Disease management in horses encompasses the strategies and practices employed to prevent, control, and treat diseases affecting equine populations. This field involves understanding the etiology, transmission, and clinical presentation of various equine diseases, as well as implementing biosecurity measures and therapeutic interventions. Common diseases in horses include equine influenza, strangles, and equine herpesvirus. Effective disease management relies on accurate diagnosis, vaccination protocols, and the use of antimicrobials and other treatments. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the methodologies, challenges, and advancements in managing diseases in equine health.
Glaser AL, Renshaw RW, Trock SC, Brady RC, Dubovi EJ.Salem virus (SalV) is a recently identified equine virus belonging to the family Paramyxoviridae. The only known isolate was obtained from a horse that was involved in a disease outbreak of undetermined nature and the circumstances of its isolation suggested an etiologic role. However, the experimental infection of a colostrum-deprived foal failed to reproduce the disease; only mild neutropenia and temperature elevation were recorded. An additional attempt to establish an etiological relationship with the disease was made by conducting a retrospective evaluation of the serological profiles of ...
Berthoud H, Frey J, Kuhnert P.Actinobacillus equuli, a member of the family Pasteurellaceae is the etiologic agent of a frequently lethal septicemia in neonatal foals as well as other more chronic diseases like arthritis, pleuritis, pneumonia or peritonitis. It may also be isolated from the oral cavity of healthy horses. Hemolytic isolates of A. equuli are known but so far no virulence determinants have been described for this bacterial species. By screening hemolytic A. equuli strains with specific gene probes, a hemolysin, designated Aqx (A. equuli RTX (repeats in the structural toxin)) was identified. This hemolysin was...
Craigo JK, Leroux C, Howe L, Steckbeck JD, Cook SJ, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.The genetic variation of equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) clearly affects the antigenic properties of the viral envelope; however, effects on immunogenicity remain undefined, although widely assumed. Here, the immunogenicity is reported of a novel, neutralization-resistant, pony-isolate envelope EIAV(PV564DeltaPND) that contains a 14-residue deletion in the designated principal neutralizing domain (PND) of the gp90 protein. Two ponies inoculated with a chimeric virus, EIAV(DeltaPND), containing the EIAV(PV564DeltaPND) envelope in a reference provirus strain, remained asymptomatic through...
Herholz C, Straub R, Lüthi S, Moens Y, Imhof A, Busato A.The objective of this study was to determine the accuracy with which pulmonary function indices derived from the volumetric capnogram can diagnose different degrees of recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) in 63 warmblood horses. The sensitivity, specificity, the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC), optimal cut-off values and predictive values of the indices were calculated. The results obtained have shown that there is no single index characterised by specificity and sensitivity to differentiate with an accuracy of >90 per cent between the different degrees of RAO compared to the cl...
Ikadai H, Nagai A, Xuan X, Igarashi I, Tsugihiko K, Tsuji N, Oyamada T, Suzuki N, Fujisaki K.Antibodies to Babesia caballi and Babesia equi were examined on a total of 2,019 horse serum samples that had been collected in 1971-1973 by the National Institute of Animal Health by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using recombinant proteins and by Western-blot analysis. Based on the criterion for positivity by ELISA, 5.4% (109/2,019) and 2.2% (44/2,019) had antibodies against B. caballi and B. equi, respectively. The ELISA-positive sera were further examined by Western blot; 30/109 for B. caballi and 2/ 44 for B. equi were positive for native B. caballi or B. equi, but none of them...
Lord CC, Venter GJ, Mellor PS, Paweska JT, Woolhouse ME.African horse sickness (AHS) and equine encephalosis (EE) viruses are endemic to southern Africa. AHS virus causes severe epidemics when introduced to naive equine populations, resulting in severe restrictions on the movement of equines between AHS-positive and negative countries. Recent zoning of South Africa has created an AHS-free zone to facilitate equine movement, but the transmission dynamics of these viruses are not fully understood. Here, we present further analyses of serosurveys of donkeys in South Africa conducted in 1983-5 and in 1993-5. Age-prevalence data are used to derive estim...
Earle CG, Kington HA, Coles GC.A telephone survey was conducted of the methods used to control parasitic worms at 106 thoroughbred training yards. Most of the horses were allowed access to grass and were therefore at risk of infection. The control methods relied primarily on the use of anthelmintics and appeared reasonably successful because only 44 per cent of trainers reported observing clinical signs of nematode infections. They dosed their horses frequently, 40 per cent treating every four to six weeks and 25 per cent treating every seven to eight weeks. New arrivals on yards were usually treated with anthelmintic but t...
Irby LR, Norland JE, Westfall JA, Sullivan MA.We developed a forage allocation model using a deterministic, linear optimization module in a commercially available spreadsheet package to help resource managers in Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP), North Dakota determine optimum numbers of four ungulate species, bison (Bison bison), elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and feral horses, in the Park. TRNP staff actively managed bison, elk, and feral horse numbers within bounds suggested by our model from 1983 to 1996. During this period, we measured vegetation at 8 grassland and 12 wooded sites at 1-3 year intervals t...
Hood DM, Brumbaugh GW, Wagner IP.To determine whether a unique dihydropyridine (BAYTG 1000) would be beneficial in preventing laminitis in horses. Methods: 16 clinically normal adult horses. Methods: 8 pairs of horses were used in a controlled double-blind study, using sex- and age-matched horses randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Horses were subjected to carbohydrate overload to induce laminitis. Treated horses were administered BAY TG 1000 (30 mg/kg, PO, q 24 h) for 3 days. Hoof wall surface temperature (HWST) and lameness were recorded at 4-hour intervals. The HWST was adjusted on the basis of time of onset ...
Kaaden OR, Eichhorn W, Essbauer S.There is continual variation in viral epidemics regarding clinical symptoms, duration and disappearance, and the emergence of new diseases. This can be observed in both human and animal diseases. This evolution of virus diseases is mainly related to three factors: aetiological agent, host and environment. As far as genetic alterations of the virus are concerned, two major mechanisms are involved: mutations such as recombination and reassortment; and selection for resistance or susceptibility. This review focuses on the epidemiology of newly emerged virus diseases in man and animals, such as ac...
van Duijkeren E, Wannet WJ, Heck ME, van Pelt W, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM, Smit JA, Houwers DJ.We studied 232 Salmonella strains from horses with salmonellosis in The Netherlands, isolated in the period from 1993 to 2000 in order to provide insight in the dynamics of sero-, phage types (pt) and antibiotic susceptibilities over time. The strains were tested for susceptibility to seven antimicrobial agents using the agar diffusion method. In addition, the isolates were sero typed and Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica Typhimurium and Enteritidis strains were further phage typed. S. Typhimurium strains of phage type 506 and 401 (both classified as DT 104 in the English phage typing sy...
Labruna MB, Kasai N, Ferreira F, Faccini JL, Gennari SM.Natural tick infestations were assessed every 14 days on horses over a 2-year period. Amblyomma cajennense adult ticks were counted individually, without detachment from the horses. Larvae and nymphs of A. cajennense were collected using a rubber scraper that scratched engorged immature ticks from the host. Adult females of Anocentor nitens larger than 4mm length were counted on the horses. Blood samples were also obtained from the horses every 14 days and macroclimatic data were obtained for the study period. Infestations of A. cajennense demonstrated distinct peaks of activity for each of th...
Pfister JA, Stegelmeier BL, Cheney CD, Ralphs MH, Gardner DR.Locoweed (Oxytropis sericea) is a serious poisoning problem for horses grazing on infested rangelands in the western United States. Our objectives were to determine 1) whether lithium chloride or apomorphine would condition aversions to palatable foods, and at what doses, and 2) whether horses could be averted to fresh locoweed in a pen and grazing situation. Apomorphine was not an acceptable aversive agent because at the dose required to condition an aversion (> or = 0.17 mg/kg BW), apomorphine induced unacceptable behavioral effects. Lithium chloride given via stomach tube at 190 mg/kg BW...
Hamm D, Willeford KO, White G, Reed SM, Hamm J.Suppurative lower airway disease is a common debilitating disease in performance horses and, while rarely fatal, is often recalcitrant to conventional therapy. A variety of treatments have been used to combat this condition and we conducted two types of studies to determine if caprine serum fraction--immunomodulator (CSFI), a nonspecific immunomodulator, improved recovery from lower respiratory disease. Two dose response studies were performed to ascertain the efficacy of CSFI. Horses were maintained daily on conventional antibiotic therapy. Respiratory tract exudate, nasal discharge, dyspnoea...
Borges LM, Oliveira PR, Lisboa CL, Ribeiro MF.The objective of this study was to investigate some aspects of horse resistance to natural infestations of Anocentor nitens and Amblyomma cajennense over a 2-year period. Free-living stages of A. nitens were used to evaluate the influence of season of the year on horse resistance. Every 2 weeks, 10 selected engorged females, weighing 150-329 mg, were removed from naturally infested horses and were individually placed into glass tubes closed with a cotton stopper, and maintained in an incubator. The biological parameters evaluated varied according to the season of the year, i.e., reproductive e...
Gehring R.The Veterinary Pharmacovigilance Centre received 59 reports of suspected adverse drug reactions during the period January 1998 - February 2001. The number of reports received increased after the establishment of a formal procedure for recording and responding to reports. The number of reports received per species was: dogs 19, cats 15, cattle 7, sheep/ goats 6, chickens 4, pigs 3, horses 2 and giraffe 1. Many different types of adverse reactions were reported, including lack of efficacy, hypersensitivity, inappropriate use of products by non-veterinarians, known adverse effects and adverse eff...
Simpson CM, Lumsden JM.A 2-year-old Thoroughbred gelding was evaluated for a grade 3 out of 5 unilateral hind limb lameness. Flexion of the right hock and stifle joints (spavin test) exacerbated the lameness. Response to intra-articular and perineural anaesthesia isolated the source of lameness to the tarsocrural area, despite an absence of tarsocrural joint effusion. Routine radiographic examination of the hock did not reveal any significant abnormalities. Skeletal nuclear scintigraphic evaluation revealed a focal region of increased bone activity in the proximal medial trochlear ridge of the talus. Flexed laterome...
Rols MP, Tamzali Y, Teissié J.Sarcoids are skin spontaneous tumours detected in horses. It can be cured by chemotherapy by using cisplatin. A multisequence treatment must be performed. Problems are present due to the poor diffusion of the hydrophilic product in the tumours. Electropulsation is known to drastically enhance the effect of antitumoral drugs in vivo. Taking into account the very successful results of the group in Ljubljana (Slovenia), we started a research clinical program where electropulsation was applied after local cisplatin injection. The size of sarcoids is large (several centimeters). A specially designe...
Smith RD.In this article, I have discussed the principles and methods of outbreak investigation, reinforcing important concepts with examples from the veterinary literature. The approach presented is applicable to outbreaks caused by any agent whether it is infectious versus noninfectious or contagious versus noncontagious. The solutions vary. The experience of others presented with similar situations may be especially helpful. Because of their nature, outbreaks are difficult to prepare for. When faced with a potential outbreak, the best strategy is to approach it scientifically, systematically, and wi...
Brumbaugh GW.Drugs undergo extensive evaluation before they are marketed. The occurrence of adverse reactions, however, may be so rare that thousands of patients must receive the drug before reliable data are available. It is necessary that veterinarians be informed about the drugs they use, be able to recognize drug-associated complications, know how to evaluate the patient for evidence of drug-associated toxicity, report adverse effects of drugs to the respective manufacturers, and be prepared to provide medical support and antidotal treatment (if it exists) for a patient if toxicosis occurs.
Martens A, De Moor A, Vlaminck L, Pille F, Steenhaut M.Ninety-five horses with sarcoids were subjected to three types of treatment: surgical excision (conventional or carbon dioxide laser), cryotherapy or local BCG vaccination. The type of treatment was selected on the basis of the size, location and clinical appearance of the tumours. The choice between conventional and laser excision was empirical. A successful outcome was obtained in 11 of 14 (79 per cent) of the horses treated by cryosurgery, 18 of 27 (67 per cent) treated by BCG vaccination, 18 of 22 (82 per cent) treated by conventional excision, and 20 of 28 (71 per cent) treated with a car...
Vercruysse J, Holdsworth P, Letonja T, Conder G, Hamamoto K, Okano K, Rehbein S.The "International Co-operation on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Veterinary Medicinal Products (VICH)" is an international programme of co-operation between regulatory authorities and the animal health industries of the European Union, Japan and the United States of America which aims to harmonise the technical requirements for the registration of veterinary medicinal products. Australia and New Zealand participate as active observers. The objective of this second paper is to present additional guidelines established by the Working Group on anthelmintic guidelines...
Brown JA, Holcombe SJ, Southwood LL, Byron CR, Embertson RM, Hauptmann JG.To determine factors associated with postoperative reflux, postoperative colic, repeat celiotomy, and survival in horses after end-to-side (E2S) or side-to-side (S2S) jejunocecostomy. Methods: Retrospective, multicenter study. Methods: Horses (n = 150). Methods: Admissions, intra- and postoperative data were collected from medical records of horses that had E2S or S2S jejunocecostomy. Descriptive statistics were calculated and data were analyzed using parametric and nonparametric tests, linear and multivariate logistic regression with significance set at P < .05. Kaplan-Meier estimate ...
Roberts H, Lopez M, Hartley M.African swine fever in the Caucasus and Leningrad regions of Russia. Equine infectious anaemia in several EU member states. Foot-and-mouth disease in Bulgaria--the first in an EU member state since 2007. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in the Far East. West Nile virus in southern Europe. These are among matters discussed in the international disease monitoring report for October to December 2010, prepared by Defra's Food and Farming Group, Veterinary Science Team.
Davis LE.Adverse drug reactions occasionally occur in the horse. The majority can be anticipated and avoided. The practicing veterinarian should understand the various types of adverse reactions as well as their mechanisms so that should such a reaction occur, the practitioner can promptly recognize the problem and institute corrective measures.
Thamsborg SM, Leifsson PS, Grøndahl C, Larsen M, Nansen P.Twelve Standardbred foals (age 3-6 months), with little previous exposure to parasites, were allocated to 2 groups and put onto pasture with low (Group L) or high (Group H) levels of larval contamination of large strongyles and cyathostomes. After 4 weeks grazing in September, the foals were housed indoors until necropsy 15 weeks later. Foals in Group H became clinically more affected than those of Group L in that they showed loss of vigour, weight gain depression, intermittent soft faeces and inappetence. One foal of Group H had persistent diarrhoea and was subjected to euthanasia 12 weeks af...
Grewar JD, Porphyre T, Sergeant ES, Theresa Weyer C, Thompson PN.An African horse sickness (AHS) outbreak occurred in March and April 2016 in the controlled area of South Africa. This extended an existing trade suspension of live equids from South Africa to the European Union. In the post-outbreak period ongoing passive and active surveillance, the latter in the form of monthly sentinel surveillance and a stand-alone freedom from disease survey in March 2017, took place. We describe a stochastic scenario tree analysis of these surveillance components for 24 months, starting July 2016, in three distinct geographic areas of the controlled area. Given that AH...
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 ...
Penell JC, Bonnett BN, Pringle J, Egenvall A.Computerized diagnostic information offers potential for epidemiological research; however data accuracy must be addressed. The principal aim of this study was to evaluate the completeness and correctness of diagnostic information in a computerized equine clinical database compared to corresponding hand written veterinary clinical records, used as gold standard, and to assess factors related to correctness. Further, the aim was to investigate completeness (epidemiologic sensitivity), correctness (positive predictive value), specificity and prevalence for diagnoses for four body systems and cor...
Seahorn JL, Slovis NM, Reimer JM, Carey VJ, Donahue JG, Cohen ND.To identify factors significantly associated with an epidemic of fibrinous pericarditis during spring 2001 among horses in central Kentucky. Methods: Case-control study. Methods: 38 horses with fibrinous pericarditis and 30 control horses examined for other reasons. Methods: A questionnaire was developed to solicit information regarding a wide range of management practices and environmental exposures from farm owners or managers. Results: The following factors were found in bivariate analyses to be significantly associated with an increased risk of pericarditis: being from a farm with mares an...
Viel L.Equine allergic small airway disease is a highly prevalent respiratory condition among the stabled horse population. With the assistance of new diagnostic tools such as bronchoalveolar lavage, the condition can be recognized in young performing horses. The pathophysiological and clinical features resemble an earlier stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as determined by the appearance of specific inflammatory cells. Although environmental management is paramount in controlling the disease, proper selective therapeutic regimens are as important to reduce the concurrent inflammation and...
Harrison IW, Cartee RE.A nine-year-old gelding was presented to the Auburn University Large Animal Clinic with discharge of saliva and food material from both nostrils. A diagnosis of esophageal diverticulum was made; treatment is described.
Glendinning SA.The author considers some of the difficulties the clinician may be faced with when giving an opinion on a horse with a cardiac abnormality. The 3 types of cardiological cases presented to the practitioner are described. The first 2 categories both exhibit a reduction in performance either with loss of bodily conduction or without it. The third group, which is the most troublesome for the clinician, involves the horse which shows a cardiological abnormality but is otherwise apparently normal.
Gerard MP, Bowman KF, Blikslager AT, Tate LP, Bristol DG.To determine whether complete cecal bypass, by jejunocolostomy or ileocolostomy, is an effective treatment for horses with cecal impaction. Methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records. Methods: 9 horses with cecal impaction managed by jejunocolostomy (3) or ileocolostomy (6) performed with or without typhlotomy for evacuation of cecal contents. Methods: Information on age, breed, gender, duration of medical treatment, preoperative abnormalities, surgical procedure, and postoperative complications was retrieved from the medical records. Follow-up data were obtained via telephone intervie...
Matthews JB, Dowdall SM, Baudena MA, Klei TR, Kaplan RM, von Samson-Himmelstjerna G, Drögemüller M, Schnieder T.This collection of articles provides an in depth account of five presentations delivered during the Symposium on Equine Cyathostomins held at the 19th International Conference of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology (WAAVP), New Orleans, Louisiana,10–14 August 2003. The symposium was organized and chaired by Ray M. Kaplan and Jacqui B. Matthews and focused on new developments in two major areas of current importance: the immunobiology of cyathostomin–horse interactions and anthelmintic resistance.
Chambers TM, Reedy SE.In horses, presumptive diagnosis of equine influenza is commonly made on the basis of clinical signs. This alone is insufficient for confirmation of equine influenza, because other equine infectious respiratory diseases can in some degree have similar clinical presentations. Surveillance and control of equine influenza also necessitate detection of subclinical cases. Effective diagnosis of equine influenza virus infection is critically dependent on obtaining adequate specimens of virus-containing respiratory secretions for testing. These specimens are also valuable as sources for isolation of ...