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.
Pearson H, Pinsent PJ, Polley LR, Waterman A.Four cases of fatal diaphragmatic rupture in the horse are described. In 2 cases there was no history of injury but the other 2 animals had sustained recent thoracic trauma. Three of the horses had signs of colic and bowel obstruction complicated, in 2 cases, by respiratory embarrassment; the fourth died rapidly, presumably of shock. Previously published cases are reviewed and the causes, clinical effects, diagnosis and treatment of the disorder are discussed.
Hinton M, Jones DR, Lewis IM, Thomson PE.A multiple clotting defect in a 3 month old Arab colt foal associated with a deficiency in Factors VIII, IX, and XI is described. No abnormalities in clotting factors were detected in the colt's sire, dam, half-sister and half-brother.
Akkmeteli MA.Although mycotoxicoses attract more and more attention, the epidemiology of these diseases is still not adequately studied. The author devotes his study to certain diseases. In addition to the diseases whose mycotoxic nature is in no doubt, he conditionally includes certain diseases whose mycotoxic causation needs further proof. The author has assigned stachybotryotoxicosis and alimentary toxic aleukia or fusariotoxicosis to the first category and endemic nephropathy and primary liver-cell carcinoma to the second. His intention in adopting this approach is to establish the common features and ...
Takizawa T, Ito T.Supposing two mathematical models, additive and multiplicative, the authors estimated the secular trends of annual morbidities (1949 approximately 1975) of twelve infectious diseases of domestic animals. For each diseases ten different trend curves were fitted. It was found that five regression equations, namely, those for bovine trichomoniasis, bovine tuberculosis, equine infectious anemia, pullorum disease in chickens, and foulbrood, gave the coefficient of determination of 97.9, 92.7, 91.0, 93.5, and 85.2%, respectively. Four of them were multiplicative, and the remaining one for equine inf...
Weiland F, Matheka HD, Coggins L, Hatner D.Morphological studies of EIAV reveal knobs on the surface of the particles, conically and tubularly shaped cores, budding particles with dense crescents directly underlying the plasma membrane, and distinct intracytoplasmic structures in infected cells.
Benmansour A, Benelmouffok A, Bouguermouh A.During an epizootic of equine acute respiratory disease in Algeria, a strain of equine influenza virus was isolated. Sera examination by hemagglutinin inhibition test and complement fixation test confirmed the etiology of the disease. The first and second outbreak of the disease remained localised. The third outbreak spread within few months to all parts of the country. Horses vaccinated with a commercial equine influenza vaccine remained healthy.
Waterman A.Disturbances of fluid and electrolyte balance may occur in the horse as a consequence of many disease processes. Disorders may be classified into 3 main categories, primary water loss, mixed water and electrolyte depletion and acid base disturbances. This paper reviews the changes which occur with each type of disorder and discusses methods of diagnosis and assessment of such imbalances. The principles of treatment are described and the management of fluid replacement therapy in 3 of the disorders, mainly acute intestinal obstruction, inability to drink and diarrohea is discussed.
Gilmour JS, Mould DL.Plasma, serum and cells were prepared from blood taken from acute cases of grass sickness, and plasma was fractionated by gel filtration and salt precipatation. These preparations were all tested for neurotoxic activity by injection into ponies. Plasma and serum were found to produce the neurohistological changes seen in grass sickness, as was a plasma protein fraction of molecular weight 30,000 or greater. Activity was retained following storage at--75 degrees C for 15 months. Plasma given orally to a pony produced no detectable effect, nor was activity demonstrated following the injection of...
Smyth JD.The genetics of speciation in the genus Echinococcus are briefly discussed. As the organism is a hermaphrodite and multiplies asexually in the larval stage, the genetic mechanism for the ready production of new strains is inherent in the life-cycle. Some biological, biochemical and nutritional differences between the horse and sheep strains are examined. The sheep strain may be grown to sexual maturity, in vitro, in a diphasic system; the horse strain fails to grow in such a system. Differences have also been demonstrated between the soluble proteins of the two strains. The sheep strain is inf...
Poppie MJ, McGuire TC.Combined immunodeficiency (CID), a defect in both B- and T-lymphocytes, was found to occur in 2.3% of 257 foals of Arabian breeding. All affected foals died by 5 months of age. The belief that CID is transmitted as an autosomal recessive genetic defect was supported by results from matings of dams and sires that had previously produced affected foals. Based on a prevalence of 2.3%, the proportion of carriers of the CID trait among the adult population surveyed was estimated to be 25.7%. Recent descriptions of other immunologic defects in foals emphasized the need for careful differential diagn...
Hubbard CD, Shoupe TS.A transient phase for the hydrolysis of indophenyl acetate by the commercial preparation of horse serum cholinesterase was observed on a stopped-flow spectrophotometer. It was found that the transient process is a reaction of the ester with a major component of the preparation and is not caused by the serum cholinesterase enzyme. This noncholinesterase component was isolated and the dependence of its concentration and that of the ester upon the transient liberation of the indophenolate ion were determined. Studies with the isolated component and subsequent analyses have led to the tentative id...
Port CD, Ketels KV, Coffin DL, Kane P.Normal lung architecture of the rat, mouse, hamster, horse, and human was compared to that of emphysematous lungs from the same species by utilizing a light microscope and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results obtained by SEM examination of normal and emphysematous lungs corresponded to those obtained with the light microscope. However, the SEM provided a view of alveoli and airway morphology not obtainable with the light microscope. Because of the variability in pore size and number of pores per alveolus, a pore-to-alveolus ratio was determined with the SEM on the normal lungs of ...
Dorn CR, Priester WA.Four hundred sixty-nine oral-pharyngeal malignancies diagnosed in dogs, cats, horses, and cattle and submitted to the Viterinary Medical Data Program between March 1, 1964, and Dec 31, 1974, were analyzed. Of these cases, 84% were in dogs. The most frequent oral-pharyngeal cancer in dogs was melanoma; in cats and horses, it was squamous cell carcinoma. In dogs, the risk of developing melanoma increased more with age than did the risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma and fibrosarcoma. Male dogs had significantly greater risk of developing fibrosarcomas and melanomas than did female dogs. T...
Barrowman PR.To establish the ability of Trypanosoma equiperdum to cross the blood-brain-barrier in the horse, a susceptible stallion was infected via the cerebrospinal fluid of the subarachnoid space by lumbosacral puncture. Cerebrospinal fluid with low detectable levels of trypanosomes removed from a dourine-infected mare by lumbosacral puncture was used for infecting the animal. The parasite was detected in blood smears of the recipient 13 days after infection and the subsequent parasitaemia and clinical course of the disease followed that of naturally infected horses.
Murray MD, Snowdon WA.The distributions of the following feral animals are given -- cattle, buffalo, pig, goat, deer, camel, horse, donkey, fox, dog and cat -- and the native dingo. The possible role these and the native rodents, marsupials and monotremes would play should an exotic disease of livestock enter Australia is discussed. It is considered that feral animals would be important in creating foci from which the disease would spread.
Lyons ET, Drudge JH, Tolliver SC.Eyes from 114 (30.3%) of 376 dead horses, examined from 3 April 1975 to 3 April 1976, were naturally infected with adult Thelazia lacrymalis; 1 horse was also infected with 1 male Thelazia skrijabini. Adult T. lacrymalis from dead horses were successfully transferred mechanically to the eyes of 3 of 4 Shetland ponies raised helminth-free. Larvae from gravid female T. lacrymalis underwent development in experimentally infected, laboratory-raised face flies (Musca autumnalis) and third-stage larvae ranging from 1.82 to 2.94 mm in total length were recovered at 12 to 15 days postexposure. A total...
Dalefield RR, Palmer DN, Jolly RD.Lipofuscin accumulation and other histological changes in thyroid tissue, previously reported to be age-related, were studied in 31 horses aged up to 35 years. The number of lipofuscin granules relative to thyrocytes increased from birth to 5 years of age. There was a wide individual variation in the number of lipofuscin granules in thyrocytes in mature horses, but this was not directly related to age. Several abnormalities were identified in thyroid colloid. The prevalence of spherites, lipofuscin granules, nucleated cells and shreds of colloid increased with age, but the prevalence of calciu...
Kaspar B, Kähn W, Laging C, Leidl W.During macroscopic post-mortem examinations of the genital tract in 104 mares endometrial cysts occurred in 14 (13%) cases. Whereas in mares up to the age of 10 years cystic changes were absent, endometrial cysts occurred in 19% of the animals above the age of 10 years. In 6 mares only 1-2 cysts per uterus were found, and in 8 animals there were between 5 and 18 cystic changes per organ. The cysts were equally distributed in the uterus body and horns. Sporadically occurring cysts were about 11 mm in diameter with a decreasing size to a mean value of 5 mm in multiple cysts. Predominantly in the...
Treupel E, Czerwonka N, Schröder S, Böhm J, Wehrend A.Retained fetal membranes in mares is a relative frequent disease which can lead to severe complications. Two case studies are described in which mares died acutely despite intensive care. Pathological examination confirmed severe hemorrhage as the cause of death in both animals.
Montgomery K, Ortved K, DeVries J, Hackett R, Kern T, Irby N, Ducharme N.A 7-year-old Connemara stallion was presented with a 4 month history of blepharospasm, recurrent corneal ulcerations, mucopurulent ocular discharge, and keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) in both eyes unresponsive to medical therapy. Ophthalmic examination revealed lackluster corneas, axial corneal scarring and pigmentation with associated neovascularization, and absolute KCS in both eyes. Computed tomography scan and endoscopic evaluation of the upper airway and guttural pouches revealed no structural abnormalities to indicate neurogenic KCS. The stallion was diagnosed with immune-mediated dacr...
Grzeskowiak RM, Barrett EJ, Rodgerson DH.An 11-year-old Thoroughbred mare with colic unresponsive to medical treatment underwent exploratory laparotomy. During surgery the cecum was found entrapped within the epiploic foramen from left to right. The entrapped cecum was reduced through the foramen by gentle traction. After reduction of the cecum, rupture of the portal vein was detected. Loss of a large amount of blood prompted euthanasia during surgery. Une jument Thoroughbred âgée de 11 ans atteinte de coliques ne répondant pas au traitement médical a subi une laparatomie exploratoire. Durant la chirurgie, le cæcum a été trou...
Brabon A, Labens R, Ramachandran A, Dart AJ, Dowling BA.Four adult horses with histories of moderate abdominal pain and inappetence were diagnosed with delayed gastric emptying and gastric impaction attributed to pyloroduodenal obstruction (three cases) or duodenitis (one case). A stapled side-to-side gastrojejunostomy was performed on all horses. Two horses returned to work and survived ≥3 years. One horse was euthanased 6 months post-surgery due to recurrent abdominal pain, and one was found dead 5 months postsurgery after an unattended foaling.
Kraft W.Neurological examination in equine practice, physiological findings and pathological disturbances are described. Because of the sizes of the horse the neurological examination is more difficult than in small animals. The examination of cerebrospinal fluid is a worthful completion and is able to refer to the etiology of a certain disease. The technique of the puncture of cerebrospinal fluid is described.