Epidemiology in horses involves the study of the distribution and determinants of health-related states and events in equine populations. It encompasses the investigation of patterns, causes, and effects of diseases and health conditions within horse populations. This field of study aims to identify risk factors for disease and targets for preventive healthcare. Key components of equine epidemiology include disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, and the study of disease dynamics within herds or regions. Research in this area often focuses on infectious diseases, zoonotic diseases, and the impact of environmental factors on equine health. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore various aspects of epidemiology in horses, including disease prevalence, transmission pathways, and strategies for disease prevention and control.
Alemu T, Luckins AG, Phipps LP, Reid SW, Holmes PH.A field study involving 309 horses was undertaken in the provinces of Arsi and Bale in the Ethiopian highlands to investigate the prevalence of Trypanosoma equiperdum infections using enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the detection of both trypanosomal antigen and antibody. Adult horses of both sexes were examined for clinical signs of T. equiperdum infection and serum samples were collected for the assays. One hundred and one horses showed the presence of trypanosomal antibodies in their serum and 70 animals showed typical clinical signs of dourine. Nineteen horses showed the pr...
Orsini JA, Spencer P.This research article explores the resistance to antibiotics, specifically aminoglycosides, in bacteria found in a large animal hospital over a five-year period. It reveals the existence of a significant resistance […]
Baylis M, el Hasnaoui H, Bouayoune H, Touti J, Mellor PS.African horse sickness (AHS) is a vector-borne, infectious disease of equines that is caused by African horse sickness virus (AHSV). The only proven field vector is the biting midge Culicoides imicola, although C. obsoletus and C. pulicaris are suspected vectors. There was a recent epizootic of AHS in Iberia (1987-90) and Morocco (1989-91). In 1994-45 a total of 3887 light trap samples were taken from twenty-two sites distributed over most of Morocco. Culicoides imicola was found to be very widely dispersed, with the greatest catches in the low-lying northwestern areas (between Tangier and Rab...
Takai S, Takeda K, Nakano Y, Karasawa T, Furugoori J, Sasaki Y, Tsubaki S, Higuchi T, Anzai T, Wada R, Kamada M.To investigate the emergence of rifampin resistance in Rhodococcus equi strains isolated from foals and their environment in Japan, we compared the in vitro antimicrobial susceptibilities to rifampin of 640 isolates from 64 infected foals and 98 soil isolates from their horse-breeding farms. As a control, 39 human isolates from patients with and without AIDS were also tested for susceptibility to rifampin. All of the isolates showed rifampin sensitivity, except isolates from one infected foal and two patients with AIDS that showed rifampin resistance. To investigate the emergence of rifampin-r...
Takahashi H, Nakaya T, Nakamura Y, Asahi S, Onishi Y, Ikebuchi K, Takahashi TA, Katoh T, Sekiguchi S, Takazawa M, Tanaka H, Ikuta K.It is believed that Borna disease virus (BDV), an etiological agent of progressive polioencephalomyelitis in horses and sheep, is closely associated with psychiatric disorders in humans since the prevalence of BDV is higher in psychiatric patients than in blood donors. We investigated whether or not BDVs in humans are derived from infected domestic animals, by characterizing the BDVs in blood donors and horses derived from the same region of Hokkaido island, Japan. The seroprevalences (2.6 to 14.8%) of BDV were significantly higher in the blood donors from four regions where most horse farms a...
Morley PS, Townsend HG.A survey was performed to evaluate the reproductive performance of Thoroughbred mares, estimate risks of dystocia and of morbidity and mortality in foals during the first year post partum and their physical acceptability at age one year. The study population consisted of registered Thoroughbred mares and their foals owned by residents of 4 Western Canadian provinces. Owners were identified using information obtained from the North American Jockey Club, and questionnaires were mailed regarding mares bred in 1988 and their foals born in 1989. Eighty-three per cent of mares were reported to be pr...
Matsuda M, Miyazawa T, Ishida Y, Moore JE.The genomic DNA of eight strains of Taylorella equigenitalis, isolated from seven Norwegian Trotters and a Norwegian pony with contagious equine metritis in Norway, was examined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis after separate digestions with two restriction enzymes, namely, ApaI and NotI. The respective electrophoretic profiles of the fragments were essentially identical but differed from those of T. equigenitalis NCTC11184T and Kentucky 188. They also exhibited slight differences from profiles obtained from Japanese isolates. These results may possibly suggest a common genotype and a commo...
Zheng YH, Sentsui H, Nakaya T, Kono Y, Ikuta K.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is a good model for studying mechanisms generating escaped retrovirus variants. We previously sequenced the entire gp90-encoding region of 22 cDNA clones obtained from five antigenically distinct isolates (F1V to F5V) recovered during febrile episodes in horse 493 experimentally infected with the Japanese virulent EIAV strain V70. The results showed that the mutations occurred in the principal neutralizing domain (PND) by insertions/duplications. In this study, we further characterized the PND of virus isolates sequentially recovered during 22 febrile epis...
Reubel GH, Studdert MJ.We report the first nucleotide sequence data on equine adenovirus 2 (EAdV2) which corroborate on the molecular level that EAdV2 is distinct from equine adenovirus 1 (EAdV1). Based on sequence homology with Eadv1 the hexon gene of Eadv2 was identified. HindIII restriction fragments containing the hexon and eight other viral genes were cloned into the plasmid pUC19 and the nucleotide sequence of the hexon and the 23K proteinase genes completely determined. Amino acid (aa) comparison of sequence fragments with published adenovirus (AdV) proteins identified the genes for the E1B/19K, IVa2, DNA pol...
Higuchi T, Hashikura S, Gojo C, Inui T, Satoh S, Yoshida M, Ishiyama T, Yamada H, Takai S.An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of serum IgG antibodies against Tween 20-extracted antigen of strain ATCC 6939 was applied in Hidaka, Japan to a total of 752 sick foals showing a variety of signs of infectious disease. An optical density (OD) value of more than 0.3 was tentatively fixed to be positive on the basis of readings made of healthy horse sera in previous studies. During a 2 year study, 138 of the 752 sick foals showed an OD value of 0.3 or higher and were designated as 'suspected of R. equi infection'. Age distribution during the initial medical examination...
Hartmann FA, West SE.Phenotypic and molecular techniques, including antimicrobial susceptibility testing, plasmid analysis, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were used to characterize 15 isolates of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella anatum cultured during a 16 mo period from horses and a veterinary clinic environment. The isolates were resistant to multiple antimicrobial agents and could be placed into 4 groups based on their antimicrobial resistance patterns. The isolates contained multiple plasmids ranging in size from 2 to > 100 kb that could be grouped into 3 different plasmid profile patterns;...
Richt JA, Pfeuffer I, Christ M, Frese K, Bechter K, Herzog S.The geographic distribution and host range of Borna disease (BD), a fatal neurologic disease of horses and sheep, are larger than previously thought. The etiologic agent, Borna disease virus (BDV), has been identified as an enveloped nonsegmented negative-strand RNA virus with unique properties of replication. Data indicate a high degree of genetic stability of BDV in its natural host, the horse. Studies in the Lewis rat have shown that BDV replication does not directly influence vital functions; rather, the disease is caused by a virus-induced T-cell mediated immune reaction. Because antibodi...
Lyons ET, Tolliver SC, Collins SS, Drudge JH, Granstrom DE.Data are presented on the last 3 years of a 7-year study (1989-1995) on transmission of natural infections of internal parasites in horse foals (n = 27) born in 1993, 1994, and 1995 on the same pasture on a farm in central Kentucky. The foals were in a closed breeding herd of horses. Research on the first 4 years (1989-1992) of the study was published earlier (Lyons et al., 1991, 1994). Thirty-five species of endoparasites were identified, including 24 species of small strongyles. Monthly, seasonal, and host-age transmission patterns were elucidated for the parasites. Comparison of data betwee...
Takai S.An overview of epidemiology of R. equi infection in foals is presented, emphasizing the importance of the virulence-associated antigens and plasmids as epidemiological markers. The monoclonal antibody-based colony blot test has been developed to identify rapidly and accurately virulent R. equi. Epidemiological studies conducted during the recent 5 years have revealed that: (1) avirulent R. equi are widespread in the feces of horses and their environment on every farm; (2) the feces of horses and the environment of the horse farms having endemic R. equi infections demonstrated heavy contaminati...
Christensen LS.Borna disease virus has long been recognized as a cause of sporadic cases and epidemics of meningoencephalomyelitis in horses and sheep in southern parts of Germany. however, sero-epidemiological surveillances indicate that Borna disease virus has a global distribution in horses, without the recognition of clinical manifestations associated with the infection, in other parts of the world. During the past five years evidence has been presented suggesting that humans also can become infected with this virus or a closely related virus. A significantly increased sero-prevalence is seen in patient ...
Becú T, Polledo G, Gaskin JM.An immunoprophylaxis program for R. equi infection of foals has been established on a number of thoroughbred breeding farms in Argentina over the past 4 years. Nearly 800 mares annually were immunized subcutaneously during the last 2 months of pregnancy with 2-3 doses of a vaccine containing soluble antigens of R. equi, including the virulence associated protein (VapA) and 'equi factors' exoenzymes. The mortality from R. equi pneumonia in the foals from vaccinated dams dropped from an average of 3% in the 5 years before the vaccination program was initiated to an average of 1.2% in the 4 years...
Giguère S, Prescott JF.Since the 1986 Rhodococcus equi workshop, there have been major breakthroughs in understanding the epidemiology of, the virulence of, and the immune response to, this intriguing pathogen. However, with the exception of the use of hyperimmune plasma for the prevention of the disease (Martens et al., 1989; Madigan et al., 1991) the clinical aspects of R. equi infections have essentially remained unchanged. This article reviews the various clinical manifestations and summarizes recent advances in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of R. equi infections in foals.
Gionfriddo JR, Gionfriddo JP, Krohne SG.To identify ocular and adnexal diseases to which llamas in North America are susceptible, to determine prevalence of these diseases in llamas, and to compare prevalences of the major ocular diseases of llamas, cattle, and horses. Methods: Retrospective study. Methods: 194 llamas, 4,937 cows, and 11,950 horses with ocular disease. Methods: Medical records of all llamas entered into the Veterinary Medical Database between 1980 and 1993 were reviewed. Data on ocular structures affected and types of ocular disease were compiled. Prevalences of uveitis, corneal ulcers, and ocular squamous cell carc...
Hagiwara K, Momiyama N, Taniyama H, Nakaya T, Tsunoda N, Ishihara C, Ikuta K.Sero- and molecular-epidemiological studies on Borna disease virus (BDV) infection show that BDV RNA is not always detected in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from serum anti-BDV antibody-positive individuals such as horses, sheep, cattle, cats, and humans. In this study we demonstrated BDV RNA signals by polymerase chain reaction only in restricted regions of the brain from horses with locomotor disease. Four of six horses examined showed apparently positive reactions for anti-BDV antibodies. Specific regions of the brain of these four horses were positive for BDV RNA but the i...
Nagatomo H, Tokita Y, Shimizu T.Although it is known that commercialized bovine serum is sometimes contaminated with mycoplasmas, it is not clear whether mycoplasmas can survive in horse serum. In this study, as a preliminary examination of the survival of mycoplasmas inoculated in horse sera, the survivability of 8 strains of 7 mycoplasmas was tested. The results obtained reveal that two strains of M. bovis and M. gallisepticum were found to survive in non-heated and inactivated sera for 94 to 330 days at 30 or 37 degrees C. Three strains of M. bovirhinis, M. gateae and A. laidlawii lived for 7 to 330 days depending upon th...
Martin GS, Strand E, Kearney MT.To determine the relationship between prediction errors of a regression model of racing finish times and earnings or finish position; the relationship between standardized finish times, determined by use of this model, and earnings or finish position; and whether this model was valid when applied to data for horses that underwent surgical treatment. Methods: Survey. Methods: Records of 6,700 healthy Thoroughbreds racing in Louisiana and of 31 Thoroughbreds with idiopathic left laryngeal hemiplegia that underwent surgical treatment. Methods: Predicted and standardized finish times were calculat...
Paweska JT, Henton MM, van der Lugt JJ.Clinical, virological and serological responses were evaluated in 10 pregnant mares after different challenge exposures to the asinine-94 strain of equine arteritis virus (EAV). The outcome of maternal infection on the progeny was also investigated. Mares were inoculated intranasally (n = 4), intramuscularly (n = 2), intravenously (n = 1), or contract-exposed (n = 3). All inoculated mares developed pyrexia, 5 showed mild clinical signs related to EAV infection and 2 remained asymptomatic. Viraemia was detected in all the inoculated animals and shedding of virus from the respiratory tract occur...
Avarzed A, De Waal DT, Igarashi I, Saito A, Oyamada T, Toyoda Y, Suzuki N.Antigen for the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT) was routinely prepared from infected erythrocytes from horses experimentally infected with Babesia equi and Babesia caballi. With the successful establishment of in vitro cultures of B. equi and B. caballi, it is now possible to employ culture-derived antigens in this test. In this study, in vitro-propagated B. equi- and B. caballi-infected erythrocytes were used as antigen in the IFAT. Various modifications to an established protocol had to be implemented to allow repeatable results. Cultures with 3-4% parasitized erythrocytes were fou...
Barnard BJ.Twenty-four species of South African wild animals were tested for the presence of antibodies against the viruses of 16 common diseases of domestic animals. Positive results were obtained for African horsesickness, equine encephalosis, equid herpes virus-1, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, Allerton disease (Herpes mammillitis), lumpy skin disease, parainfluenza, encephalomyocarditis, bluetongue, Wesselsbron disease, bovine ephemeral fever, and Akabane disease complex. No antibodies could be demonstrated against the viruses of equine influenza, equine infectious anaemia, equine viral arteritis...
Willink DL, Smeenk LA, van Oijen PW, de Kruif A.In the period 1994-1996 1030 oestruses of Dutch Warmblood mares were evaluated on the incidence of multiple ovulations diagnosed by rectal palpation. Ultrasonography was not used. All follicles > 25 mm were noted. The examination was repeated every 48 hours. The incidence of multiple follicle development was 7.3%. In a group of 50 ultrasonographically diagnosed twin-pregnant mares only 14 (28%) had been detected by rectal palpation as a multiple ovulation. This suggests an incidence of multiple ovulations in Dutch Warmblood mares of 7.3 x 1/28 x 100 = 26%. Restrictions of rectal palpation are ...
de Boer GF, Osterhaus AD, van Oirschot JT, Wemmenhove R.The prevalence of antibodies to various viruses was investigated in a series of serum samples collected from horses in the Netherlands between 1963 and 1966 and from 1972 onwards. Neutralizing antibodies to equine rhinopneumonitis virus, equine arteritis virus and to equine rhinovirus types 1 and 2 were detected in respectively 76%, 14%, 66% and 59% of the equine serum samples tested. The observed incidence of serum samples positive to equine adenovirus in the complement fixation test was 39%. Precipitating antibodies to equine infectious anaemia virus were detected only in serum samples from ...
Drudge JH, Lyons ET, Tolliver SC, Kubis JE.The efficacy of oxibendazole given at dose level of 10 mg/kg of body weight was determined by 10 critical tests in foals and by 2 clinical trials in 20 foals (16 treated, 4 nontreated), with special interest in the drug activity against Parascaris equorum. The drug was uniformly efficacious (100%) against P equorum in the 10 critical-test foals, each having between 22 and 236 ascarids. Posttreatment reductions of ascarid egg counts in fecal samples were also 100% in suckling foals treated with oxibendazole given as a drench. Ascarid eggs did not reappear in fecal samples until the 8th week aft...
Bougrine SI, Fihri OF, Fehri MM.A Western immunoblotting procedure has been developed for the detection of African horse sickness virus (AHSV) protein-specific antibody responses. This assay readily identifies antibodies specific for at least 4 distinct, AHSV proteins, including VP5, NS1, NS2 and NS3/NS3a. By using the AHSV non-structural proteins as 'markers', the Western blotting procedure could be employed to provide a reliable means of discriminating between animals vaccinated with a purified, inactivated AHSV vaccine and those either naturally infected or vaccinated with a live, attenuated AHSV vaccine.
Pedersen CE, Eddy GA.Polyacrylamide gel electrophoretic examination of viruses selected from the Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis (VEE) complex revealed distinct strain to strain differences in profiles of the two virion envelope proteins. The core protein was identical in all viruses tested. We detected five electrophoretic patterns into which the virus strains could be classified and these were designated alpha (alpha), beta (beta), gamma (gamma), delta (delta), and episolon (episolon). Isolates representing variant E of subtype I exhibited a profile characterized by only one apparent envelope band. The epizo...
Pathak A, Gulati BR, Maan S, Mor S, Kumar D, Soman R, Punia S, Chaudhary D, Khurana SK.Rotaviruses are the most common viral agents associated with foal diarrhea. Between 2014 and 2017, the annual prevalence of rotavirus in diarrheic foals ranged between 18 and 28% in Haryana (India). Whole-genome sequencing of two equine rotavirus A (ERVA) isolates (RVA/Horse-wt/IND/ERV4/2017 and RVA/Horse-wt/IND/ERV6/2017) was carried out to determine the genotypic constellations (GCs) of ERVAs. The GCs of both the isolates were G3-P[3]-I8-R3-C3-M3-A9-N3-T3-E3-H6, a unique combination reported for ERVAs so far. Both the isolates carried VP6 of genotype I8, previously unreported from equines. U...
Miller SM.Endoscopy of thoroughbred (TB) yearlings at public auctions is common in South Africa. Laryngeal function (LF) is a common concern of buyers of young TBs. Cancellation of sale because of LF abnormalities is a concern for both the vendor and the buyer, with recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) being a common cause of sale cancellation. The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the prevalence of RLN at South African premier TB yearling sales. This study was designed as a retrospective descriptive analysis of upper respiratory tract (URT) endoscopic examinations to determine RLN grade, p...
Vincze B, Varga M, Kutasi O, Zenke P, Szenci O, Baska F, Bartels A, Spisák S, Cseh S, Solymosi N.Equine grass sickness (also known as dysautonomia) is a life-threatening polyneuropathic disease affecting horses with approx. 80% mortality. Since its first description over a century ago, several factors, such as the phenotype, intestinal microbiome, environment, management and climate, have been supposed to be associated with the increased risk of dysautonomia. In this retrospective study, we examined the possible involvement of genetic factors. Medical and pedigree datasets regarding 1,233 horses with 49 affected animals born during a 23-year period were used in the analysis. Among the des...
MacKay RJ, Howe DK.Advances in the understanding of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) are reviewed. It is now apparent that EPM can be caused by either of 2 related protozoan parasites, Sarcocystis neurona and Neospora hughesi, although S neurona is the most common etiologic pathogen. Horses are commonly infected, but clinical disease occurs only infrequently; the factors influencing disease occurrence are not well understood. Epidemiologic studies have identified risk factors for the development of EPM, including the presence of opossums and prior stressful health-related events. Attempts to reproduce EP...
Edwards JF, Yedloutschnig RJ, Dardiri AH, Callis JJ.Virus isolation was attempted from 262 field samples of vesicular material collected during the outbreaks of vesicular exanthema of swine in the U.S.A. from 1952-54. Using primary swine kidney culture, viral cytopathogenic agents were isolated from 76.3% of the samples. However, an overall recovery rate of 82.1% was obtained after samples negative in tissue culture were inoculated intradermally in susceptible swine. All vesicular exanthema of swine virus isolates were identified as serotype B51 using complement fixation and serum neutralization tests. Two isolates did not react with antisera t...
Zakia LS, Albertino LG, Andrade DGA, Amorim RM, Takahira RR, Oliveira-Filho JP, Borges AS.This study aimed to characterize the findings in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) analysis of horses, cattle, and sheep diagnosed with rabies. The study included 62 animals (horses, cattle, and sheep) diagnosed with rabies at a referral hospital. This was a retrospective study using medical records from large animals with neurological signs and confirmed positive direct immunofluorescence test for rabies from 2003 to 2020. The results of CSF analysis are presented descriptively. Cerebral spinal fluid samples (N = 67) from 62 animals (31 horses, 24 cattle, and 7 sheep) were retrospectively evaluated...
Strizki JM, Repik PM.We have re-evaluated the relationships among the polypeptides of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) viruses using SDS-PAGE and peptide mapping of individual virion proteins. Four to five distinct polypeptide bands were detected upon SDS-PAGE analysis of viruses: the E1, E2 and C proteins normally associated with alphavirus virions, as well as an additional more rapidly-migrating E2-associated protein and a high M(r) (HMW) protein. In contrast with previous findings by others, the electrophoretic profiles of the virion proteins of EEE viruses displayed a marked correlation with serotype. The pro...
Meny P, Iglesias T, Menéndez C, Quintero J, Ríos C, Ashfield N, Ferreira O, Mosca V, De Brun L, Ortiz G, De Vries I, Varela G, Schelotto F.To investigate seroprevalence of anti-Leptospira antibodies in equines and associated workers in Uruguay, 891 equine and 150 human sera were drawn; 212 equine urine samples were also taken for culture. Environmental conditions and equine raising or managing practices were recorded in all 72 visited establishments; epidemiological information was obtained from each worker. Microscopic agglutination technique (MAT) was performed with 10 Leptospira strains for equines and 18 for human sera, that were also studied with IgM indirect immunofluorescence (IgM-IIF). Equine titres ≥100 were considered...
Qamar W, Alsayeqh AF.Third-world countries have a higher prevalence of food-related disorders than developed nations. Millions of people in underdeveloped countries are seriously at risk from the potential water supply contamination with protozoan diseases. is one of the important protozoans causing diseases in livestock and humans. Despite the standard tests for diagnosing this parasite and different treatment methods, the spread of these parasites is uncontrollable and rising every year due to other management disorders. In this review, we summarize etiopathogenesis and prevalence in Pakistan. We looked for pap...
Anaya G, Fernández ME, Valera M, Molina A, Azcona F, Azor P, Solé M, Moreno-Millán M, Demyda-Peyrás S.Twin foaling is associated with chimaerism in several domestic species and is recognised in horses. In this study, 21,097 purebred Spanish (Pura Raza Español) horse births from the 2015 to 2016 breeding season were investigated for chimaerism. Twin foaled and chimaeric individuals were assessed on the basis of foaling records, short-tandem repeat (STR) parentage test results and a sex-linked STR-based technique. Fourteen twin pregnancies with 23 twin foals born alive were identified (0.066% twin foaling prevalence), including five blood chimaeric cases (21.7%; overall prevalence 0.011%), sugg...
Adaszek Ł, García-Bocanegra I, Arenas-Montes A, Carbonero A, Arenas A, Winiarczyk S.The aim of the study was to detect the presence of genetic material of equine piroplasmas and to determine the species isolates from apparently healthy equids, including horses, donkeys and mules, in southern Spain. Blood samples were collected from 135 animals to assess the presence of DNA from equine piroplasmas using PCR. Babesia (B.) caballi DNA was detected in blood samples of three horses and one donkey, while Theileria (T.) equi DNA was confirmed in blood of 19 horses, three mules and one donkey. All B. caballi isolates showed a 100% homology of the nucleotide sequence of the 18S RNA ge...
Obregón AM, Fernández C, Rodríguez I, Balbis Y, Martínez B, Rodríguez J.To assess the sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, and stability of five latex agglutination systems for detecting antibodies against leptospira in human and animal sera, by using the Leptospira serotypes that are most widely prevalent in Cuba. Methods: We performed an analytic and descriptive study with 706 human sera (65 tested positive for antibodies against leptospira with microagglutination (MAT) and hemagglutination (HA) techniques; 156 sera that tested negative with MAT and HA); 485 sera from 424 patients who had clinical or epidemiologic signs of leptospirosis; and 29 animal sera...
Blackburn NK, Swanepoel R.Tests for neutralising (NT) antibodies to the nine serotypes of African horse sickness (AHS) virus on the sera of three groups of horses confirmed that an increasing number of immunisations with vaccine containing attenuated strains of serotypes 1 to 6 of the virus, leads to broader response to the various serotypes and to higher individual titres. Nevertheless some horses failed to respond to one or more serotypes despite receiving numerous immunisations and it was clear that vaccine containing only serotypes 1 to 6 could not be relied upon to induce adequate cross-immunity to serotypes 7 to ...
Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) cause morbidity and mortality in humans and domestic animals worldwide. The percentage of population immunity or susceptibility to these viruses in Ecuador is unknown. To investigate the proportion of Ecuadorian populations with IgG antibodies (Abs) (past exposure/immunity) and IgM Abs (current exposure) against flaviviruses and alphaviruses and to study the activity of these viruses in Ecuador. During 2009-2011, we conducted a serosurvey for selected arboviruses in humans (n=1,842), equines (n=149), and sentinel hamsters (n=84) at two coastal locations an...
Kingsley NB, Sandmeyer L, Norton EM, Speed D, Dwyer A, Lassaline M, McCue M, Bellone RR.Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is a blinding ocular disorder among horses, and the Appaloosa horse breed is disproportionally affected by a chronic form of this intraocular inflammatory disease known as insidious uveitis. Strong breed predisposition and previous investigations suggest that there is a genetic component to the pathology of insidious uveitis among Appaloosa horses; however, no estimates of the heritability of the disease have previously been determined. This study aimed to characterize the genetic underpinning of the disease by estimating the heritability for insidious uveitis am...
Elata A, Galon EM, Moumouni PFA, Ybanez RHD, Mossaad E, Salces CB, Bajenting GP, Ybanez AP, Xuan X, Inoue N, Suganuma K.Animal trypanosomosis is one of the most important parasitic diseases significantly affecting the Philippine economy. It is considered by the government to be the second most important disease of livestock after fasciolosis. A PCR-based molecular survey for trypanosomes in different animals in Bohol, Philippines, was performed to assess the prevalence of trypanosomosis in the area during the rainy and dry season. Methods: A total of 269 blood samples were collected in two batches in rainy and dry season from different animal species in Ubay Stock Farm in Ubay, Bohol, the Philippines, including...
Stockenström S, Sydenham EW, Shephard GS.The widespread occurrence of F. moniliforme and the toxic effects of its secondary metabolites, the fumonisins B1(FB1), B2(FB2) and B3(FB3), make it imperative that fumonisin contamination of maize, a major constituent of animal feed as well as the staple diet of many populations, be closely monitored to reduce the risk of fumonisin exposure. Equine leukoencephalomalacia and porcine pulmonary oedema have been associated with the intake of feed heavily contaminated with fumonisins. In addition, high levels of fumonisins in the maize-based staple diets of certain populations have been linked to ...
Chang HC, Takashima I, Arikawa J, Hashimoto N.A biotin-labeled antigen (BLA) was adapted to a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (S-ELISA) for detection of Japanese encephalitis (JE) antibody in a variety of animal sera. JE antigen was fixed on the wells of a microplate and became bound to the specific antibody which could react with a peroxidase-labeled avidin conjugate and azino-di-(3-ethylbenzthiazolin sulfonic acid) (ABTS) as a substrate. The BLA-S-ELISA could simultaneously detect JE antibody in all hemagglutination inhibition (HI) positive sera from man, swine, monkey, horse, cattle, rabbit, rat, mouse and pigeon by using th...
Kalinová Z, Cisláková L, Halánová M.Ehrlichiosis and anaplasmosis are zoonoses caused by bacteria from the family Anaplasmataceae, including human and animal pathogens. The human pathogens are Ehrlichia chaffeensis, the causative agent of human monocytic ehrlichiosis (HME), Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the pathogen causing human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), E. ewingii and Neorickettsia sennetsu, granulocytotropic and monocytotropic Ehrlichia species, respectively. Ehrlichia spp. are small, gram-negative, obligate intracellular bacteria. They replicate in the cytoplasmic vacuoles of host cells, especially granulocytes and monoc...
Tunnell JA, Sanders JO, Williams JD, Potter GD.Pedigrees of randomly selected Quarter Horses born in each of the years 1946, 1956, 1966 and 1976 and of winning halter, cutting and race horses born in the same years were evaluated and compared. Average inbreeding and inter se relationship levels and relationships of influential ancestors to the sample were calculated for each sample. The amount of Thoroughbred influence and the average generation interval were also determined for each random sample. The levels of inbreeding found in the random samples were low, ranging from 1.3% in 1956 to 2.6% in 1966; however, these levels were higher tha...
McNabb L, Andiani A, Bulavaite A, Zvirbliene A, Sasnauskas K, Lunt R.Zoonotic transmission of Hendra virus (HeV) from primary hosts (pteropid bats) to horses, and, occasionally, onward adventitious spread to humans, is associated with high mortality rates in both affected secondary species. The introduction of an effective recombinant G protein vaccine for use in horses has been a major advance for the suppression of disease risk. However, equine HeV vaccination induces neutralising antibody that is indistinguishable from a post infection immune response when using most first line serology assays (eg. VNT and some ELISAs). We have constructed and evaluated an I...
Vandoorn E, Stadejek W, Leroux-Roels I, Leroux-Roels G, Parys A, Van Reeth K.Influenza A viruses (IAVs) of subtype H3 that infect humans are antigenically divergent from those of birds, horses, and swine. Human immunity against these viruses might be limited, implying potential pandemic risk. To determine human risk, we selected 4 avian, 1 equine, and 3 swine IAVs representing major H3 lineages. We tested serum collected during 2017-2018 from 286 persons in Belgium for hemagglutination inhibiting antibodies and virus neutralizing antibodies against those animal-origin IAVs and tested replication in human airway epithelia. Seroprevalence rates for circulating IAVs from ...
Takahashi T, Unuma S, Kawagishi S, Kurebayashi Y, Takano M, Yoshino H, Minami A, Yamanaka T, Otsubo T, Ikeda K, Suzuki T.Most equine influenza A viruses (IAVs) show strong binding to glycoconjugates containing N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) as well as N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac). Therefore, the progeny of equine IAV is thought to be released from the infected cell surface through removal of sialic acids by the viral sialidase. In the present study, equine IAV sialidases showed significantly lower substrate affinity than that of human IAV sialidases to artificial and natural Neu5Gc-conjugated substrates. The substrate specificity of equine IAV sialidases is in disagreement with their binding specificity ...
Emeto UE, Okolo CC, Nweze NE.Epidemiological data on trypanosomosis and piroplasmosis of horses are lacking in southeastern Nigeria. The prevalence of trypanosome and piroplasm infections in horses and resistance profile of isolated trypanosomes to diminazene and isometamidium salts were investigated. For the cross-sectional study of horses billed for slaughter, 304 horses were randomly sampled. Approximately 2 ml of blood was collected into anticoagulant-treated bottles for haematocrit (HCT) determination, direct microscopic examinations, and rat inoculation. Gender, body condition scores (BCS), age groups, and body wei...
McKenzie HC, Funk RA, Trager L, Werre SR, Crisman M.Potomac horse fever (PHF) is a potentially fatal enterocolitis of horses caused by Neorickettsia risticii. The disease was originally recognised almost 40 years ago in the state of Maryland in the US. It is now known to occur in many areas of North America, as well as having been described in South America and Europe. Monocomponent PHF vaccines are available, but clinical protection with vaccination has been reported to be inconsistent. Objective: This study was designed to assess the immunogenicity of a commercially available Potomac Horse Fever (PHF) vaccine when administered as either a mo...
Morton JM, Dups JN, Anthony ND, Dwyer JF.The risk of individuals becoming infected during an epidemic of infectious disease can vary as the disease progresses. Monitoring this risk may provide information about the dynamics of transmission. This study describes the epidemic curve for an epidemic of equine influenza (EI) in a closed population of horses predominantly immunologically naïve to EI at a 3-day event at Morgan Park in southern Queensland, Australia. The hazard function suggested that a subset of horses were at reduced risk of becoming infected. This highlights the importance, when modelling infectious disease in population...
