Disease prevalence in horses refers to the frequency and distribution of various diseases within equine populations. Understanding disease prevalence is essential for identifying health trends, assessing risk factors, and implementing effective disease management and prevention strategies. Common diseases affecting horses include equine influenza, equine herpesvirus, strangles, and equine infectious anemia. The study of disease prevalence involves collecting and analyzing data from veterinary reports, field studies, and laboratory diagnostics. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that investigate the patterns, causes, and implications of disease prevalence in horses, providing insights into equine health management and epidemiology.
Saulez MN, Gummow B.Endoscopic examinations were performed on 1005 thoroughbred racehorses in South Africa a mean (sd) 24 (12.3) minutes after racing, to determine the prevalence of pharyngeal, laryngeal and tracheal disorders, and to determine the relationship of these disorders with performance (number of wins and placed finishes). Overall, there was a low prevalence of grade 2 and 3 laryngeal function (LF) (2.2 per cent), grade 4 LF (0.6 per cent), epiglottic entrapment (1.3 per cent), subepiglottic cyst (0.2 per cent) and epiglottic deformity (0.6 per cent), while a higher prevalence of grade 2 to 4 pharyngea...
Konishi E.The literature on natural infections with Japanese encephalitis virus in Japan and subclinical:clinical infection rates was summarized. To detect natural infections, conventional serologic methods were used in the past, while nonstructural 1 protein-based methods have been used recently. Annual infection rates in humans and horses indicated the status of natural virus activity in Japan.
von Samson-Himmelstjerna G, Traversa D, Demeler J, Rohn K, Milillo P, Schurmann S, Lia R, Perrucci S, di Regalbono AF, Beraldo P, Barnes H, Cobb R....For the control of worm infections, the strategic use of anthelmintics, often accompanied by additional farm and/or pasture management procedures, is currently applied on most horse farms in industrialized countries. However, the particular effects of the specific worm control procedures are often unclear and have only been investigated to a limited extent. We examined faecal egg count (FEC), faecal egg count reduction (FECR) and questionnaire data on farm and pasture management procedures. The aim of this study was to determine whether specific worm control practices reported to be applied in...
Woldehiwet Z.Anaplasma phagocytophilum is the recently designated name replacing three species of granulocytic bacteria, Ehrlichia phagocytophila, Ehrlichia equi and the agent of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, after the recent reorganization of the families Rickettsiaceae and Anaplasmataceae in the order Rickettsiales. Tick-borne fever (TBF), which is caused by the prototype of A. phagocytophilum, was first described in 1932 in Scotland. A similar disease caused by a related granulocytic agent was first described in horses in the USA in 1969; this was followed by the description of two distinct granulocy...
Cowled B, Ward MP, Hamilton S, Garner G.Australia experienced a large outbreak of equine influenza in August 2007. Nearly 10000 premises were infected during the epidemic. We used spatial and temporal analytical techniques to describe the epidemic, to quantify important descriptors of the epidemic, and to generate hypotheses about how the epidemic progressed and which control tools assisted in eradication. Spatio-temporal epidemic curves revealed three phases in the epidemic: dispersal, local spread and disease fade out. Spatial dispersal of infection rapidly declined immediately after national movement restrictions were introduced....
Frederick J, Giguère S, Sanchez LC.Diarrhea is common in foals but there are no studies investigating the relative prevalence of common infectious agents in a population of hospitalized diarrheic foals. Objective: To determine the frequency of detection of infectious agents in a population of hospitalized foals with diarrhea and to determine if detection of specific pathogens is associated with age, outcome, or clinicopathologic data. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-three foals < or = 10 months of age with diarrhea examined at a referral institution. Methods: Retrospective case series. Each foal was examined for Salmonella s...
Sprague LD, Zachariah R, Neubauer H, Wernery R, Joseph M, Scholz HC, Wernery U.The internationally mandatory complement fixation test (CFT) for testing of equine sera for the absence of glanders has repeatedly led to discrepant results. Not only do "false positive" sera pose a problem for the diagnostician and the animal health authorities but they can also result in significant financial losses for the animal owners.Due to the very low prevalence of glanders in the horse population it is of major importance to use tests with a high specificity to overcome unreliable predictive values. We have compared formalin-fixed B. mallei whole cell antigen and a well characterised ...
Singh BR.Vancomycin resistant and multi-drug-resistant enterococci are the major emerging pathogens in surgical, neonatal, and tertiary care units. Methods: In this study, 267 enterococci from different clinical and non-clinical samples of equine origin were tested for their antimicrobial drug sensitivity against 19 antimicrobials using disc diffusion method. Results: A total of 80.2% enterococci tested were resistant to vancomycin and 99.6% to multiple-drugs. There was a significant association between haemolytic potential and vancomycin resistance (chi(2), 0.00). Enterococci isolates from healthy equ...
Karatepe B, Babür C, Karatepe M, Kiliç S.The present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii specific antibodies in local horses from four districts of Niğde in the middle of Turkey, between April-June 2004. Serum samples were obtained a total of 125 horses which consisted of 81 (50 female, 31 male) 1-10 years old and 44 (25 female, 19 male) 11-20 years old and tested for antibodies to T. gondii using the Sabin Feldman Dye Test (SFDT). According to the results of the SFDT, antibodies to T. gondii were found by the SFDT in 9 (7.2%) of 125 sera with the titers of 1:16 (8 horses) and 1:64 (1 horse). Antib...
Rejmanek D, Vanwormer E, Miller MA, Mazet JA, Nichelason AE, Melli AC, Packham AE, Jessup DA, Conrad PA.Sarcocystis neurona, a protozoal parasite shed by opossums (Didelphis virginiana), has been shown to cause significant morbidity and mortality in horses, sea otters, and other marine mammals. Over the course of 3 years (fall 2005-summer 2008), opossums from central California were tested for infection with S. neurona. Of 288 opossums sampled, 17 (5.9%) were infected with S. neurona based on the molecular characterization of sporocysts from intestinal scrapings or feces. Risk factors evaluated for association with S. neurona infection in opossums included: age, sex, location, season, presence o...
Smith KL, Allen GP, Branscum AJ, Frank Cook R, Vickers ML, Timoney PJ, Balasuriya UB.A panel of 426 archived EHV-1 isolates collected (1951-2006) from equine abortions was analyzed using a real-time Taq-Man((R)) allelic discrimination PCR assay. Based on previous findings, isolates possessing adenine at nucleotide position 2254 (A(2254)) in ORF30 were classified as having a non-neuropathogenic genotype and those with guanine at 2254 (G(2254)) were designated as the neuropathogenic genotype. The resultant data demonstrated that viruses with the neuropathogenic genotype existed in the 1950s and isolates with this genotype increased from 3.3% in the 1960s to 14.4% in the 1990s. T...
Pradel J, Chalvet Monfray K, Molia S, Vachiéry N, Rousteau A, Imbert D, Martinez D, Sabatier P, Lefrançois T.In Guadeloupe, West Nile virus (WNV) activity was first observed in equids in 2002, and a high seroprevalence was found in 2003. The objective of our study was to determine individual and environmental factors associated with the risk of WNV seropositivity during 2002-2003. Fieldwork was conducted to retrospectively determine the location of equids at the time of virus circulation and to collect information regarding environmental and individual variables. Sera were collected from 369 equids out of an estimated total population of less than 500. Thirty-four environmental and individual variabl...
Bermúdez SE, Eremeeva ME, Karpathy SE, Samudio F, Zambrano ML, Zaldivar Y, Motta JA, Dasch GA.Several outbreaks of Rocky Mountain spotted fever have occurred in recent years in Colombian communities close to the border with Panama. However, little is known about rickettsiae and rickettsial diseases in eastern Panamanian provinces, the Darien Province and the Kuna Yala, located north of the endemic area in Colombia. In 2007, 289 ticks were collected in several towns from dogs, horses, mules, cows, and pigs. DNA was extracted from 124 Dermacentor nitens, 64 Rhipicephalus sanguineus, 43 Amblyomma ovale, 35 A. cajennense, 10 Boophilus microplus, 4 A. oblongoguttatum, and 9 A. cajennense ny...
Avella CS, Ely ER, Verheyen KL, Price JS, Wood JL, Smith RK.It is important to ascertain the prevalence of superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) injuries and to improve methods of predicting injury in National Hunt (NH) racehorses. Objective: To establish: 1) the prevalence of SDFT tendinopathy in NH horses; 2) whether routine ultrasonography can be used to predict SDFT injuries; 3) whether previous tendinopathy predisposes to reinjury; 4) a normal range for the SDFT cross-sectional area (CSA); and 5) the effects of gender, age, background (ex-flat or ex-store), limb, training and rest periods on SDFT CSA. Methods: Routine ultrasound assessment of t...
Broster CE, Burn CC, Barr AR, Whay HR.Lameness is highly prevalent in working horses, but published reports on the associated pathological abnormalities are lacking. With over 42 million horses in developing countries and the majority used for work, lameness has major welfare implications. Objective: To describe the range and prevalence of pathological abnormalities associated with lameness in working horses. Methods: A standard lameness assessment was adapted for field use in working equids. Data on pathological abnormalities and pain responses in the feet, limbs and spine were collected through observation, palpation, manipulati...
Zoonoses and public healthJuly 30, 2009
Volume 57, Issue 7-8 476-486 doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2009.01245.x
Monaco F, Lelli R, Teodori L, Pinoni C, Di Gennaro A, Polci A, Calistri P, Savini G.In August 2008, West Nile disease re-emerged in Italy. The infection is affecting the North Eastern regions and, as of November 2008, has caused 33 clinical cases and five fatalities in horses. Until now, no deaths have been reported in birds. Mosquitoes, blood, serum and tissue samples, from horses and birds, within and around the outbreak area, have been collected and tested by various methods both serologically and virologically. West Nile virus strains have been isolated from blood samples of one horse and one donkey and from pools of brain, kidneys, heart and spleen of a pigeon and three ...
Tanaka K, Asai Y, Kuwano A.At 114 ranches in the Hidaka District of Hokkaido, a total of 1,118 Thoroughbred foals that were born from January to June 2003 were examined at different times from May to September of the same year to ascertain the occurrence of clubfoot. Clubfoot was seen in a total of 179 foals (16%) at 89 ranches (78%). Also, 124 of the 179 foals (69.3%) had clubfoot of grade II or higher, and it was found that grade I was likely to be overlooked or rapidly advance. In the present study, the occurrence of clubfoot was higher than expected in the investigated region. Hence, it is necessary to establish acc...
Moyaert H, Pasmans F, Decostere A, Ducatelle R, Haesebrouck F.Helicobacter equorum colonizes the caecum, colon and rectum of horses. The agent is highly prevalent in <6-month-old foals. In adult horses, the prevalence of H. equorum seems to be rather low, but these animals may harbour low, subdetectable numbers of this microorganism in their intestines. So far, no association could be made between the presence of H. equorum and clinical disease or intestinal lesions in adult horses. Further research is necessary to elucidate the pathogenic potential of this bacterial species towards young foals. Helicobacter equorum DNA was not detected in human faece...
Holcombe SJ, Rodriguez KM, Haupt JL, Campbell JO, Chaney KP, Sparks HD, Hauptman JG.To determine the incidence of postoperative ileus (POI) in a population of horses after small intestinal surgery and the effect of multiple variables on development of POI. Methods: Case series. Methods: Horses (n=233) aged > or =1 year that had exploratory celiotomy for small intestinal disease that recovered from surgery from 1995 to 2005. Methods: Sixty-eight variables were collected from medical records (1995-2005) for each horse. POI was defined as nasogastric reflux volume >20 L over 24 hours or >8 L at any single time after surgery. Results: Twenty-seven percent (64/233) of hor...
du Toit N, Burden FA, Dixon PM.Dental disorders have a high prevalence in older donkeys and horses, but the nature and pathogenesis of many of these disorders have yet to be established. Objective: The identification and determination of the prevalence of important dental disorders in different age groups in a large single population of donkeys, to establish a better understanding of the nature and pathogenesis of these disorders. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was performed on the donkey population at The Donkey Sanctuary with detailed oral examinations of 357 donkeys within 7 different age groups (age range ...
Ely ER, Avella CS, Price JS, Smith RK, Wood JL, Verheyen KL.While fractures and tendon injuries are known to be important diseases in National Hunt (NH) racehorses during racing, there are no accurate estimates of their incidence in NH training yards. Objective: To estimate the incidence of fractures and tendon and suspensory ligament injuries (TLIs) in NH racehorses in training; to describe the injuries incurred and to compare injury incidence rates by horse age, trainer, gender and background (ex-flat vs. ex-store horses). Methods: Cohort data were collected from 14 UK NH training yards for 2 racing seasons. Daily exercise regimens and details of fra...
Docherty DE, Samuel MD, Egstad KF, Griffin KM, Nolden CA, Karwal L, Ip HS.After the 2001 occurrence of West Nile virus (WNV) in Wisconsin (WI), we collected sera, during 2003-2006, from south-central WI mesopredators. We tested these sera to determine WNV antibody prevalence and geometric mean antibody titer (GMAT). Four-fold higher antibody prevalence and 2-fold higher GMAT in 2003-2004 indicated greater exposure of mesopredators to WNV during the apparent epizootic phase. The period 2005-2006 was likely the enzootic phase because WNV antibody prevalence fell to a level similar to other flaviviruses. Our results suggest that, in mesopredators, vector-borne transmis...
Perkins GA, Goodman LB, Tsujimura K, Van de Walle GR, Kim SG, Dubovi EJ, Osterrieder N.A single nucleotide polymorphism in the equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) DNA polymerase gene (ORF30 A(2254) to G) has been associated with clinical signs of equine herpes myeloencephalopathy (EHM). The purpose of our study was to determine the odds ratio for this genetic marker and EHM using a panel of field isolates from North America collected over the past twenty-three years. EHV-1 isolates cultured at the Cornell University Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory from 1984 to 2007 were retrieved along with their clinical histories. DNA was extracted from these EHV-1 cultures and allelic discrimina...
Vissani MA, Becerra ML, Olguín Perglione C, Tordoya MS, Miño S, Barrandeguy M.Infection with Equid Herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) leads to respiratory disease, abortion, and neurological disorders in horses. Molecular epidemiology studies have demonstrated that a single nucleotide polymorphism (A(2254)/G(2254)) in the genome region of the open reading frame 30 (ORF30), which results in an amino acid variation (N(752)/D(752)) of the EHV-1 DNA polymerase, is significantly associated with the neuropathogenic potential of naturally occurring strains. In order to estimate the prevalence of the EHV-1 neuropathogenic genotype in our country, we analyzed the ORF30 genome region of ...
Bullock PM, Ames TR, Robinson RA, Greig B, Mellencamp MA, Dumler JS.Equine granulocytic ehrlichiosis (EGE) is caused by infection with Ehrlichia equi. EGE has been reported primarily in northern California, where E equi is transmitted by the tick Ixodes pacificus. Reports of EGE and the emergence of human granulocytic ehrlichia in Minnesota prompted a seroprevalence study of E equi in horses of Minnesota and Wisconsin. Tick (Ixodes scapularis) endemic areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin were compared to nonendemic regions of Minnesota. Indirect fluorescent antibody was used to detect the presence of serum antibodies to E equi. Serum samples from healthy horses, 3...
Amat JP, Hendrikx P, Tapprest J, Leblond A, Dufour B.It is necessary to assess surveillance systems for infectious animal diseases to ensure they meet their objectives and provide high-quality health information. Each system is generally dedicated to one disease and often comprises various components. In many animal industries, several surveillance systems are implemented separately even if they are based on similar components. This lack of synergy may prevent optimal surveillance. The purpose of this study was to assess several surveillance systems within the same industry using the semi-quantitative OASIS method and to compare the results of t...
Ybañez AP, Sato F, Nambo Y, Fukui T, Masuzawa T, Ohashi N, Matsumoto K, Kishimoto T, Inokuma H.A total of 87 Thoroughbred horses and 10 ixodid ticks from a ranch in Hidaka district, Hokkaido were tested for tick-borne diseases. Using the indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) method, 3.4, 92.0 and 97.7% of the horses showed antibody titers of ≥ 80 against Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Rickettsia helvetica, and Borrelia garinii, respectively. This is the first report of infection with the 3 pathogens in horses in Japan. Using PCR, DNAs from the peripheral blood of all horses were found negative with any Anaplasma, Rickettsia and Borrelia spp., while those from Haemaphysalis megaspinosa ticks...
Facile V, Magliocca M, Dini FM, Imposimato I, Mariella J, Freccero F, Urbani L, Rinnovati R, Sel E, Gallina L, Castagnetti C, Galuppi R, Battilani M....Equine piroplasmosis is a tick-borne disease caused by and species. Despite its presence in Europe, no laboratory testing is required for animal movement, even though some countries remain free of this disease. Differentiating between species and genotypes is crucial to determine the most effective treatment, as dosage, active compounds, and duration vary. However, diagnosis is often challenging due to genetic variability and the limited sensitivity of molecular methods. The aims of this study were to compare the performances of different molecular diagnostic tests to identify the most effec...
Thieulent CJ, Carossino M, Reis JKPD, Vissani MA, Barrandeguy ME, Valle-Casuso JC, Balasuriya UBR.Equine Infectious Anemia Virus (EIAV), the causative agent of Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA), presents a significant threat to equine populations worldwide. While local EIAV prevalence has been estimated in several studies, no global prevalence has been determined. Thus, this study aimed to review the literature on EIAV prevalence in the 21st century. A comprehensive electronic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, SciELO.org, African Journals Online, and NZresearch.org, yielding 105 articles published between January 1st, 2000, and December 31st, 2024 (spanni...
Nehra AK, Kumari A, Moudgil AD, Vohra S.Equine theileriosis, an economically important disease that affects horses and other equids worldwide, is caused by a tick-borne intracellular apicomplexan protozoa . Genotyping of based on the 18S rRNA gene revealed the presence of two, three, four or five genotypes. In previous published reports, these genotypes have been labelled either alphabetically or numerically, and there is no uniformity in naming of these genotypes. The present study was aimed to revisit the phylogeny, genetic diversity and geographical distribution of based on the nucleotide sequences of the V4 hypervariable regio...
Altay K, Erol U, Sahin OF, Ulucesme MC, Aytmirzakizi A, Aktas M.Tick-borne pathogens (TBP) are an important group of organisms that can affect animals and humans all over the world. Equine piroplasmosis (EP), caused by and , is considered one of the most important tick-borne diseases and can cause significant clinical symptoms and mortality in horses. Moreover, EP plays a restrictive role in international horse traditions and transportation. Although these species can cause similar symptoms, there are different 18S rRNA genotypes of (five genotypes) and (three genotypes). Besides piroplasma species, and hemotropic mycoplasmas (HM) are known as other im...
Ali AAH, Abdallah F, Shemies OA, Kotb G, Nafea MR.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is a major cause of abortion and respiratory disease. Equine herpesvirus type 4 (EHV-4), on the other hand, is exclusively associated with respiratory disease in horse populations worldwide, particularly in Egypt and Arabian countries. Unassigned: This study aims to investigate the circulation of EHV-1 and EHV-4 in the Arabian horse population through molecular detection and genetic characterization of EHV-1 and/or EHV-4 that may threaten the stability of horse industry. Unassigned: A total of 80 samples including 50 nasal swabs, 10 vaginal swabs and 20 whole ...
Mai Z, Fu H, Miao R, Lu C, Zhang X, Yuan Z, Ji P, Hua Y, Wang C, Ma Y, Deng H, Wei Y.Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar abortus equi (S. abortus equi) is one of the main pathogens that causes abortion in pregnant horses and donkeys, which was highly infectious and greatly restricts the healthy development of the horse industry. Objective: In order to investigate the prevalence and biological characteristics of S. abortus equi in different regions and breeds of horses in Xinjiang. Methods: This study conducted ELISA detection of S. abortus equi antibodies on serum samples of 971 horses collected from three large-scale horse farms and five free-range horse farms in ...
Sewgobind S, McCracken F, Schilling M.West Nile virus (WNV) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Flaviviridae family and is maintained in an enzootic cycle between avian hosts and mosquito vectors. Humans, horses and other mammals are susceptible to infection but are dead-end hosts due to a low viraemia. The disease can manifest itself in a variety of clinical signs and symptoms in people and horses from mild fever to severe encephalitis and morbidity. There are no vaccines licensed for human protection, but parts of Europe, North America, Africa and Australia have vaccines commercially available for hors...
Hurni JI, Kaiser-Thom S, Gerber V, Keller JE, Collaud A, Fernandez J, Schwendener S, Perreten V.A total of 100 nasal swabs were collected from healthy horses in Switzerland between January 2020 and August 2020. The samples were taken from horses at 40 different stables in 12 different cantons and screened for both methicillin-resistant (MRSA) and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) using selective agar plates. S. aureus were tested for antibiotic susceptibility by measurement of the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) and for virulence factors, antibiotic resistance genes and phylogenetic characteristics using whole genome sequence analysis. Ten horses were found to be positiv...
Martins AV, Corrêa LL, Ribeiro MS, Lobão LF, Dib LV, Palmer JPS, de Moura LC, Knackfuss FB, Uchôa CMA, Molento MB, Barbosa ADS.The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of helminths in Thoroughbred horses in Rio de Janeiro; make correlations with risk factors for these infections; and compare the efficiency of three floatation solutions applied in the quantitative Mini-FLOTAC technique. Fecal samples from 520 horses were collected from six training centers between 2019 and 2021. These were subjected to the Mini-FLOTAC technique using three solutions: NaCl (density = 1.200 g/mL), ZnSO4 (1.350 g/mL) and ZnSO4 (1.200 g/mL); and also to qualitative techniques. Information on the horses' sex and age of hors...
Scherer WF, Ordonez JV, Dickerman RW, Navarro JE.Evidence was sought during 1970-1975 of persistence of equine-virulent Venezuelan encephalitis (VE) virus in regions of Central America that were heavily involved in the epidemic-equine epizootic of 1969. (a) Four sentinel horses were exposed in an arid, upland region of the Atlantic drainage of Guatemala during August-October 1970, but no horse became infected. (b) The epicenter region of the 1969 outbreak, in southwestern Guatemala and southwestern El Salvador, was studied during July 1970-February 1974; no antibody developed in sentinel horses, sentinel hamsters did not die, mosquitoes yiel...
White SD, Bourdeau PJ, Brément T, Vandenabeele SI, Haspeslagh M, Bruet V, Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM.Donkeys are important throughout the world as work animals and occasionally as pets or a meat source. Most descriptions of skin disease in donkeys are reported in small case series, textbooks or review articles. Objective: To document skin diseases and their prevalence in donkeys and to investigate predilections for the most common conditions. Methods: Case populations at four veterinary schools totalling 156 donkeys. Methods: A retrospective study was performed by searching computerized medical records, using the key word "donkey", at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Californi...
Kumba FF, Claasen B, Petrus P.A 15-year record of the results of horse sera from the Khomas region of Namibia tested by the complement fixation test for dourine at the Central Veterinary Laboratory in Windhoek before clearing the respective animals for export and competitive sport were subjected to statistical analysis. The range of percentage positive, taken as the apparent prevalence of dourine for the region, during the period of study, was 0-29.09%; the average regional level of apparent prevalence was 8.33%. These figures were thought to be lower than the real situation due to some bias in the sampling criteria. For m...
Finger MA, Villalobos EM, Lara Mdo C, Cunha EM, Barros Filho IR, Deconto I, Dornbusch PT, Ullmann LS, Biondo AW.Toxoplasma gondii, the agent for toxoplasmosis, has worldwide distribution. Horses normally play a secondary role in its life cycle, but movement around urban areas, feeding on grass and the increasing use of carthorses for gathering recyclable material in some urban areas of Brazil may increase their exposure to T. gondii infection. The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of anti-T. gondii antibodies in carthorses in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, PR. IgG antibodies against T. gondii were detected using the indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT) (titers ≥ 64)...
Ochoa R, de Velandia S.Clostridium perfringens type A enterotoxin seroneutralization was carried out on sera from 50 horses recovered from grass sickness and from 100 other horses with no record of having had the disease. Of the affected horses, 70% had seroneutralizating titers higher than 1:64, half of these being equal or higher than 1:128. More than 88% of the horses with no record of grass sickness had titers lower than 1:64. These data support the theory of association between C perfringens type A toxins and grass sickness.
Schwarz B, Brunthaler R, Hahn C, van den Hoven R.Equine grass sickness (EGS) occurs mainly in Great Britain, but has once been reported in Hungary. The stud which was affected by EGS in 2001 had no new cases until 2009/10, when 11 of 60 and five of 12 one- to three-year-old colts died or were euthanased due to EGS. Following a few hours in the high-risk field during the winter of 2010/11 further four cases of acute EGS were noted among these horses. The affected horses showed somewhat different clinical signs compared with the cases reported in Great Britain. Histopathological findings in these horses were consistent with EGS. In most examin...
Kasem S, Hashim O, Alkarar A, Hodhod A, Elias A, Abdallah M, Al-Sahaf A, Al-Doweriej A, Qasim I, Abdel-Moneim AS.The equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) is one of the most serious equine diseases worldwide. There is scarce information on the epizootiology of equine infectious anaemia (EIA) in Saudi Arabia. Given the importance of the equine industry in Saudi Arabia, this cross- -sectional study aims to provide information about the prevalence of EIAV based on serological surveillance of the equine population in the country. A total of 4728 sera samples were collected (4523 horses and 205 donkeys) between December 2017 and November 2019. All samples were tested using commercially available EIAV ELISA. ...
Zimmerli U, Thür B.Equine infectious anaemia (EIA) is a sporadic viral disease in many countries. Every single case has, however, a dramatic impact: infected animals have to be put down, and quarantine restrictions on horse movements lasting three months lead to substantial economic losses. In Switzerland, the mandatory notification was introduced in 1994 in order to facilitate international traffic. A year later, the "new" Ordinance on epizootics of 1995 classified EIA as a "disease to be eradicated". An infected polo horse in the canton of Argovia in summer 2017 thus represented Switzerland's first official ca...
Hagiwara K, Okamoto M, Kamitani W, Takamura S, Taniyama H, Tsunoda N, Tanaka H, Iwai H, Ikuta K.To investigate the prevalence of diseases in the Borna disease virus (BDV) antibody positive race horses, we undertook seroepidemiological studies of BDV infection on 125 culled race horses in Hokkaido, Japan. The serological study disclosed the presence of antibodies only to BDV-p40 or -p24 in 19.2% (24/125) and 3.2% (4/125) of culled horses, respectively. Antibodies to both BDV-p40 and -p24 were found in 24.0% (30/125) of these horses. Of particular note was the finding that locomotorium disorders were detectable at a significantly higher rate in BDV antibody positive horses than that in the...
Khosravi M, Kavosh F, Taghavi-Moghadam A, Ghaem-Maghami S, Pirali-Kheirabadi K, Rahimi-Feyli P, Navid-Pour S, Amin-Pour A, Arbabi F.No abstract available
Eksell P, Axelsson M, Broström H, Ronéus B, Häggström J, Carlsten J.The present field study was performed to estimate the prevalence of radiographic signs of bone spavin (RSBS) and to evaluate some possible risk factors for RSBS in the Icelandic horse in Sweden. The survey included horses from 11 farms involving 379 horses, comprising 238 geldings, 125 mares and 16 stallions. Age ranged from 0 to 19 years with a mean age of 8.1 years. Horses were radiographed with a dorsolateral-plantaromedial-oblique projection of both tarsi. Information about age, gender, origin, working intensity, number of gaits and age when saddle broken were obtained by interviewing the ...