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Topic:Animal Studies
Animal studies involving horses encompass a range of research focused on understanding equine biology, behavior, and health. These studies often investigate various aspects of horse physiology, genetics, nutrition, and disease pathology. Researchers utilize animal studies to explore the effects of different treatments, management practices, and environmental factors on horse welfare and performance. The findings from such studies contribute to the development of improved care strategies and health interventions. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the methodologies, findings, and implications of animal studies conducted on horses, providing insights into their application in advancing equine science.
Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the electroencephalogram in normal horses during spontaneous drowsiness and sleep. The influence of sleep on the equine electroencephalogram (EEG) has not been well documented. Objective: The objectives were to develop a noninvasive method of electrode placement for recording the EEG in horses and to establish normal EEG parameters for the various states of vigilance. Findings are compared with previously published reports on equine sleep based on electrocorticography (ECoG). Methods: Five neurologically normal horses. Methods: Overnight EEGs were recorded digitally in association with simultaneous videotaping of the horses' behavior. Data were analyzed by visual inspection,...
A case of an intersex horse with 63,X/64,XX/65,XX,del(Y)(q?) karyotype. Cytogenetic and molecular genetic studies of an intersex horse have been carried out. The investigated animal had overall male body conformation; however, its external genitalia consisted of incompletely developed vulva and penis. The X and Y chromosome painting probes detected three cell lines in the examined horse: 63,X, 64,XX and 65,XX with a fragment of a Y chromosome (del Y). The DNA analysis with the PCR and PCR/RFLP methods showed absence of SRY,AMELY and ZFY genes as well as of six Y microsatellite markers (YM2, YP9, YJ10, YE1, YH12, and YA16). These results suggest that the Y chromoso...
Species-specific concentrations of perfluoroalkyl contaminants in farm and pet animals in Japan. The persistent metabolites of perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) which have been detected in the tissues of both humans and wildlife, and human contamination by PFCs suggest differences in the exposure patterns to these compounds. However, studies focused on identifying human exposure pathways to PFCs are scarce. To provide a preliminary assessment of PFCs in farm animals such as chicken, cattle, pigs, goats and horses, blood and liver samples were collected from various regions in Japan. Additionally, dog sera samples representing pet animals were also employed for analysis. Perfluorooctane sulf...
Equine ANXA2 and MMP1 expression analyses in an experimental model of normal and pathological wound repair. Wounds on horse limbs can develop exuberant granulation tissue which resembles the human keloid. Clues gained from the study of over-scarring in horses might help control fibro-proliferative disorders. Objective: The aim of the present study was to clone full-length equine ANXA2 cDNA then to study spatio-temporal expression of ANXA2 and MMP1 mRNA and protein, potential contributors to remodeling, during repair of body (normal) and limb (fibro-proliferative) wounds in an established horse wound model. Methods: Cloning of ANXA2 was achieved by screening size-selected cDNA libraries. Expression w...
Dietary energy source affects glucose kinetics in trained Arabian geldings at rest and during endurance exercise. Advances in modeling and tracer techniques provide new perspective into glucose utilization and potential consequences to health or exercise performance. This study used stable isotope and compartmental modeling to evaluate how adaptation to a feed high in sugar and starch (SS) compared with a feed high in fat and fiber (FF) affects glucose kinetics at rest and during exercise in horses. Six trained Arabians adapted to each feed underwent similar tests at rest and while running approximately 4 m/s on a treadmill. For both tests, horses received 100 micromol/kg body weight [6,6-(2)H]glucose thr...
Analgesia from a veterinary perspective. The last decade has seen continued progress in both the recognition and management of animal pain. This upsurge in the use of analgesics in animals is welcome, but the main areas of use continue to be the control of postoperative or post-trauma pain, and the management of musculoskeletal pain, in companion animals and horses. The management of pain associated with other conditions, such as soft-tissue inflammation or cancer, is still relatively neglected. Pain management in farm animals, and in animals used in biomedical research could also be improved further. Apart from providing some intere...
Apoptotic-like changes in equine spermatozoa separated by density-gradient centrifugation or after cryopreservation. The objective was to evaluate apoptotic markers in ejaculated equine spermatozoa after separation by density-gradient centrifugation and after cryopreservation. Subpopulations of percoll-separated equine spermatozoa differed (P<0.05) in the percentage of live, caspase-activated spermatozoa (2.9+/-0.7% vs 14.2+/-6.4%; mean+/-S.E.M.), low mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP; 6.8+/-1.1 vs 23.8+/-3.7), altered plasma membrane permeability (1.3+/-0.2 vs 3.0+/-0.5), DNA fragmentation (2.0+/-1.3 vs 14.3+/-3.6), total motility (81.8+/-3.3 vs 35.1+/-5.4), and progressive motility (66.3+/-4.3 vs 24...
Facial hair whorls (trichoglyphs) and the incidence of motor laterality in the horse. Several species demonstrate obvious motor laterality (sidedness, handedness) in their motor function. Motor laterality in the horse affects locomotion and subsequently equine performance during training and may have inherent safety implications for equitation. Some of the most commonly used identification features in the horse are hair whorls (trichoglyphs), since their specific location and character vary to some degree in every horse. We investigated the relationship between the hair flow of single facial hair whorls and the incidence of lateralised motor bias in 219 horses when under saddle...
Could adults be used to improve social skills of young horses, Equus caballus? We investigated the effects of the introduction of foreign adults on the behavior of young horses. First, we observed the behavior of 1- and 2-year-old domestic horses housed in same-age and same-sex groups (a standard housing system, but different from a natural situation). Then, two same-sex adults were introduced into each experimental group. Observations made before, during and after an introduction indicated that young horses reared in homogeneous groups of young had different behaviors compared to other domestic horses reared under more socially natural conditions. After the introduction...
Influence of equine conformation on rider oscillation and evaluation of horses for therapeutic riding. To obtain basic knowledge about selecting horses for therapeutic riding, the influence of equine conformation on rider oscillation and relationships between these factors and the evaluation on horses as the therapeutic riding were studied. Thirty-five riding horses were used. Equine conformation was estimated by 24 indices. Rider oscillation was measured by an accelerometer fixed at the rider's waist. The spatial position of the oscillation was estimated by a double integration of the acceleration. Horses were evaluated for therapeutic riding by a Riding for the Disabled Association instructor...
Reproduction and Development of the Released Przewalski’s Horses (Equus przewalskii) in Xinjiang, China. In China, the first Przewalski's horse (Equus przewalskii) group was released in Kalamaili Ungulate Protected Area in Xinjiang, in August 2001. The objective of this study was to investigate reproduction and development of released Przewalski's horses in Xinjiang, China from 2002 to 2006. Twenty-four descendants were naturally born, average reproduction rate was 38.7%, and average survival rate of foals was 69.1% in this interim. Frequent alternation of the leading stallion and infertility in female horses due to environmental factors were main causes for the low reproduction rate. The infant ...
Distribution of glutamine synthetase and an inverse relationship between glutamine synthetase expression and intramuscular glutamine concentration in the horse. Glutamine plays important roles in the interorgan transport of nitrogen, carbon and energy but little is known about glutamine metabolism in the horse. In this study we determined the tissue distribution of glutamine synthetase expression in three Standardbred mares. Expression of glutamine synthetase was highest in kidney and mammary gland, and relatively high in liver and adipose tissue. Expression was lower in gluteus muscle, thymus, colon and lung, and much lower in small intestine, pancreas and uterus. The pattern of glutamine synthetase expression in the horse is similar to that of other...
Limited interdecadal variation in mosquito (Diptera: Culicidae) and avian host competence for Western equine encephalomyelitis virus (Togaviridae: Alphavirus). Historically, western equine encephalomyelitis virus (WEEV) caused large equine and human epidemics in the Americas from Canada into Argentina. Despite recent enhanced surveillance for West Nile virus, there have been few reports of equine or human cases and little documented enzootic activity of WEEV. During the past three years, WEEV has been active again in California, but without human or equine cases. In the current study, we compared host and vector competence of representative WEEV isolates made during each decade over the past 60 years using white-crowned sparrows, house sparrows, and ...
Use of linear and non-linear functions to describe the growth of young sport- and race-horses born in Normandy. The objectives of this study were to establish standards for growth and to model the evolution of wither height (WH) between birth and adult age in different breeds of sport- and race-horses. Therefore, 398 foals, then yearlings of three different breeds, were measured regularly between birth and 18 months of age. Linear and non-linear functions were compared for describing the growth in each breed group. The monomolecular, Gompertz, logistic and cubic models correctly estimated WH in the three breeds during the first 2 years (R2 = 0.99, s.e. 3.9 to 4.5) and better than the cubic and quadratic...
[Effect of the strategic control of Amblyomma cajennense (Fabricius, 1787) (Acari: Ixodidae) on the population of Anocentor nitens (Neumann, 1897) (Acari: Ixodidae) in equines]. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Amblyomma cajennense strategic control program on the Anocentor nitens population. The acaricide treatments were carried out every seven days and divided in two series, the first one beginning in April 2004 (eight treatments) and the second beginning in July of the same year (five treatments), using pyrethroid chemical base - cypermethrin in the concentration of 0,015%. Monthly it was evaluated the infestation of A. nitens in the ear and nasal diverticulum of the equines before (October 2003 to March 2004) and after (October of 2004...
Differences in ability of jennies and mares to conceive with cooled and frozen semen containing glycerol or not. A suitable method for the cryopreservation of donkey semen would be very valuable for the ex situ management of genetic diversity in this species. This report uses a variety of observation and trials to evaluate the effect of cryoprotectants in per-cycle pregnancy rates (PC) in equids females (jennies (donkey) and mares (horse)). This was explored by (1) comparing the results of insemination of jennies and mares with cooled or frozen donkey semen, (2) examining the possible toxic effect of the cryoprotectant (CPA) glycerol in these two species and (3) studying alternative solutions. Donkey and...
Morphological features of the placenta at term in the Martina Franca donkey. This study was designed to establish the morphological features of the placenta of the Martina Franca jenny. Ten placentas were harvested at the time of foal delivery and examined both for gross and histological characteristics. The following factors were determined: the total weight and volume of the placenta and its components, the surface area of the allantochorion, umbilical cord length and site of insertion, and the diameter of the umbilical cord vessels and vascular pattern type. The weight of the placenta was similar to previously reported for ponies, and represented 12% of foal birth w...
Genetic diversity in the Pantaneiro horse breed assessed using microsatellite DNA markers. The genetic variability for a sample of 227 animals from three populations of Pantaneiro horses was estimated using data from 10 microsatellite loci. The number of alleles and the proportion of heterozygosity indicated high variability. A total of 91 alleles were found, with a significantly high mean number of alleles. The mean polymorphic information content was 0.7 and the paternity exclusion probability was 99.3%. The inbreeding coefficient (F(IS)) was low for the three populations: Ipiranga (F(IS) = 0.147), Nova Esperança (F(IS) = 0.094) and Promissão (F(IS) = 0.108). Genetic differentia...
Impaired instrumental choice in crib-biting horses (Equus caballus). Horses displaying an oral stereotypy were tested on an instrumental choice paradigm to examine differences in learning from non-stereotypic counterparts. Stereotypic horses are known to have dysfunction of the dorsomedial striatum, and lesion studies have shown that this region may mediate response-outcome learning. The paradigm was specifically applied in order to examine learning that requires maintenance of response-outcome judgements. The non-stereotypic horses learned, over three sessions, to choose a more immediate reinforcer, whereas the stereotypic horses failed to do so. This suggests...
[Progress in the study of genetic diversity of Mongolian horse]. Mongolian horse is a kind of important breed resource of local horses in our country. It has a lot of advantages such as powerful endurance, rough feeding resistance, and strong disease resistance. These advantages have become driving force for in-depth study on Mongolian horse. Genetic diversity can reflect all the genetic information of a species or a variety, namely, it reflects the richness of genetic diversity and confirms the degree of uniqueness of genetic resources through genetic markers. This paper introduces the progress in the study on genetic diversity of Mongolian horse in many a...
Laterality and emotions: visual laterality in the domestic horse (Equus caballus) differs with objects’ emotional value. Lateralization of emotions has received great attention in the last decades, both in humans and animals, but little interest has been given to side bias in perceptual processing. Here, we investigated the influence of the emotional valence of stimuli on visual and olfactory explorations by horses, a large mammalian species with two large monocular visual fields and almost complete decussation of optic fibres. We confronted 38 Arab mares to three objects with either a positive, negative or neutral emotional valence (novel object). The results revealed a gradient of exploration of the 3 objects ...
Teaching animal handling to veterinary students at Massey University, New Zealand. The veterinary program at the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand, is 4.5 years long. Animal handling and restraint are taught to first-year veterinary students via lectures and practical sessions. Students are taught to catch, restrain, and hold the five important domesticated species (horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, and cats) in a series of five practical sessions, each lasting about three hours. Safety is emphasized. Students are taught in groups of 10-12, and generally the tutors demonstrate the various techniques of restraint and then super...
Student training in large-animal handling at the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, Murdoch University, Australia. The ability to handle animals safely, competently, and with confidence is an essential skill for veterinarians. Poor animal-handling skills are likely to compromise credibility, occupational health and safety, and animal welfare. In the five-year veterinary science degree at Murdoch University, animal handling is taught in a prerequisite unit in the second semester of the second year. From 2008, however, this unit will be taught in the first year of the five-year course. Students are taught to handle sheep, cattle, pigs, and horses safely and competently. Each student receives 30 hours of form...
Training in animal handling for veterinary students at Charles Sturt University, Australia. Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, Australia, is responding to a national need for veterinarians with the skills and attributes to fulfill roles in rural practice and the large-animal industries. Rural practitioners must competently and confidently handle a range of large animals if they are to build a relationship of mutual trust with clients and deliver effective animal-health services. Training in animal handling begins in the first year of the course with highly structured small-group practical classes involving cattle, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, pigs, poultry, and laboratory ani...
Electromyographic activity of the longissimus dorsi muscles in horses when walking on a treadmill. The pattern of electromyographic activity of the equine long back muscle at the walk has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to use surface electromyography to measure activity of the longissimus dorsi muscles of horses walking on a treadmill. Fifteen horses without back pain were used and electromyographs were recorded bilaterally from the longissimus dorsi muscles at the level of T12, T16 and L3. Mean electromyograph activity and mean motion were calculated for each horse. At the walk, only one maximum activity for each longissimus dorsi muscle was detected during each motion cy...
[Design of equine serum-based Marburg virus immunoglobulin]. Immunoglobulin (Ig) against Marburg fever (MF) has been obtained from the equine serum. In terms of physicochemical and immunobiological properties, the obtained preparation corresponds to the quality of heterologous commercial immunoglobulins. The application of Marburg virus (MV) Ig with a titer of no less than 1:2048 by the emergency prevention scheme 1-2 hours after intraperitoneal inoculation of guinea pigs with MV in a dose of 20-50 LD50 protected 88-100% of the animals from death. MV Ig is recommended for emergency prevention of human MF.
High-speed gallop locomotion in the Thoroughbred racehorse. II. The effect of incline on centre of mass movement and mechanical energy fluctuation. During locomotion on an incline, mechanical work is performed to move an animal up the slope and increase the potential energy (PE) of the trunk and hence the centre of mass (CoM). Thus, at a given speed the total net mechanical work increases with the PE of the animal. In this study we investigate the mechanical energy (ME) fluctuations and the mechanical cost of transport (MCT) in six horses galloping up a range of gradients. We captured trunk movement with a six degrees-of-freedom inertial sensor mounted over the dorsal spinous process of the fourth to sixth thoracic vertebrae of the horse....
Evaluation of a laparoscopic technique for collection of serial full-thickness small intestinal biopsy specimens in standing sedated horses. To assess a technique for laparoscopic collection of serial full-thickness small intestinal biopsy specimens in horses. Methods: 13 healthy adult horses. Methods: In the ex vivo portion of the study, sections of duodenum and jejunum obtained from 6 horses immediately after euthanasia were divided into 3 segments. Each segment was randomly assigned to the control group, the double-layer hand-sewn closure group, or the endoscopic linear stapler (ELS) group. Bursting strength and bursting wall tension were measured and compared among groups; luminal diameter reduction at the biopsy site was compa...
Experimental embryology of mammals at the Jastrzebiec Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding. Our Department of Experimental Embryology originated from The Laboratory of Embryo Biotechnology, which was organized and directed by Dr. Maria Czlonkowska until her premature death in 1991. Proving successful international transfer of frozen equine embryos and generation of an embryonic sheep-goat chimaera surviving ten years were outstanding achievements of her term. In the 1990s, we produced advanced fetuses of mice after reconstructing enucleated oocytes with embryonic stem (ES) cells, as well as mice originating entirely from ES cells by substitution of the inner cell mass with ES cells. ...
