The study of diseases in horses encompasses a wide range of conditions affecting equine health, including infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, and genetic abnormalities. These diseases can impact various systems within the horse, such as respiratory, gastrointestinal, and musculoskeletal systems, and can lead to significant health challenges. Research in this area focuses on understanding the pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of equine diseases. Common diseases studied include equine influenza, equine herpesvirus, and laminitis. This page provides access to peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the etiology, clinical presentation, and management strategies of diseases in horses, contributing to the advancement of equine veterinary medicine.
Okladnikov GI.The main clinical varieties of spinal cord and equine tail tumors are reviewed. Of 221 cases, the progressive course of the disease was recorded in 76,9%, slow-progressive course was observed in 68,1% and rapid-progressive in 8,8% of cases. It is stressed that in the presence of the progressive course of the disease there may occur different manifestations of the tumorous process of the spinal cord, the examination of which makes it possible to improve the diagnosis, particularly in the early stage of the spinal oncological process.
Owen RA, Fullerton J, Barnum DA.Seventeen ponies were infected with Salmonella typhimurium and then 15 were variously stressed by transportation and/or surgery and 9 were given oxytetracycline. Indications of Salmonella reactivation occurred in all the stressed ponies. Diarrhea due to a reactivation of the Salmonella infection did not develop until greater than 3 days after stress, although maximal shedding of organisms occurred within 24 hours. A neutropenia generally occurred within 24 hours after stress and lasted about 5 days. A rectal temperature greater than 39 C usually did not occur. An increase in serologic titer wa...
Lees MJ, Kleider N, Tuddenham TJ.Five horses were presented because of a dermatitis of the forehead. Unlike previous reports, ventral midline dermatitis was not the major problem, and was present in only two of five cases. All five horses responded to levamisole therapy at a daily dosage of 5.5 g for one week. Owners were cautioned that repeat therapy may be necessary.
Magnuson NS, Decker DM, Perryman LE.1. Activities of S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) hydrolase were measured in tissues of horses with severe combined immunodeficiency. No decrease in activity of the enzyme was detected.
2. The activity in erythrocytes was 14.2 ± 9.2 nmol AdoHcy formed/min/g hemoglobin and in fibroblasts it was 28.0 ± 7.9 nmol AdoHcy formed/min/108 cells.
3. Km values were obtained for hemolysates (0.77 μM) and for fibroblast lysates (0.59 μM).
4. Effects of 2′-deoxyadenosine on enzyme inactivation were studied.
Nakazawa M, Sugimoto C, Isayama Y.The selective isolation of R. equi in NANC medium was made by quantitative culture of the organism in the feces. R. equi was observed in the feces of all the mares and foals investigated. The mean viable count of R. equi organisms in 1 gram of feces was 8.42 X 10(2) in the mares and 7.57 X 10(2) in the foals, and its 95% confidence limits were in a range of 6.48 X 10(2) to 1.09 X 10(3) and 4.19 X 10(2) to 1.37 X 10(3), respectively. This result indicates that R. equi is a member of the normal intestinal flora in the horse.
Bistner S, Campbell RJ, Shaw D, Leininger JR, Ghobrial HK.A nine-year-old horse was presented with severe exophthalmos of the right eye and a large mass in the vitreal cavity. The affected globe was enucleated and two months following surgery the horse was euthanized because of spread of the tumor into the calvarium producing compression of the brain stem and neurologic signs. Examination of tumor tissue by light and electron microscopic examination showed a mixed neoplasm of primitive neuroepithelium.
van den Hoven R, Franken P.This paper describes the clinical and laboratory findings in 16 horses suffering from lymphosarcoma and the autopsy results in 13 of these cases which were examined at the Large Animal Medicine Clinic, State University of Utrecht, from 1969 to 1981. The cases were classified into four groups, designated multicentric, alimentary, thymic and cutaneous forms, according to the situation of the tumours.
Matuschka FR.The dog is the final host for sarcosporidia cysts from the oesophagus and diaphragm of donkeys from Sardinia. The prepatent period lasted 9 to 10 days. Sporocysts measured 12.2-13.8 X 9.2-9.9 microns. Infection of a horse with 10(5) donkey/dog sporocysts increased the rectal temperature to more than 40 degrees C on days 10 and 20 after infection. On day 138 p.i. predominantly immature cysts containing metrocytes were found, especially in the oesophagus. Infection on day 117 p.i. with 2 X 10(5) horse/dog sporocysts did not give rise to a temperature increase during the following 21 days. The fi...
Andersson L, Juneja RK, Sandberg K.Genetic linkage between the equine loci for phosphohexose isomerase (PHI) and serum Xk protein was demonstrated by means of segregation data from three sire families. The recombination frequency was estimated from pooled data to be 0.23 +/- 0.02; a significant heterogeneity between sires for estimates of the recombination frequency was observed. No indication of linkage was detected between Xk and 14 other blood marker loci. Linkage between the Xk locus and the locus for soluble malic enzyme (ME1) has recently been reported in horses. An equine linkage group designated LG IV comprising the thr...
Campbell TM, Studdert MJ.Severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) in foals is the only known animal model for the autosomal recessive form of primary SCID in man. A major requirement in the treatment of SCID is the maintenance of the patient in a disease free state until definitive therapy can be undertaken. This paper reviews the current status of prophylactic and definitive therapy in man and the horse. Particular emphasis is placed on the methods of reconstitution available, involving foetal tissues and bone marrow.
Studdert MJ.DNA was prepared from 43 equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV 1) isolates, 11 of which were from horses with respiratory disease, 22 from aborted equine foetuses, and 10 from foals that died perinatally. The restriction endonuclease DNA fingerprints of 10 of the 11 respiratory isolates, known with certainty to have been recovered from horses with respiratory disease, were entirely different from all but 3 of the 32 foetal or perinatal foal isolates. The exceptional respiratory isolate, EHV 1 Army 183, had a foetal (F) strain fingerprint but this virus cannot be said with certainty to have been isola...
Heyneman RA.The subcellular distribution of the superoxide-forming enzyme in horse polymorphonuclear leukocytes was investigated. After activation of the cells with sodium oleate, a relatively stable and NAD(P)H-dependent oxygen consumption and superoxide production was found in association with the plasma membranes. The pH dependence displayed an optimum near neutrality. The apparent Km values were 38 x 10(-6) mol/l for NADPH and 1,560 x 10(-6) mol/l for NADH, suggesting that NADPH is the physiological donor. The rates of oxygen uptake, O2- production, and NADP consumption were consistent with the stoich...
Bailey E.The linkage group formed by the ELA and A blood group system in horses was studied in American Standardbred horses. The distance between the ELA locus and the A blood group locus was measured as 1.61 centimorgans, observing only the haplotypes contributed by the sires. Strong linkage disequilibrium was found in pacing Standardbred horses for ELA-W1 with Aa, ELA-W5 with Ab and ELA-W10 with Ab. Linkage disequilibrium was apparent at both the population and family level. Among trotting Standardbred horses, linkage disequilibrium was found for ELA-W1 with Aa and for ELA-W10 with Ab. It was not pos...
Svalastoga E, Nielsen K.The histopathological changes in the synovial membrane of bursa podotrochlearis are described in horses with navicular disease. The changes are compared to the histopathological findings in synovial membrane of arthrotic pastern joints in horses and of arthrotic hips in man. A high degree of concordance is demonstrated and this suggests that navicular disease is an arthrotic disease.
Harkiss GD, Brown DL, Smith DJ, Nagington J.Circulating immune complexes were isolated from the sera of cardiac allograft recipients by bovine conglutinin/anti-conglutinin co-precipitation, or by gel filtration and protein A-Sepharose affinity chromatography. The antibody moieties within these isolated immune complexes were tested for specificity against heterologous anti-thymocyte globulins by solid phase radioimmunoassay, and bacterial and viral antigens by indirect immunofluorescence. The results showed that in addition to possessing specific anti-equine anti-thymocyte globulin antibodies, immune complexes also contained cross-reacti...
Timoney PJ, Dillon PB, Geraghty VP, McArdle JF.Aspects of experimental transmission of the causal bacterium of contagious equine metritis (CEM) to albino Swiss mice were investigated. Whereas infection was established in the majority of female mice, the organism was recovered from only a limited number of male mice after challenge. No clinical evidence of infection was observed in the experimental mice. There was only one instance of presumptive venereal transmission of the CEM bacterium. One third of infected females conceived and had normal litters.
Marcum JA, Highsmith RF, Kline DL.Complete activation of purified horse plasminogen to plasmin was obtained with a 1:10 molar ratio of streptokinase to plasminogen after 5 min of incubation at 37 degrees C. At a 1:1 molar ratio, maximal activity did not appear until 15-30 min, while at a ratio of 6:1 complete activation was delayed for 120-180 min. Gel filtration studies of isotopically labeled streptokinase and horse plasminogen suggest that the delay was due to impaired formation of a streptokinase-plasminogen complex. The predominant streptokinase moiety within the streptokinase-plasmin complex which forms from the streptok...
Limone LE, Baratt RM.An 8-year-old, 125 kg (275 lb) female miniature horse was evaluated for a persistently thickened left mandible and cutaneous fistula. Pulp horn defects were identified in pulp horns 1 and 3 of tooth 309 and occlusal pulp exposure was detected with a dental explorer. Radiography of the left mandibular dental quadrant revealed changes consistent with apical infection of tooth 309. Following the failure of oral extraction, a standing surgical approach was taken for transcutaneous lateral alveolar ostectomy and extraction. Roots were sectioned at the level of the furcation and elevated from the su...
Caple IW.Diarrhoea continues to be one of the more common and
important causes of economic loss in young animals (Anon
1978). Virus particles identified as rotaviruses, coronaviruses,
calci-like viruses, astroviruses, parvoviruses, and several others
have been detected by direct electron microscopy of ultracen-
trifuged samples of diarrhoeic faeces from young animals and
human infants over the past 20 years. Despite numerous stud-
ies on the many aetiological agents associated with neonatal
viral diarrhoea in recent years (Tzipori 1985), the challenge
for today’s new veterinary graduate is s...
Remzi M, Buchsteiner R, Djavan B, Hittmair A, Seitz C, Klingler C, Marberger M.Actinomycosis of the urogenital tract is rare and predominantly an infectious disease of horses, cattle, swine, and humans. This case report describes isolated actinomycosis of the hydrocele wall presenting as an inflamed right-sighted hydrocele.
Silver M.THERE is no shortage of anatomical information on the equine foetus and its placenta, from the early work of Ruini in the 16th century to the recent studies of Steven and colleagues (Steven 1982); by contrast, knowledge of the physiology of the foal in utero is sparse. In other domestic animals there have been considerable ads ances in foetal and neonatal physiology and endocrinology in recent years due mainly to the develop-ment of the chronically catheterised foetal preparation in which sequential observations can he made in the conscious animal (Silver 1981). Some information about the deve...
Irwin DH, Howell DW.An easy diagnostic technique for recognising fibrotic myopathy and scarring in the caudal popliteal area is described. A simplified corrective surgical technique is offered and discussed briefly. Some aspects of haematomas are reviewed.
Slovis NM, Watson JL, Affolter VK, Stannard AA.Three horses were presented with a history of having developed raised cutaneous nodules, within 24-48 hours, in areas of previous injections using standard silicone-coated hypodermic needles. Skin biopsies were taken from a selected cutaneous nodule from all horses for histopathologic evaluation. Histologically, the nodules were consistent with a diagnosis of equine eosinophilic granuloma. A hypersensitivity reaction to the silicone, or another component of the coating formulation, was hypothesized to be responsible for these lesions. Two horses were experimentally injected using both coated a...
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.