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.
High-Resolution Fluoro-Respirometry of Equine Skeletal Muscle. Mitochondrial function-oxidative phosphorylation and the generation of reactive oxygen species-is critical in both health and disease. Thus, measuring mitochondrial function is fundamental in biomedical research. Skeletal muscle is a robust source of mitochondria, particularly in animals with a very high aerobic capacity, such as horses, making them ideal subjects for studying mitochondrial physiology. This article demonstrates the use of high-resolution respirometry with concurrent fluorometry, with freshly harvested skeletal muscle mitochondria, to quantify the capacity to oxidize substrates...
Assessment of information as regards the toxicity of deoxynivalenol for horses and poultry. In 2017, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) adopted a Scientific Opinion on the risks for animal health related to the presence of deoxynivalenol (DON) and its acetylated and modified forms in food and feed. No observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs) and lowest observed adverse effect levels (LOAELs) were derived for different animal species. For horses, an NOAEL of 36 mg DON/kg feed was established, the highest concentration tested and not showing adverse effects. For poultry, an NOAEL of 5 mg DON/kg feed for broiler chickens and laying hens, and an NOAEL of 7 mg DO...
Correlation between sphingomyelin and the membrane stability of mammalian erythrocytes. Lipid compositions of mammalian erythrocyte membranes are different among species. Therefore, the information on hemolysis from mammalian erythrocytes is useful to understand membrane properties of human erythrocytes. In this work, pressure-induced hemolysis and hypotonic one were examined using erythrocytes of human, sheep, cow, cat, dog, pig, horse, rat, and mouse. Pressure-induced hemolysis was suppressed by membrane sphingomyelin, whereas hypotonic hemolysis decreased upon increment of cell diameter. Mass spectra of erythrocyte membrane lipids demonstrated that sphingomyelin with an acyl c...
Biliary parascarosis in a foal. Migration of Ascaris lumbricoides through the papilla of Vater in humans, and entry into the biliary tree, is well-recognised. Ascaris suum and Toxocara vitulorum have been recovered from the liver of swine and buffalo. We necropsied a Persian Kurdish filly at age 6 months, weighing ∼100 kg. Death evidently was caused by oleander (Nerium oleander) intoxication. An 8-cm adult male Parascaris was found at the lobar-left hepatic bile duct junction. We suggest that the nematode entered anteriorly into the hepatic tree, via the duodenum, major duodenal papilla, bile duct, left hepatic duct and f...
Molecular docking and experimental validation of the effect of ergothioneine on heat shock protein-70 following endurance exercise by Arabian stallions. Exercise-induced oxidative stress is a challenge in equine sports. This study aims at determining the effects of ergothioneine on heat shock protein-70 (HSP-70) following the stress of an endurance exercise of 30 km by Arabian stallions. Molecular docking was also done to investigate the interaction between the ligand ergothioneine and heat shock protein-70 using sulfogalactosylceramide and sulfogalactoglycerolipid as standards. The study involved a total of 18 clinically healthy stallions, with an average age of 6.7 ± 2.4 years and an average weight of 411.54 ± 12.46 kg. Only cli...
TLR4 and MD2 variation among horses with differential TNFα baseline concentrations and response to intravenous lipopolysaccharide infusion. Gram-negative bacterial septicemia is mediated through binding of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to mammalian toll-like receptor protein 4 (TLR4). TLR4 and its cognate protein, myeloid differentiation factor 2 (MD2) form a heterodimeric complex after binding LPS. This complex induces a cascade of reactions that results in increased proinflammatory cytokine gene expression, including TNFα, which leads to activation of innate immunity. In horses, the immune response to LPS varies widely. To determine if this variation is due to differences in TLR4 or MD2, DNA from 15 healthy adult horses with differe...
Papillomavirus-like Particles in Equine Medicine. Papillomaviruses (PVs) are a family of small DNA tumor viruses that can induce benign lesions or cancer in vertebrates. The observation that animal PV capsid-proteins spontaneously self-assemble to empty, highly immunogenic virus-like particles (VLPs) has led to the establishment of vaccines that efficiently protect humans from specific PV infections and associated diseases. We provide an overview of PV-induced tumors in horses and other equids, discuss possible routes of PV transmission in equid species, and present recent developments aiming at introducing the PV VLP-based vaccine technology...
Cortisol Variations to Estimate the Physiological Stress Response in Horses at a Traditional Equestrian Event. In many countries, horses remain involved in traditional equestrian events such as those celebrated in Menorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) every year since at least the 14th century. The present study aimed to evaluate the variations in salivary cortisol concentrations to estimate the physiological stress response in horses at the Menorca patronal festivals. Two different editions (years 2016 and 2018) of the festivals in honor of the Virgin of Grace in Maó (Menorca, Spain) were studied. Nineteen and seventeen Pure Breed Menorca stallions were included in the study, respectively. The stallions ...
Comparison Between the Direct Method and Friedewald’s Formula for the Determination of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Serum Levels in Horses. This study aimed to compare the use of enzymatic colorimetry and Friedewald's formula for the determination of LDL in horses. A total of 260 samples were used. Direct analysis was performed to determine low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, triglycerides (TG), and total cholesterol (TC). The LDL level was calculated using the Friedewald equation (LDL= TC-HDL-TG/5). The correlations between the direct LDL analysis and the LDL calculated using the Friedewald formula were determined by Pearson's tests, and the coefficient of determination was also obtained by ...
Selection signatures for local and regional adaptation in Chinese Mongolian horse breeds reveal candidate genes for hoof health. Thousands of years of natural and artificial selection since the domestication of the horse has shaped the distinctive genomes of Chinese Mongolian horse populations. Consequently, genomic signatures of selection can provide insights into the human-mediated selection history of specific traits and evolutionary adaptation to diverse environments. Here, we used genome-wide SNPs from five distinct Chinese Mongolian horse populations to identify genomic regions under selection for the population-specific traits, gait, black coat colour, and hoof quality. Other global breeds were used to identify r...
Genomic Analysis of West Nile Virus Lineage 1 Detected in Mosquitoes during the 2020-2021 Outbreaks in Andalusia, Spain. Emerging infectious diseases are one of the most important global health challenges because of their impact on human and animal health. The vector-borne West Nile virus (WNV) is transmitted between birds by mosquitos, but it can also infect humans and horses causing disease. The local circulation of WNV in Spain has been known for decades, and since 2010, there have been regular outbreaks in horses, although only six cases were reported in humans until 2019. In 2020, Spain experienced a major outbreak with 77 human cases, which was followed by 6 additional cases in 2021, most of them in the An...
Pharmacokinetics and oral bioavailability of cannabidiol in horses after intravenous and oral administration with oil and micellar formulations. Intravenous pharmacokinetics and oral bioavailability of cannabidiol (CBD) with different formulations have not been investigated in horses and may represent a starting point for clinical studies. Objective: To describe pharmacokinetics after intravenous and oral administrations with oil and micellar formulations and simulate different treatments. Methods: Single intravenous experiment and two-way randomised oral experiments, Latin-square design. Methods: Eight healthy horses received intravenous CBD at 1.00 mg/kg dose, oral CBD in sesame oil and in micellar formulation, both at 10.00 mg/k...
Palatability, glycemic, and insulinemic responses to various carbohydrate formulations: Alternatives for the diagnosis of insulin dysregulation in horses? Oral glycemic challenge (GC) tests are recommended for diagnosis of insulin dysregulation (ID). Various protocols are used, but all have limitations in terms of palatability, ease of use, variable composition, geographic availability, or some combination of these. Objective: To evaluate newly developed formulations with defined carbohydrate composition for use as oral GCs. Methods: Thirty-four horses and ponies in various metabolic states. Methods: Our objectives were carried out in 2 separate cross-over experiments. First, the palatability and acceptance of various GCs (2 syrups, 1 granulate)...
Evaluation of an Oral Supplemental Cannabidiol Product for Acceptability and Performance in Mature Horses. Thirty stock type geldings (15 ± 3 years; 556 ± 63 kg BW) were used in a randomized complete design over 28 days to determine the influence of cannabidiol (CBD) oil supplementation levels on body weight, body condition, and blood chemistry. Horses were randomly assigned to one of three dietary treatments (n = 10 per treatment) formulated with canola oil to provide 1.50 mg CBD/kg BW (TRTA), 0.75 mg CBD/kg BW (TRTB), or 0.00 mg CBD/kg BW (canola oil; CTRL). Treatments were top-dressed onto concentrate and individually administered twice daily. Horses were maintained in adjacent dry lots and re...
Ex vivo evaluation of a percutaneous thread-transecting technique for desmotomy of normal palmar/plantar annular ligaments in horses. To develop and describe a minimally invasive, ultrasound-guided, percutaneous technique for the desmotomy of equine palmar/plantar annular ligaments (PALs) using a transecting thread. Methods: Ex vivo study. Methods: Twenty-one normal equine distal limb specimens. Methods: Under ultrasonographic guidance, a surgical thread was percutaneously placed around the PAL through 2 skin punctures (proximal and distal) using a 18 gauge spinal needle in equine limbs (11 forelimbs, 10 hindlimbs) with normal PALs. The ligament was transected by a back-and-forth motion of the thread until the loop emerged...
Sympathetic Arousal Detection in Horses Using Electrodermal Activity. The continuous monitoring of stress, pain, and discomfort is key to providing a good quality of life for horses. The available tools based on observation are subjective and do not allow continuous monitoring. Given the link between emotions and sympathetic autonomic arousal, heart rate and heart rate variability are widely used for the non-invasive assessment of stress and pain in humans and horses. However, recent advances in pain and stress monitoring are increasingly using electrodermal activity (EDA), as it is a more sensitive and specific measure of sympathetic arousal than heart rate var...
Tend and Befriend in Horses: Partner Preferences, Lateralization, and Contextualization of Allogrooming in Two Socially Stable Herds of Quarter Horse Mares. Studies show that horses express favoritism through shared proximity and time and demonstrate unique affiliative behaviors such as allogrooming (mutual scratching) with favorite conspecifics. Allogrooming also occurs more frequently during stress and has been observed to occur more frequently in domestic herds than feral. The role of partner preference, lateralization, and duration of allogrooming as measures of social bonding has remained unclear. The present study looked at two socially stable herds of mares (n = 85, n = 115) to determine the frequency, duration, visual field of view and par...
A Transcriptomic Regulatory Network among miRNAs, lncRNAs, circRNAs, and mRNAs Associated with L-leucine-induced Proliferation of Equine Satellite Cells. In response to muscle injury, muscle stem cells are stimulated by environmental signals to integrate into damaged tissue to mediate regeneration. L-leucine (L-leu), a branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) that belongs to the essential amino acids (AAs) of the animal, has gained global interest on account of its muscle-building and regenerating effects. The present study was designed to investigate the impact of L-leu exposure to promote the proliferation of equine skeletal muscle satellite cells (SCs) on the regulation of RNA networks, including mRNA, long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), covalently closed...
Gut microbial community structure and function of Przewalski’s horses varied across reintroduced sites in China. Host-associated microbiota can significantly impact host fitness. Therefore, naturally occurring variations in microbiota may influence the health and persistence of their hosts. This finding is particularly important in reintroduced animals, as they typically experience habitat changes during translocations. However, little is known about how microbiomes are altered in response to conservation translocation. Here, we accessed the gut microbiome of Przewalski's horse (Equus przewalskii) populations in China from three nature reserves (i.e. Xinjiang Kalamaili Nature Reserve, KNR; Dunhuang Xihu ...
Developmental dynamics and survival characteristics of the common horse bot flies (Diptera, Gasterophilidae, Gasterophilus) in desert steppe. The genus Gasterophilus (Diptera, Gastrophilidae) is an obligate parasite of the equine family that causes widespread myiasis in desert steppe. Based on four common naturally excreted Gasterophilus larvae collected systematically in the Karamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve from March to September 2021, this paper studies the population dynamics and ontogenetic laws of horse flies, and discuss the coexistence pattern and population dynamics prediction of horse flies. The results showed that the Gasterophilus larvae had obvious concentrated development period, and the time of population peaks was d...
Developmental toxicity and transcriptome analysis of equine estrogens in developing medaka (Oryzias latipes) using nanosecond pulsed electric field incorporation. Equine estrogens (EQs) are steroidal hormones isolated from the urine of pregnant mares and are used in the formulation of human medications. This study initially investigated the embryonic developmental toxicity of equilin (Eq) and equilenin (Eqn) in medaka (Oryzias latipes). Malformations were observed in embryos exposed to nominal concentrations of 1 and 10 mg/L of Eq and Eqn. Delayed hatching was observed at 1 mg/L of Eq. To further investigate the molecular mechanism of developmental toxicity caused by Eq and Eqn, transcriptome and bioinformatics analyses were performed. Among 2016 and ...
The effect of being housed with a goat on abnormal behavior in horses. Horses in stalls generally remain in single-stall housing, so abnormal behavior can be observed in this management condition. Abnormal behavior can harm the horse's keeper, rider, or even the animal itself. The present study aims to examine the effect of goats on abnormal behaviors in horses. For this purpose, it placed six horses and six goats in the single-stall housing of the horses, one horse and one goat, and monitored them for 45 d. The research was divided into three observation phases during this time: in the first observation, the horses were left alone (0-15 d), in the second obs...
Advanced Strategies of Drug Delivery via Oral, Topical, and Parenteral Administration Routes: Where Do Equine Medications Stand? While the global market for veterinary products has been expanding rapidly, there is still a lack of specialist knowledge of equine pharmaceutics. In many cases, the basic structure of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and integumentary system of the horse shares similarities with those of humans. Generally, the dosage form developed for humans can be repurposed to deliver equine medications; however, due to physiological variation, the therapeutic outcomes can be unpredictable. This is an area that requires more research, as there is a clear deficiency in literature precedence on drug delivery...
First sex modification case in equine cloning. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is an asexual reproductive technique where cloned offspring contain the same genetic material as the original donor. Although this technique preserves the sex of the original animal, the birth of sex-reversed offspring has been reported in some species. Here, we report for the first time the birth of a female foal generated by SCNT of a male nuclear donor. After a single SCNT procedure, 16 blastocysts were obtained and transferred to eight recipient mares, resulting in the birth of two clones: one male and one female. Both animals had identical genetic prof...
Efficient Development of Gait Classification Models for Five-Gaited Horses Based on Mobile Phone Sensors. Automated gait classification has traditionally been studied using horse-mounted sensors. However, smartphone-based sensors are more accessible, but the performance of gait classification models using data from such sensors has not been widely known or accessible. In this study, we performed horse gait classification using deep learning models and data from mobile phone sensors located in the rider's pocket. We gathered data from 17 horses and 14 riders. The data were gathered simultaneously from movement sensors in a mobile phone located in the rider's pocket and a gait classification system ...
Quantification of equine stifle passive kinematics. This study aims to quantitatively characterize the passive kinematics of the healthy, soft tissue-intact equine stifle to establish an objective foundation for providing insights into the etiology of stifle disorders and developing a possible surgical treatment for stifle degenerative disease. Methods: 5 whole-horse specimens. Methods: Reflective markers with intracortical bone pins and a motion capture system were used to investigate the stifle joint kinematics. Kinematics of 5 whole-horse specimens euthanized within 2 hours were calculated for internal/external rotation, adduction/abduction,...
Effect of difference in training skills on stress in horses trained by Kazakh trainers. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of differences in trainer skills on horse training during the early stages of riding habituation by measuring the levels of stress and changes in stress levels. Among nine untrained horses employed, five in Group A were trained by two low-skilled trainers, whereas the remaining four in Group B were trained by two high-skilled trainers using the traditional Kazakh method. Salivary α-amylase concentration was measured as a biomarker of stress immediately before and after each riding session during the training period. In the duration of riding and mooring...
A New Intra-Breed Type, “Mamyr-Aktobe,” of the Kushum Breed of Horses of the Aktobe Population. The Kushum breed is one of the top breeds in the structure of horse breeds in the Aktobe region. In terms of numbers, it ranks third after the Kazakh and Mugalzhar breeds. The Kushum breed in the Aktobe region compares favorably with a number of horse-draft factory breeds in terms of early maturity, fertility, high meat, milk productivity, and economy of keeping. This article describes a new intra-breed type, the "Mamyr-Aktobe" type of the Kushum horse breed of the Aktobe population. The structure of the intra-breed type of Mamyr-Aktobe of the Kushum breed includes three factory lines of stall...
The Antinociceptive Effect of Magnesium Sulphate Administered in the Epidural Space in Standing Horses. To study the antinociceptive properties of epidural magnesium sulphate (MgSO) in standing horses Experimental, placebo-controlled, masked, cross-over A group of six healthy horses Through an epidural catheter, 1 mg kg MgSO (treatment Mg) diluted to a volume of 15 mL or the same volume of saline (treatment S) was administered over 15 minutes. Electrical, thermal and mechanical nociceptive thresholds were determined on the pelvic limb before and 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160 and 180 minutes after the start of the injection. Heart rate (HR) and respiratory frequency (f) were recorded every ...
Galectinology of Equine Pregnancy. Galectins are a family of proteins that bind to glycans, acting in a cytokine-like manner throughout the body. In the majority of mammalians, galectins have been found to be involved in pregnancy maintenance, but few studies have evaluated this in the horse. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the expression of various galectins in pregnant and nonpregnant mares. Next-generation RNA sequencing was performed on the chorioallantois and endometrium of healthy pregnant mares at 120, 180, 300, and 330 days of gestation (n = 4/stage), as well as 45-day chorioallantois (n = 4), post...