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.
FEEMSTER RF.This research focuses on the first recognized human infection of equine encephalomyelitis, a disease mostly found in horses, which occurred in Massachusetts in the summer of 1938. The study dives […]
Lochner HL, Hutchinson ML, Wilson ML, Bianco AW, Johnston LJ, Prigge JL, Martinson KL.Recent changes in rendering availability for chemically-euthanized animals have created a need to explore composting as an equine mortality management method. The objectives of this study were to evaluate equine mortality composting in the Upper Midwest during fall and spring, document sodium pentobarbital concentrations throughout the process, and determine nutrient content of finished compost. During each season, four horses were euthanized by intravenous administration of sodium pentobarbital. Carcasses were positioned at the center of a woodchip and shavings base and covered with a 2:1 mix...
Croft MG, Fraser GC, Gaul WN.A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) was used to manage the laboratory data and support planning and field activities as part of the response to the equine influenza outbreak in Australia in 2007. The database structure of the LIMS and the system configurations that were made to best handle the laboratory implications of the disease response are discussed. The operational aspects of the LIMS and the related procedures used at the laboratory to process the increased sample throughput are reviewed, as is the interaction of the LIMS with other corporate systems used in the management...
Larsen M, Nansen P, Grønvold J, Wolstrup J, Henriksen SA.The potential of using fungi to prevent nematodosis caused by parasites with free-living larval stages is well documented today. In this respect Duddingtonia flagrans, a net-trapping, nematode-destroying fungus, appears to be the most promising candidate. Laboratory experiments and in-vivo studies, where fungal spores have survived passage through the gastro-intestinal tract of cattle and horses, plus field studies with cattle, horses and pigs, demonstrate significant reduction in the number of infective larvae that develop in the faecal environment. In field trials this reduction subsequently...
Mayers J, Westcott D, Steinbach F.Using the commercially available PEPperCHIP® microarray platform, a peptide microarray was developed to identify immunodominant epitopes for the detection of antibodies against Equine arteritis virus (EAV). For this purpose, the whole EAV Bucyrus sequence was used to design a total of 1250 peptides that were synthesized and spotted onto a microarray slide. A panel of 28 serum samples representing a selection of EAV strains was tested using the microarray. Of the 1250 peptides, 97 peptides (7.76%) showed reactivity with the EAV-positive samples. No single peptide was detected by all the positi...
Bazovská S, Awad-Masalmeh M, Kmety E, Spaleková M.Serological examination of 420 domestic animals for the presence of antilegionella antibodies indicates their high exposure to legionellae. On examination by the microagglutination reaction with a serum dilution of 1:64 or more the highest positive values were recorded in horses which reacted with antigens of L. pneumophila 1-14 in 36.2% and with antigens of another 19 types of legionellae in 47.8%. In pigs positive values recorded in 16.2% and in 21.1%; in cattle in 3.8% and 29.5%, in sheep in 7.5% and 11.3% and laboratory rabbits were quite negative. The importance of these findings with reg...
Sundra T, Gough S, Rossi G, Kelty E, Rendle D.Oral omeprazole is the accepted treatment for equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD); however, it is not universally effective. Esomeprazole results in more consistent and pronounced acid suppression in men and is more effective than omeprazole in the treatment of oesophageal and gastric disease. Pharmacodynamic and pilot clinical studies have indicated esomeprazole might also be more effective than omeprazole in horses. Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of oral esomeprazole and omeprazole pastes in the treatment of ESGD and, where present, concurrent equine glandular gastric disea...
Theves G.During the second half of the 18th century scientific veterinary medicine, a new profession was born as a result of economic and military needs--losses of cattle as a consequence of infectious diseases and the growing demand for treatment to be given to the horses of the armies. At first the members of the emerging occupation, who are generally of very modest origin, hardly differ from the traditional actors of animal health. At the beginning of the 19th century the governments employ a large number of veterinarians for official missions to combat infectious diseases. As from the second half o...
Makrai L, Fodor L, Hajtós I, Varga J, Dénes B.Three new serotypes were found among Rhodococcus equi strains, which could not be assigned into any of the seven serotypes of Prescott's system. Fortythree R. equi strains out of 44 previously nontypable ones isolated in Hungary could be allocated into one of the three new serotypes using the agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test. The three new suggested serotypes are serotype 8 (proposed reference strain: HNCMB-138003), serotype 9 (proposed reference strain: HNCMB-138004) and serotype 10 (proposed reference strain: HNCMB-138005). Hyperimmune sera produced in rabbits against the new serotypes a...
Lawrence L.The National Research Council (NRC) published the Recommended Nutrient Allowances for Horses in 1949. The subsequent publication was renamed the Nutrient Requirements of Horses and the 6th revised edition was published in 2007. The document has increased in size and scope from the initial publication in 1949 that contained 29 pages to the most recent version with 341 pages. Several formats for expressing requirements (dietary concentrations or daily amounts) have been utilized. In addition, a variety of methods have been employed to determine the nutrient requirements of horses since 1949. Man...
Glathe H, Strittmatter HU, Kunze M, Sinnecker H.The influence of acidic pH on the infectivity and neuraminidase activity of human, equine and avian type A influenza virus strains has been studied. Following exposure to pH 3 human and equine strains lost their infectivity completely, whereas all investigated strains of the subtypes Hav6N2 and Hav7Neq2 retained a certain amount of infectivity. In contrast to human and equine strains the avian strains retained also 38% of their original neuraminidase activity after acidic treatment. Partial retention of infectivity and the relative stability of the neuraminidase following exposure to acidic pH...
Huby-Chilton F, Murphy J, Chilton NB, Gajadhar AA, Blais BW.Single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of amplicons produced from a mitochondrial DNA region between the tRNA(Lys) and ATPase8 genes was applied for the detection of animal product within livestock feeds. Identification of prohibited animal (cattle, elk, sheep, deer, and goat) and nonprohibited animal (pig and horse) products from North America was possible based on the differential display of the single-stranded DNA fragments for the different animal species on SSCP gels. This method allowed specific detection and identification of mixed genomic DNA from different animal spec...
Pearson GB, Ysebaert MP, Papa B, Reesink HL.This article, as part of the Currents in One Health series, reviews the current state of diagnostics for synovial sepsis. Synovial sepsis is a condition that affects veterinary and human medicine and requires coordinated efforts from both parties, as well as environmental considerations to accurately diagnose and preserve effective treatments. The article discusses best practices to identify the causative agent in septic synovitis, trends in bacterial identification and antimicrobial resistance patterns across common bacterial species, and a one-health perspective to optimize diagnostics acros...
Singleton MD, Breheny PJ.In this paper, we propose a nonlinear hierarchical model (NLHM) for analyzing longitudinal experimental infection (EI) data. The NLHM offers several improvements over commonly used alternatives such as repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) and the linear mixed model (LMM). It enables comparison of relevant biological properties of the course of infection including peak intensity, duration and time to peak, rather than simply comparing mean responses at each observation time. We illustrate the practical benefits of this model and the insights it yields using data from experimental i...
Hüthwohl H, Weiss R, Schmeer N, Schliesser T.Classification based on biochemical characteristics of 389 strains of plasma-coagulase-negative (plc-) staphylococci isolated from the genital tract of mares and stallions resulted in the following distribution of species: St. sciuri 130 (33.4%), St. equorum 42 (10.8%), St. xylosus 16 (4.1%), St. epidermidis 35 (9.0%), St. simulans 24 (6.2%), St. haemolyticus 33 (8.5%), St. warneri 18 (4.6%), St. lentus 12 (3.1%), St. hyicus 11 (2.8%). Strains of St. cohnii, St. capitis, St. gallinarum, St. saprophyticus and St. hominis have only been found sporadically (a. 1%). 48 (12.3%) strains could not be...
Radvila P.The effect of heterologous and homologous antitoxin is the same if an equal amount of antitoxin is present in the organism. In man there are no circulating antibodies in the blood after the first injection of the toxoid because there is no natural immunity against the tetanus antigen. After the second injection, man develops the same immunity as animals. Large antitoxin doses protect people for a longer period than small doses. Normally 3,000 I. U. of the heterologous antitoxin protects people for 2 to 3 weeks. In man and sheep 2 ml of the adsorbed vaccine produces an earlier and longer-lastin...
Miller SM.Otobius megnini has been associated with certain clinical conditions in horses in both California and Mexico. A number of cases similar to those described previously have been identified by the author in South Africa. This case report summarises these cases to demonstrate that the clinical condition occurs readily in South Africa and may be increasing in occurrence. The disease has minimal coverage in the literature making it more likely that a veterinarian, unfamiliar with the disease, will miss the diagnosis. The author would like to make veterinarians aware of this as a potential differenti...
McTigue FE, Mansbridge SC, Pyatt AZ.Equine anthelmintic resistance poses a threat to the health and welfare of horses worldwide. With no new imminent anthelmintic classes, it is vital to decrease the resistance rate and preserve available classes. Traditional indiscriminate anthelmintic use is not synonymous with a strategic control ideology; however, many continue to implement outdated practices. In comparison to livestock farmers, there have been few social science studies examining horse owner behaviours. This study aimed to understand the perceived barriers faced by horse owners and yard managers to adopting a strategic appr...
Kozlov DP.The problem of dissimilation of larvae of strongylates of ruminants in pasture biocoenosis is discussed. A new form of their migration in horizontal direction on the basis of negative geotaxis is suggested. As a result of alternation of vertical migration of larvae on the tilting leaves of the grass and their subsequent washing off with rain or dew down on the ground proceeds their distribution on the pasture. The description of corresponding experiments is given.
Vandenplas J, Janssens S, Buys N, Gengler N.The aim of this study was to test the integration of external information, i.e. foreign estimated breeding values (EBV) and the associated reliabilities (REL), for stallions into the Belgian genetic evaluation for jumping horses. The Belgian model is a bivariate repeatability Best Linear Unbiased Prediction animal model only based on Belgian performances, while Belgian breeders import horses from neighbouring countries. Hence, use of external information is needed as prior to achieve more accurate EBV. Pedigree and performance data contained 101382 horses and 712212 performances, respectively....
Ryder S, Bracho D.Antibodies against Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus (VEEV) were studied in the human population of Mara District, Zulia State, Venezuela. Two hundred thirty nine blood samples were taken from the towns of San Rafael de Mara, Santa Cruz de Mara, La Sierrita-4 Bocas, Carrasquero, Isla de San Carlos e Isla de Toas, during june, july and september, 1988. Donors samples were classified by age, sex and serological titres. Eighty nine were less than 15 years old (37.2%) and 150, over 15 years old (62.7%). From the 239 samples, 224 were negative (93.7%) and 15 positive (6.3%). Our results indicate...
Uldahl M, Bundgaard L, Dahl J, Clayton HM.This study addresses the presence and location of natural pigmentation, potentially pathological changes in pigment, interruptions of the natural lining (scars), roughness, and erosions/contusion (bruising) in and around the corners of the lips of 206 horses presented to a veterinarian for routine preventative dental treatment. After sedation, photographs were taken and later evaluated for the presence of lesions. During the photographic analysis, the Oral Commissure Assessment (OCA) protocol was developed to map precisely the areas of skin and mucosa around the corners of the lips, and the pr...
Hill V, Koch RT, Bialosuknia SM, Ngo K, Zink SD, Koetzner CA, Maffei JG, Dupuis AP, Backenson PB, Oliver J, Bransfield AB, Misencik MJ, Petruff TA....Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) causes a rare but severe disease in horses and humans, and is maintained in an enzootic transmission cycle between songbirds and mosquitoes. In 2019, the largest EEEV outbreak in the United States for more than 50 years occurred, centered in the Northeast. To explore the dynamics of the outbreak, we sequenced 80 isolates of EEEV and combined them with existing genomic data. We found that, like previous years, cases were driven by frequent short-lived virus introductions into the Northeast from Florida. Once in the Northeast, we found that Massachusetts...
Cerva L, Cerná Z.A description is given of the preparation of antigen from Sarcocystis dispersa cystozoites and the procedure of the indirect haemagglutination test (IHA). The antibodies against this antigen were detected in experimentally infected mice from day 20 p.i. (1: 640). In the following weeks the antibody titres reached the value of 1: 40,960. The sera of pigs, sheep and horses spontaneously infected with other Sarcocystis species reacted with this antigen in low titres only. The bovine sera gave negative reactions even in cases when Sarcocystis cysts were present in the muscles of the examined anima...
Whittem T, Woodward AP, Hoppach M.Knowing the frequency, extent or severity of injuries that occur to students and staff within veterinary teaching hospitals (VTHs) is necessary for proactive management of their safety. This study surveyed contemporaneously-captured incident reports likely to cause or causing injury to students and staff of veterinary teaching hospitals in Europe, the United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, recorded in 2017. Four different severities of incident were evaluated within four different cohorts of people, precipitated by five categories for cause. Within each cause-categ...
Kent RJ, Lacer LD, Meisch MV.Migratory birds could introduce West Nile (WN) virus to Arkansas. The purpose of this study was to establish a cooperative arbovirus surveillance program to monitor mosquitoes and birds in Arkansas for arboviruses. Our objectives were to: 1) perform routine, multicounty collections of mosquitoes and test them for eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, and WN viruses; and 2) conduct passive surveillance by testing dead wild birds for WN virus. Arbovirus surveillance was organized by the Arkansas Department of Health, University of Arkansas, and Vector Disease Control Incorporated....
Gürelli G, Canbulat S, Aldayarov N.Species composition and distribution of intestinal ciliates were investigated in the feces from 15 domestic horses living in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Twenty-three species belonging to 14 genera were identified. This is the first study on intestinal ciliates in domestic horses living in Kyrgyzstan. The mean number of ciliates was 14.1 ± 6.8 x10(4) cells ml(-1) of feces and the mean number of ciliate species per host was 6.0 ± 3.2. No endemic or new species were detected. Blepharocorys was the major genus as these ciliates were detected in high proportions. In contrast Holophryoides, Allantosoma w...
Nts'aoana ME, Molapo S, Kompi P, Phalatsi M.Parasitic infection is one of the major problems in equines which negatively influence their health. It hinders working performance of equines. This study was conducted to evaluate donkey owners' knowledge and control measures on prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites (GIPs) in three agro-ecological zones (AEZs) of Maseru district. A total of 144 donkey owners were selected for individual interviews through a stratified random sampling. Descriptive statistics and chi-square tests were used to analyze data. The significance (p <0.05) of different AEZs was tested using a post-hoc cell-wise ad...
Fontaine M, Fontaine M.In the first part of this paper the conditions for a specific titration of antibodies against the neuraminidase (N) of each of the two horse virus subtypes are defined. The antigens used are: the H72Neq 1 recombining agent to measure the anti Neq1 antibodies and the A/Duck/Ukraine/63 strain for the anti Neq2 antibodies. The immunity response to neuraminidase appears after the natural disease; this response is studied in two foci, one due to a virus belonging to the A equi I subtype (Loire 73 strain), the other to a virus of the A equi 2 subtype (SHN 73 strain). The kinetics of apparition of an...
Magnarelli LA, Ijdo JW, Van Andel AE, Wu C, Oliver JH, Fikrig E.To test serum samples of dogs and horses by use of class-specific recombinant-based ELISA for establishing a diagnosis of granulocytic ehrlichiosis attributable to infection with organisms from the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup. Methods: Serum samples from 43 client-owned dogs and 131 horses (81 with signs of acute illness and 50 without signs of disease). Methods: Serum samples were analyzed, using ELISA with a recombinant 44-kd protein antigen for IgM and IgG antibodies to the human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) agent (NCH-1 strain). Western blot analyses, using infected human promyel...
Horká M, Kubíček O, Kubesová A, Rosenbergová K, Kubíčková Z, Šlais K.Influenza A is viral disease, which is a cause of yearly epidemics and, potentially, pandemics. The conventional techniques used today are equipment-demanding, time-consuming and laborious. Recently, we have confirmed that the capillary isoelectric focusing is a suitable fast alternative for the verifying of virus purity. In the wide pH gradient of pH range 2.0-7.5 the isoelectric points for subtypes of equine (H3N8) and swine (H1N2) influenza A viruses were determined approximately as 6.6 and 6.5, respectively. In this contribution we have verified these findings using different isolates of d...
