Disease etiology in horses refers to the study of the causes and development of diseases within equine populations. It encompasses various factors, including genetic predisposition, environmental influences, infectious agents, and nutritional imbalances, that contribute to the onset and progression of diseases in horses. Understanding disease etiology is essential for identifying risk factors and implementing preventative measures in equine health management. This topic includes research on pathogen-host interactions, the impact of management practices on disease incidence, and the role of genetic and environmental factors in disease susceptibility. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the mechanisms, contributing factors, and implications of disease etiology in horses.
Slauson DO, Hahn FF.Advances in the understanding of human respiratory disease can come from careful clinical studies of the diseases as they occur in man, but such studies are naturally limited in terms of experimental manipulation. In the last 2 decades, an increasingly complex plethora of experimental respiratory disease models has been developed and utilized by investigators, but relatively less attention has been paid to the naturally occurring pulmonary diseases of animals as potential models. This paper is aimed at presenting selected examples of spontaneous pulmonary disease in animals that may serve as e...
Dabernat HJ, Delmas CF, Tainturier DJ, Lareng MB.The in vitro susceptibility of recent clinical isolates of Haemophilus equigenitalis to various antimicrobial agents was determined by the disk diffusion test and the World Health Organization-International Collaborative Study agar dilution procedure. Ampicillin and tetracycline were the most active drugs. All strains were susceptible to beta-lactam antibiotics, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, nalidixic acid, nitrofurantoin (Furadantin), and bacitracin. All but two strains were resistant to streptomycin, whereas all strains were susceptible to the other aminocyclitol antibodies...
Turner TA, Fessler JF.Eleven horses with rectal prolapses were examined at Purdue University. Nine of the 11 prolapses were corrected by submucosal resection. Four of those were treated by a modified submucosal resection that apposes mucosa as well as submucosa. Follow-up of 8 cases, at intervals ranging from 4 months to 6 years, established that rectal prolapse did not recur following the resection.
Taylor TS, Vaughan JT.A study was conducted in an effort to explain why digital necrosis sometimes follows neurectomy in the horse. Six horses were subjected to unilateral section of the medial and lateral palmar nerves. Arteriography was done on each digit prior to surgery. Terminally, arteriography was repeated. Sections of bone, nerve, artery, skin, coronary band, and deep flexor tendon were examined histologically. Changes in arterial pattern and bone quality were noted. During the study, 2 of the horses had clinical signs of digital necrosis. The composite findings suggested trauma or infection, or both, of th...
Trommershausen-Smith A.Dead or deformed foals produced by purebred parents represent an economic and emotional loss to the horse breeder. To avoid repeating production of such defective foals, the breeder may seek assistance in identifying the possible environmental or genetic causes for such animals. Only a few genetic diseases of the horse have been rigorously defined. Selected rare genetic diseases that prevent reproduction, cause the natural death or necessitate the humane destruction of a foal before it fulfills its intended purpose serve as examples for the definition of genetics of other deleterious diseases ...
Bowling AT.Dead or deformed foals produced by purebred parents represent an economic and emotional loss to the horse breeder. In order to avoid producing such defective foals in the future, the breeder may seek guidance in determining whether their origin is environmental or genetic. Only a few genetic diseases of horses have been rigorously defined. Selected, rare genetic diseases that prevent reproduction, cause the natural death, or necessitate the humane destruction of a foal before it fulfills its intended purpose serve as examples for collecting evidence to define the genetics of other deleterious ...
Maxwell MH.A series of experiments is described in which attempts were made to produce an avian eosinophilia using various agents. Although none of the experiments was decisive, two demonstrated a slight rise in the eosinophil counts. In one experiment horse serum was injected into a group of fowls on alternate days for 42 days. No eosinophils were seen in any blood smears after this treatment. After a rest period of eight days the birds received further injections for 10 days. The mean eosinophil count rose to over 4 per cent with a range of 1 to 11 per cent. It is considered that this type of response ...
Gulick BA, Liu IK, Qualls CW, Gribble DH, Rogers QR.Plasma amino acid patterns were studied in 6 clinically normal adult horses during the course of hepatic disease induced by feeding them plants containing pyrrolizidine alkaloids. At death, there were significant (P less than 0.01) increases in glutamine, proline, tyrosine, asparagine, lysine, histidine, alanine, phenylalanine, methionine, aspartic acid, and ornithine values. There were no significant changes in glycine, valine, isoleucine tryptophan, and arginine values. There were significant (P less than 0.01) decreases in citrulline. Ammonia increased 4-fold. Alpha-Aminoadipic acid and alp...
Roberts ED, Ochoa R, Haynes PF.Dermal and epidermal laminar lesions were correlated with acute intestinal, primary hepatic, septicemic, chronic laminar, and acute laminar diseases. Horses with acute intestinal disease had edema in the secondary dermal laminae. Those with hepatic disease had increased keratinization of the secondary epidermal laminae. Septicemia caused increased keratin formation in the primary and secondary epidermal laminae. Chronic laminitis caused architectural changes of the epidermal laminae characterized by hyperplasia and keratin formation of the basal epidermal layer. Horses with acute laminitis had...
Button C, Scrutchfield WL, Clark RG, Knauer KW, Schmitz DG.A variety of atrial dysrhythmias including paroxysmal atrial tachycardia, atrial tachycardia with 2nd-grade atrioventricular block, atrial fibrillation, and atrial flutter developed in a 5-year-old Quarter Horse gelding. Quinidine and propranolol were not successful in restoring normal sinus rhythm. Sinus rhythm was re-established during digoxin therapy, but later reverted to atrial dysrhythmia. At necropsy, multiple, discrete pale areas were found on both atria and the interatrial myocardium. Histologic examination of these lesions demonstrated myocytolysis and replacement by fibrous connecti...
Jabusch JR, Bray RP, Deutsch HF.the sequence of the low activity form of equine erythrocyte carbonic anhydrase has been determined. The most common electrophoretic form, designated D, has been found to have five substitutions. Amino acid exchanges in the electrophoretic variants known as A1, A2, B, and T have been found at six other positions. The data do not permit calculation of the number of polymorphic forms of this enzyme. The equine D isozyme and the analogous human enzyme are quite homologous, 211 of their 260 residues, or 81%, being identical.
Lowe JE, Sellers AF, Brondum J.Pelvic flexure fistulas (2.5 cm diameter) were established in eight 160 kg Shetland X ponies. Impaction was induced at the pelvic flexure 25 times in the 8 animals through partial obstruction by a 1 litre rubber rebreathing bag fixed at the fistula site. Blood flow probes were implanted on the dorsal and ventral colic arteries (right colic artery and colic branch of ileocolic artery) in two of the ponies. Intraluminal pressure changes were measured at 8 different locations in the large colon during episodes of colic and following administration of flunixin or xylazine. Episodes of colic charac...
Conner ME, Darlington RW.Fecal samples from 86 foals with diarrhea were examined by electron microscopy during a 2.5 year period. Of these, 26 (30%) were positive for rotavirus. All of the cases were found in epizootic areas. The disease was produced in an experimental foal by inoculation via stomach tube of a bacteria-free fecal filtrate containing rotavirus. Examination of postmortem tissues from the duodenum and jejunum of 2 naturally infected foals and an experimentally infected foal revealed replicating virus in the intestinal epithelial cells. A limited survey of complement-fixing antibody to rotavirus in horses...
Dietz HH, Nielsen K.Four horses with a history of chronic diarrhoea and weight loss were studied. Three of them revealed malabsorption, as indicated by decreased absorption of D(+)-xylose. Three patients had distinct hypoalbuminaemia, and 131I-albumin turnover rates of these three horses were increased, compared to two normal control horses. However, the increases were not very marked, probably because actual signs of enteric disease were few in the patients, all of which were studied during convalescence. It is suggested that the observed hypoalbuminaemia is due to a gastrointestinal protein loss during the chro...
Takafuji VA, Howard RD, Ward DL, Sharova LV, Crisman MV.The effect of recombinant equine IL-1beta (EqIL-1beta) on steady-state mRNA levels of equine articular chondrocytes in high-density monolayer culture was investigated using a customized cDNA array analysis. Total RNA samples isolated from chondrocytes cultured in media alone or with the addition of 1 ng/ml EqIL-1beta for 1-, 3-, and 6-h durations of exposure were reverse transcribed, radiolabeled, and hybridized to a customized 380-target cDNA array. Means of duplicate log base 2 transformed hybridization signals were normalized to equine glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) mean s...
Ekfalck A, Rodriguez H, Obel N.LAMINITIS after abdominal surgery is a well known
complication that may occur after the horse has recovered from
colic (McIlwraith and Turner 1987). We had the opportunity to
examine a horse with post-surgical laminitis with a peracute
course whose early death made it possible to gain material from
the acute stage for histopathological investigations. We consider
that our observations may be of some value for colleagues
interested in the pathogenesis of laminitis.
Uppal PK, Yadav MP, Singh BK, Prasad S.A progenital disease encountered at one equine stud farm at Bangalore in Southern India during 1987 was investigated and confirmed as equine coital exanthema on the basis of characteristic lesions and clinical symptoms, isolation of equine herpes virus-3 (EHV-3) from the scabs collected from animals having active lesions and demonstration of neutralizing antibodies in the sera of recovered mares and stallion. This is the first authenticated report of the occurrence of equine coital exanthema in India due to EHV-3.
van Galen G, Cassart D, Sandersen C, Delguste C, Nollet H, Amory H, Ducatelle R.Polyneuritis equi (PNE) is a rare neurological disease in the horse. Because of the suspicion in PNE of a T-lymphocyte mediated immune response against the myelin, the objective of this study was to determine the composition of the inflammatory infiltrate in the involved nerves of 3 horses with PNE, studied retrospectively. T-lymphocytes were demonstrated in the lesions, which suggests a T-lymphocyte mediated immune response against myelin. In addition, the presence of B-lymphocytes indicated a local production of antibodies. More research, involving a prospective study, is needed to determine...
Oki Y, Miura K.In the recent years, various red cell auto-antibodies have been determined in someanimal diseases, including autoimmune hemolytic anemia and systemic lupus erythe-matosus in dogs, ") Aleutian disease in minks, 8) and equine infectious anemia."?">In this report, the red cell auto-antibodies were examined for symptomatiCchanges, serological characteristics, and immunopathological roles in 20 horses infectedwith equine infectious anemia virus (Table l).Pathologic cold hemagglutiuain and warm hemagglutinin were identified in theplasma of artificially infected horses. The direct antiglobulin tests ...
Axon JE, Robinson P, Lucas J.A 6-year-old gelding was referred with a 3-month history of recurrent fever, inappetance, lethargy and weight loss. On clinical examination major findings were depression, thin condition, thrombophlebitis, nodules on the scrotal skin, leukocytosis, hyperfibrinogenaemia and hyperglobulinaemia. Pleural fluid and areas of lung consolidation were seen on ultrasonographic examination of the thorax. A diagnosis of chronic respiratory disease was made. Initially there was a response to antibiotic therapy but the horse was presented 3 months later with continued weight loss, recurrent fever and multif...