cx. peccator were collected in an enzootic eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus focus in central Alabama (Tuskegee National Forest) from 2001 to 2003 and analyzed for virus as well as host selection. EEE virus was detected in each species every year except 2003, when pools of Cx. peccator were negative. Most (97%) of the 130 Cx. peccator blood meals identified were from ectothermic hosts; 3% were from birds. Among blood meals from reptiles (approximately 75% of the total), 81% were from Agkistrodon piscivorus (cottonmouth); all amphibian blo...
The serum proteome of Equus caballus. We constructed a reference two-dimensional protein map for horse (Equus caballus) serum. The serum proteins were separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE); 29 different gene products were identified. Proteins represented by 25 spots/spot groups were identified by tandem nanoelectrospray mass spectrometry (MS), four by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (TOF) MS and one was sequenced by TOF-TOF technology. The identities of four proteins were deduced by similarity to the human plasma protein database. In selected cases, i.e. the immunoglobulins, immunoblotting ...
Structural investigation of pig metmyoglobin by 129Xe NMR spectroscopy. The potentiality of xenon's sensitivity to its local magnetic environment is thoroughly investigated to probe internal structural differences between pig and horse metmyoglobin (MMb). These MMb's differ by 14 amino acids. One of these, Ile142 in horse MMb, is located in the proximal cavity, which is the xenon-binding site in horse MMb, and is replaced by Met142 in pig MMb. Specific and non-specific xenon-protein interactions are investigated here by 129Xe NMR chemical shifts and relaxation rate in aqueous solutions of pig MMb as a function of the xenon and protein concentrations. The results a...
Structure of long bones in mammals. Techniques for staining (silver, osmium, metal sulfides, ink) and microphotography (epi-illumination) of polished bone surfaces have been developed to visualize the three-dimensional structure of the shafts of mammalian long bones. Bone is a two-compartment system with capillaries and some kinds of connective tissue in one compartment separated from fibers of bone collagen, often forming lamellae, in the other. Laminar bone consists of stacks of lamellae separated by vascular spaces containing capillary network sheets. It is deposited at the periosteal and endosteal surfaces. Osteonic bone, we...
Determination of peak vertical ground reaction force from duty factor in the horse (Equus caballus). Measurement of peak vertical ground reaction force (GRFz) from multiple limbs simultaneously during high-speed, over-ground locomotion would enhance our understanding of the locomotor mechanics of cursorial animals. Here, we evaluate the accuracy of predicting peak GRFz from duty factor (the proportion of the stride for which the limb is in contact with the ground). Foot-mounted uniaxial accelerometers, combined with UHF FM telemetry, are shown to be practical and accurate for the field measurement of stride timing variables, including duty factor. Direct comparison with the force plate produc...
