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.
Hemida MG, Alhammadi M, Daleb A, Alnaeem A.African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is one of the most devastating viral diseases of the family Equidae. Infection with AHSV threatens not only the Saudi equine industry but also the equine industry worldwide. This is due to the high morbidity and mortality rates among the infected population of up to 100%. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) lists AHSV among its notifiable diseases; this requires Member Countries to monitor the situation with regard to AHSV very carefully in order to avoid the spread of the virus. The OIE also suggests the systematic monitoring of AHSV in the equin...
Favaro PF, Reischak D, Brandao PE, Villalobos EMC, Cunha EMS, Lara MCC, Benvenga GU, Dias RA, Mori E, Richtzenhain LJ.The equine influenza virus (EIV) H3N8 subtype is responsible for all EIV outbreaks worldwide while the H7N7 subtype is less pathogenic and is considered extinct as it has not been confirmed in outbreaks since 1980. Although EIV is enzootic in Brazil, few reports describe the actual EIV antibody status in the country. The aims of this study were: - to evaluate the efficiency of different serum treatments described by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove non-specific haemagglutination inhibitors for the haemagglutination inhibition (HI)...
Zak A, Siwinska N, Slowikowska M, Borowicz H, Ploneczka-Janeczko K, Chorbinski P, Niedzwiedz A.Commensal bacterial and fungal flora of the conjunctival sac has been described in horses and other animals. The identification of commensal flora of the conjunctival sac may aid in the diagnosis of ocular inflammatory diseases, such as conjunctivitis or more severe ulcerative keratitis, common in horses. Moreover, damage of ocular protective barriers may lead to an opportunistic infection. The study was carried out in Silesian horses kept at a single breeding center in South-western Poland, in order to limit any breed-dependant and climate-dependant variables affecting the results. Following ...
Castro ER, Arbiza J.Infection with equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) causes respiratory disease, abortion and neurological disorders in horses. Molecular epidemiology studies have demonstrated that a single nucleotide polymorphism (A2254/G2254) in the genome region of open reading frame 30 which results in an amino acid variation (N752/D752) of the EHV-1 DNA polymerase, is significantly associated with the neuropathogenic potential of naturally occurring strains. In recent years, an increase in the number of cases of equine neurological disease caused by neuropathogenic variants of EHV-1 has been observed in numer...
Mucha V, Hollý J, Varečková E, Kostolanský F.Avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) are able to overcome the interspecies barrier and adapt to the new non-avian host. The process of adaptation requires the adaptive changes of IAV genome resulting in amino acid substitutions. The aim of this work was the description of amino acid substitutions in avian influenza A viruses (IAVs) occurring during their adaptation to equine host. Today, viruses of the equine influenza H3N8 subtype, first isolated in 1963, represent a single genetic lineage of IAV causing a respiratory disease in horses. We compared the amino acid sequences of the conserve...
Ramsay JD, Evanoff R, Mealey RH.Hepacivirus A (also known as nonprimate hepacivirus and equine hepacivirus) is a hepatotropic virus that can cause both transient and persistent infections in horses. The evolution of intrahost viral populations (quasispecies) has not been studied in detail for hepacivirus A, and its roles in immune evasion and persistence are unknown. To address these knowledge gaps, we first evaluated the envelope gene (E1 and E2) diversity of two different hepacivirus A strains (WSU and CU) in longitudinal blood samples from experimentally infected adult horses, juvenile horses (foals), and foals with sever...
McGivney CL, Sweeney J, Gough KF, Hill EW, Katz LM.We hypothesised that grade/appearance for upper respiratory tract (URT) disorders identified at the first overground endoscopy (OGE) examination would vary at subsequent examinations. Objective: To compare OGE examinations from horses evaluated on at least two occasions under similar exercise conditions without treatment intervention. Methods: Retrospective cohort. Methods: Pre-exercise and exercising OGE recordings from Thoroughbred horses undergoing multiple examinations under similar exercise conditions were reviewed, with the first two recordings for each horse statistically evaluated. Pai...
Malalana F, McGowan TW, Ireland JL, Pinchbeck GL, McGowan CM.Previous studies suggest that ocular disease is common among aged horses but owners may fail to identify or underestimate their clinical relevance. Objective: To document the prevalence of owner-reported ocular disease in horses aged ≥15 years. In a subset of these horses, to document ophthalmic findings from veterinary examination and compare with owner-reported ocular disease, and to determine risk factors for veterinary ophthalmic findings. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: Owners of aged horses completed a survey on management, clinical signs and medical history. Risk factors for ...
Hemida MG, Perera RAPM, Chu DKW, Alnaeem AA, Peiris M.Equine influenza virus (EIV) is one of the main causes of viral respiratory affections in horses. Little is known about the prevalence of EIV in Saudi Arabia especially the H3N8 serotype. Objective: To assess prevalence of equine influenza in horse populations in Eastern and Central Saudi Arabia. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: We collected 145 sera, 323 nasal and 323 rectal swabs from horses from six major cities in Eastern and Central regions. None of the horses were vaccinated against EIV. Sera were tested in ELISA assays for influenza A type-specific antibodies and by haemagglutin...
Chavatte-Palmer P, Velazquez MA, Jammes H, Duranthon V.Epidemiological studies in humans and animal models (including ruminants and horses) have highlighted the critical role of nutrition on developmental programming. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that the nutritional environment during the periconceptional period and foetal development can altered the postnatal performance of the resultant offspring. This nutritional programming can be exerted by maternal and paternal lineages and can affect offspring beyond the F1 generation. Alterations in epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as the causative link behind the programming trajectories obse...
Riccio B, Fraschetto C, Villanueva J, Cantatore F, Bertuglia A.Despite back-pain being a common cause of poor performance in sport horses, a tailored diagnostic workflow and a consolidated therapeutic approach are currently lacking in equine medicine. The aim of the study was to assess the evolution in the veterinarian approach to diagnose and treat back-pain over a 10 years period. To investigate this topic, two surveys were addressed to equine veterinarians working in practice throughout Europe 10 years apart (2006 and 2016). The answers were organized in an Excel dataset and analyzed. There were 47 respondents in 2006 and 168 in 2016, from 8 European C...
Scare JA, Steuer AE, Gravatte HS, Kálmán C, Ramires L, Dias de Castro LL, Norris JK, Miller F, Camargo F, Lawyer A, De Pedro P, Jolly B, Nielsen MK.Anthelmintic resistance among cyathostomin parasites is a wide-spread problem. The parasite control guidelines written by the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) encourages the preservation of anthelmintic efficacy by reducing treatment frequency, using targeted deworming, and implementing environmental management practices. While there is knowledge regarding parasite management practices of affluent horse farms in the United States, surveys rarely explore the rural and underserved regions. The purpose of this study was to observe the management practices of horse farms in rura...
Santos DW, Madeira de Carvalho LM, Molento MB.Cyathostomins comprise around 50 parasite species of equids, offering a great challenge regarding their individual identification. The objective of our work was to improve identification of infective third stage larvae (L3) with a morphological key supplemented with detailed scientific illustrations based on our research and available literature. The highlighted features were; the number, arrangement, and shape of intestinal cells (IC), general features and the total body length of the eight different Cyathostomin sensu latum types (Type A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H), Gyalocephalus capitatus, and Po...
Lean NE, Ahern BJ.Mycotic rhinitis is a rare disease in horses, with few cases reported worldwide and none reported in Australia. Fungal infection of the upper respiratory tract can occur in all species, but its prevalence in horses is considerably lower than in canines or humans. The disease is linked to a variety of pathogens and the clinical signs are associated with subsequent upper respiratory tract damage. Methods: A 6-year-old Quarter Horse gelding in Queensland, Australia, was presented with chronic nasal discharge and dyspnoea following previous unsuccessful medical treatment of 9 months' duration. C...
Seeber PA, Quintard B, Sicks F, Dehnhard M, Greenwood AD, Franz M.Equine Herpesviruses (EHV) are common and often latent pathogens of equids which can cause fatalities when transmitted to non-equids. Stress and elevated glucocorticoids have been associated with EHV reactivation in domestic horses, but little is known about the correlation between stress and viral reactivation in wild equids. We investigated the effect of an environmental stressor (social group restructuring following a translocation event) on EHV reactivation in captive Grévy's zebras (). A mare was translocated by road transport from Zoo Mulhouse, France, to join a resident group of three ...
Zhang B, Huang H, Wang H, Zhang D, Chu H, Ma X, Ge Y, Ente M, Li K.Gasterophilus species are widely distributed around the world. The larvae of these flies parasitize the digestive tract of equids and cause damage, hindering horse breeding and protection of endangered species. However, study of the genetic structure of geographically distinct Gasterophilus populations is lacking. Here, we analyzed the genetic diversity of Gasterophilus pecorum, G. intestinalis, G. nasalis and G. nigricornis from three typical grasslands (meadow, desert and alpine steppes) in China as compared to published sequences from Italy, Poland and China (Daqing and Yili), based on the ...
Norris JK, Steuer AE, Gravatte HS, Slusarewicz P, Bellaw JL, Scare JA, Nielsen MK.Given the ever-increasing levels of anthelmintic resistance in livestock parasites globally, it is recommended to use parasite fecal egg counts to make treatment decisions and to evaluate treatment efficacy. The consensus in equine parasitology is to use a flotation medium with a specific gravity (SG) of ≥ 1.20 to float the main parasite egg types of interest in egg counting techniques. However, the density of common equine endoparasite eggs has been sparsely investigated. Equine tapeworm eggs are known to be particularly difficult to determine and count in fecal samples. It is unknown wheth...
Soghigian J, Andreadis TG, Molaei G.Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) (Togaviridae, Alphavirus) is a highly pathogenic mosquito-borne arbovirus that circulates in an enzootic cycle involving Culiseta melanura mosquitoes and wild Passeriformes birds in freshwater swamp habitats. Recently, the northeastern United States has experienced an intensification of virus activity with increased human involvement and northward expansion into new regions. In addition to its principal role in enzootic transmission of EEE virus among avian hosts, recent studies on the blood-feeding behavior of Cs. melanura throughout its geographic range sugg...
Banse HE, MacLeod H, Crosby C, Windeyer MC.The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence rates and risk factors for equine glandular gastric disease (EGGD) and equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD) in a population of 63 polo horses in competition. The prevalence of EGGD grade ≥ 1 was 69% and EGGD ≥ 2 was 31%. The prevalence of ESGD grade ≥ 1 was 54% and grade ≥ 2 was 37%. The risk factors retained in the final multivariable models were years of experience in polo competition for EGGD grade ≥ 1 and for grade ≥ 2, with decreased experience being associated with EGGD and weekly exercise duration and non-steroi...
Mawhinney I, Errington J, Stamper N, Torrens N, Engelsma MY, Roest HIJ.Sets of genital swabs are routinely taken from horses to screen for the presence of Taylorella equigenitalis, the cause of contagious equine metritis. Typically, two to four different sites are swabbed at a time and tested by culture or PCR. Objective: This study explored the feasibility of pooling these swabs for a single PCR test per animal instead of testing each swab individually. Methods: In vitro. Methods: PCR signal strengths (Ct values) from 149 historical PCR positive genital swabs, together with historical data on the number of swabs in a set expected to be positive, were used to ass...
Dilai M, Piro M, Fougerolle S, El Harrak M, Mahir W, El Mourid R, Legrand L, Paillot R, Fassi Fihri O.In order to evaluate the vaccination status against equine influenza (EI) in Moroccan racehorses, a serological investigation was carried out on 509 racehorses using three serological tests: an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), the Hemagglutination Inhibition (HI) test and the Single Radial Haemolysis (SRH) assay. The serological analysis showed 56% of seropositivity by ELISA, 67% by HI and 89.4% by SRH (with 69.9% above the clinical protection threshold). Using the Kappa test, the SRH and HI assays showed a strong agreement, the SRH and ELISA assays had a moderate agreement and the H...
Kennedy CA, Walsh C, Karczmarczyk M, O'Brien S, Akasheh N, Quirke M, Farrell-Ward S, Buckley T, Fogherty U, Kavanagh K, Parker CT, Sweeney T....Extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) possess the ability to cause extraintestinal infections such as urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis and sepsis. While information is readily available describing pathogenic E. coli populations in food-producing animals, studies in companion/sports animals such as horses are limited. In addition, many antimicrobial agents used in the treatment of equine infections are also utilised in human medicine, potentially contributing to the spread of antibiotic resistance determinants among pathogenic strains. The aim of this study was to phenotypical...
McGivney CL, Sweeney J, Gough KF, Hill EW, Katz LM.Endoscopic tip placement in the pharynx and water flushing interval (FI) may affect exercising upper respiratory tract (URT) endoscopic results. Objective: To determine associations between the endoscopic tip position in the pharynx and automated FI with overground endoscopic (OGE) results. Methods: Randomised balanced 2X5 factorial design. Methods: A total of n = 200 horses undergoing OGE were randomly assigned into 10 groups (n = 20/group) of different automated endoscopic FIs (no flushing, 60, 120, 180, 240 s) with the endoscope tip positioned either rostrally (position A) or caudally ...
McGivney CL, Gough KF, McGivney BA, Farries G, Hill EW, Katz LM.Conflicting results have been reported for risk factors for recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) based on resting endoscopic evaluation and comparison of single conformation traits, with many traits correlated to one another. Objective: To simplify identification of signalment and conformation traits (i.e. variables) associated with RLN cases and controls diagnosed with exercising overground endoscopy (OGE) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Methods: Prospective cohort. Methods: Pearson's rank correlation was used to establish significance and association between variables collected from...
Velie BD, Jäderkvist Fegraeus K, Ihler CF, Lindgren G, Strand E.Studies of large racing populations have established clear differences in the career profile of stallions, mares and geldings. Multiple studies have also demonstrated positive effects on racing careers for horses that commence racing at a younger age. However, the applicability of these studies to small, native racing populations is unknown and warrants investigation. Objective: To provide summary statistics for performance outcomes for the Norwegian-Swedish Coldblooded Trotter and to document and provide evidence on the current differences in racing careers across age at first start groups, s...
Padalino B, Rogers CW, Guiver D, Bridges JP, Riley CB.Transport-related problem behaviors (TRPBs) are common in horses and can cause injury to both the horses and their handlers. This study aimed to identify possible risk factors for TRPBs to inform approaches to mitigate TRPBs incidence and enhance horse welfare. An online cross-sectional survey was conducted to explore the prevalence of TRPBs and their association with human-, training- and transport management-related factors in New Zealand. The survey generated 1124 valid responses that were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and logistic regression analyses. Having at least one horse wit...
Mason VC, Schaefer RJ, McCue ME, Leeb T, Gerber V.Severe equine asthma, also known as recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), is a debilitating, performance limiting, obstructive respiratory condition in horses that is phenotypically similar to human asthma. Past genome wide association studies (GWAS) have not discovered coding variants associated with RAO, leading to the hypothesis that causative variant(s) underlying the signals are likely non-coding, regulatory variant(s). Regions of the genome containing variants that influence the number of expressed RNA molecules are expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs). Variation associated with RAO ...
Durán-Ferrer M, Agüero M, Zientara S, Beck C, Lecollinet S, Sailleau C, Smith S, Potgieter C, Rueda P, Sastre P, Monaco F, Villalba R....The laboratory diagnosis of African horse sickness (AHS) is important for: (a) demonstrating freedom from infection in a population, animals or products for trade (b) assessing the efficiency of eradication policies; (c) laboratory confirmation of clinical diagnosis; (d) estimating the prevalence of AHS infection; and (e) assessing postvaccination immune status of individual animals or populations. Although serological techniques play a secondary role in the confirmation of clinical cases, their use is very important for all the other purposes due to their high throughput, ease of use and good...
Karamalla ST, Gubran AI, Adam IA, Abdalla TM, Sinada RO, Haroun EM, Aradaib IE.African horse sickness virus (AHSV) is an infectious non contagious insect-transmitted double-stranded (ds) RNA orbivirus of the family Reoviridae. AHSV causes an often fatal hemorrhagic infection with high mortality among selected breeds of Arabian horses. This study was conducted to avail some information with regard to the prevalence and associated risk factors of AHSV among ecotype breeds of horses in central Sudan. Methods: Sera were collected from 320 horses, which were selected randomly from four localities and employed in the study. A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELI...
Nugraha AB, Cahyaningsih U, Amrozi A, Ridwan Y, Agungpriyono S, Taher DM, Guswanto A, Gantuya S, Tayebwa DS, Tuvshintulga B, Sivakumar T, Yokoyama N....Equine piroplasmosis is an economically significant disease caused by Theileria equi and Babesia caballi, which are tick-borne hemoprotozoan parasites. Infections with these parasite species had never been reported in horses in Indonesia. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of T. equi and B. caballi in horses reared in parts of Western Java, Indonesia. Blood samples were collected randomly from 235 horses in four different districts (Bandung, Depok, Tangerang, and Bogor) in Western Java, Indonesia. Thin blood smears prepared from the sampled animals were stained by G...
Coultous RM, Phipps P, Dalley C, Lewis J, Hammond TA, Shiels BR, Weir W, Sutton DGM.Equine piroplasmosis (EP) has historically been of minor concern to UK equine practitioners, primarily due to a lack of competent tick vectors. However, increased detection of EP tick vector species in the UK has been reported recently. EP screening is not currently required for equine importation, and when combined with recent relaxations in movement regulations, there is an increased risk regarding disease incursion and establishment into the UK. This study evaluated the prevalence of EP by both serology and PCR among 1242 UK equine samples submitted for EP screening between February and Dec...
Rosa M, Cardozo LM, da Silva Pereira J, Brooks DE, Martins AL, Florido PS, Stussi JS.The conjunctival fungal flora of 32 adult horses with normal eyes (n = 64) from the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil was identified in the fall of 2000 using horses of different breeds, both genders and aged 5-19 years old. The culture samples were taken from the conjunctival sac of both eyes with a sterile cotton swab wetted with saline solution, seeded in Sabouraud's dextrose agar with chloramphenicol, and incubated for 5 days at an average temperature of 25 degrees C. The number of fungal colonies per eye varied between 0 and 250 colony forming units (CFUs). There were often differences in...
Theodoridis A, Nevill EM, Els HJ, Boshoff ST.Five viruses, unrelated to bovine ephemeral fever virus (BEFV), were isolated from Culicoides biting-midges collected during the summer months of the years 1968-69 and 1969-70 near a cattle herd in which cases of BEF occurred and at an open horse stable at Onderstepoort. These viruses were investigated by means of serological, electron-microscopical and physicochemical tests. It was established that 2 isolates, Cul. 1/69 and Cul. 2/69, were related to each other and belonged to the Palyam subgroup of the genus Orbivirus, that isolate Cul. 3/69 belonged to the equine encephalosis subgroup of th...
DITCHFIELD J, MACPHERSON LW.From outbreaks of upper respiratory infection of horses in the Toronto area between 1960 and 1963, several viruses have been isolated. The viruses, isolated in tissue cultures or eggs, include an equine strain of Myxovirus parainfluenzae 3; two strains of equine influenza virus, A/equi-1/Prague/56, and A/equi-2/Miami/63; equine rhinopneumonitis virus, and two newly recognized viruses of the horse, equine rhinoviruses. In addition serological evidence suggested a widespread infection with these viruses in the population under study. Because of the identical clinical picture seen and the complex...
Sallé G, Kornaś S, Basiaga M.Equine strongyles are a major health issue. Large strongyles can cause death of horses while cyathostomins (small strongyles) have shown increased resistance to anthelmintics worldwide. Description of strongyle communities have accumulated but little is known about the diversity of these communities and underpinning environmental factors. Strongyles were recovered after ivermectin treatment from 48 horses located in six premises in Poland. Correlation between previously published species fecundity and the observed relative abundance and prevalence were estimated. Significance of horse sex was ...
Lazary S, Gerber H, Glatt PA, Straub R.The distribution of equine leucocyte antigens (ELA) in horses affected by equine sarcoid tumours was determined and compared with unaffected controls. ELA-haplotype W3,B1 occurred more frequently in affected riding horses of Irish, Swiss and French background. The combined data for the three breeds resulted in a chi 2 value of 20.35 (P less than 0.0005 after correction). Simultaneously, ELA-specificity W11 was more frequently found in horses of Irish background, while W5 was found in Swiss and French horses with sarcoids. The combined data for haplotype W3,B1 and/or W5 specificity demonstrated...
Ivens PA, Matthews D, Webb K, Newton JR, Steward K, Waller AS, Robinson C, Slater JD.Strangles is the most commonly diagnosed and important infectious disease of horses worldwide. Very little is known about the temporo-spatial and molecular epidemiology of strangles. The disease is not notifiable in the UK and there are few published data on the geographical locations of outbreaks. Objective: To investigate whether typing of a surface protein (SeM) of Streptococcus equi ssp. equi (S. equi), the causative agent of strangles, is a useful epidemiological tool. Methods: The variable region of the SeM gene was amplified from 145 isolates of S. equi by PCR and sequenced. Different S...
Andersson L, Sandberg K.In the present study an extensive amount of data, comprising more than 30,000 offspring in total, was analyzed to evaluate the influence of age and sex on the recombination frequency in the K-PGD segment of the equine linkage group (LG) I and the influence of age, breed and sex on recombination in the Al-Es segment of LG II. A highly significant sex difference is reported for both segments. Male and female recombination values in the K-PGD segment were estimated at 25.8 +/- 0.8 and 33.3 +/- 2.5%, respectively. Similarly, recombination was less frequent in the male (36.6 +/- 0.7%) than in the f...
Venter GJ, Paweska JT.Previously reported virus recovery rates from Culicoides (Avaritia) imicola Kieffer and Culicoides (Avaritia) bolitinos Meiswinkel (Diptera, Ceratopogonidae) orally infected with vaccine strain of African horse sickness virus serotype 7 (AHSV-7) were compared with results obtained from concurrently conducted oral infections with five recent AHSV-7 isolates from naturally infected horses from various localities in South Africa. Culicoides were fed sheep bloods spiked with 10(7.6) TCID(50)/mL of a live-attenuated vaccine strain AHSV-7, and with five field isolates in which virus titre in the blo...
Salim B, Bakheit MA, Sugimoto C.Equine trypanosomosis (ET) is a protozoan disease affecting equines in many parts of the world. We examined 509 samples collected from geographically distinct regions in eastern, central and western Sudan to estimate the endemicity of ET using the generic ITS1-PCR diagnostic methods. Results revealed that horses and donkeys were infected by Trypanosoma brucei subgroup, Trypanosoma vivax, Trypanosoma simiae and Trypanosoma congolense. The prevalence of Trypanosoma spp. was higher in horses (12.7%, n=393) than in donkeys (3.4%, n=116). The highest prevalence was observed in South Darfur State (1...
Whitlock F, Grewar J, Newton R.During 2019, an epidemic of equine influenza (EI) occurred in Europe. Objective: To describe the epidemiology of the 2019 EI epidemic within Great Britain (GB). Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of laboratory confirmed EI cases. Methods: Epidemiological data were obtained from veterinary surgeons referring samples for EI virus testing. Where available, data on confirmed cases and their wider resident population on EI-infected premises were collated and described. On a national level, spatial and temporal representations, consisting of choropleth maps and epidemic curves, described the s...
Dowdall SM, Proudman CJ, Klei TR, Mair T, Matthews JB.Cyathostomins are the most common parasitic nematodes of horses. Larval stages, which inhabit the intestinal wall, are particularly pathogenic and can cause severe colitis and colic. Despite their clinical importance, diagnostic techniques for the prepatent stages do not exist. A method that could estimate mucosal infection intensity would have a major impact on the control and diagnosis of cyathostominosis. Here, serum IgG(T) responses to two larval antigen complexes of 25 and 20 kDa were quantified in horses with experimental infections, natural infections and in horses that presented with c...
Timoney PJ.In an era of increasing globalization, the risk of spread of infectious diseases in humans and animals, including equids, has never been greater. International movement of equids and trade in semen are the most important factors responsible for the dissemination of various equine pathogens. Other factors that can or do have the potential to influence the global distribution of equine infectious diseases include: multinational trade agreements, emergent diseases, mutation of pathogens, climate related phenomena, migration of amplifying/reservoir hosts or vectors, availability of new vectors, va...
Humblet MF, Vandeputte S, Fecher-Bourgeois F, Léonard P, Gosset C, Balenghien T, Durand B, Saegerman C.This study aimed at estimating, in a prospective scenario, the potential economic impact of a possible epidemic of WNV infection in Belgium, based on 2012 values for the equine and human health sectors, in order to increase preparedness and help decision-makers. Modelling of risk areas, based on the habitat suitable for Culex pipiens, the main vector of the virus, allowed us to determine equine and human populations at risk. Characteristics of the different clinical forms of the disease based on past epidemics in Europe allowed morbidity among horses and humans to be estimated. The main costs ...
Certoma A, Lunt RA, Vosloo W, Smith I, Colling A, Williams DT, Tran T, Blacksell SD.Australian bat lyssavirus (ABLV) is closely related to the classical rabies virus and has been associated with three human fatalities and two equine fatalities in Australia. ABLV infection in humans causes encephalomyelitis, resulting in fatal disease, but has no effective therapy. The virus is maintained in enzootic circulation within fruit bats ( spp.) and at least one insectivorous bat variety ( ). Most frequently, laboratory testing is conducted on pteropodid bat brains, either following a potential human exposure through bites, scratches and other direct contacts with bats, or as opportun...
Stadejek T, Bj Rklund H, Bascu Ana CR, Ciabatti IM, Scicluna MT, Amaddeo D, McCollum WH, Autorino GL, Timoney PJ, Paton DJ, Klingeborn B, Bel K S.Equine arteritis viruses (EAV) from Europe and America were compared by phylogenetic analysis of 43 isolates obtained over four decades. An additional 22 virus sequences were retrieved from GenBank. Fragments of the glycoprotein G(L) and the replicase genes were amplified by RT-PCR, prior to sequencing and construction of phylogenetic trees. The trees revealed many distinctive lineages, consistent with prolonged diversification within geographically separated host populations. Two large groups and five subgroups were distinguished. Group I consisted mainly of viruses from North America, whilst...
Chambers TM.Equine influenza virus (EIV) is a common respiratory pathogen of horses and other equids in most parts of the world. EIV are Type A influenza viruses and two subtypes are known: H3N8 and H7N7. Both are believed to have evolved from avian influenza virus ancestors. The H3N8 subtype circulates widely, but the H7N7 subtype is thought to be extinct. The clinical disease in horses, caused by either subtype, is an upper respiratory infection of varying severity depending upon the immune status of the individual animal. It is not normally life-threatening in itself except in very young foals; however...
Galuppi R, Piva S, Castagnetti C, Sarli G, Iacono E, Fioravanti ML, Caffara M.This paper describes the transmission of a zoonotic subtype of Cryptosporidium parvum between two foals hospitalized in an Equine Perinatology Unit (EPU) linked to an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in veterinary students. Fecal specimens of 36 mares (105 samples) and 28 foals (122 samples) were subjected to Ziehl-Neelsen staining, nested PCR of 18S rDNA. Two foals tested positive for Cryptosporidium; PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis and subtyping by nested PCR of the 60kDa glycoprotein (gp60) gene revealed C. parvum subtype IIdA23G1. The introduction of Cryptospo...
Park AW, Wood JL, Newton JR, Daly J, Mumford JA, Grenfell BT.A stochastic model of equine influenza (EI) is constructed to assess the risk of an outbreak in a Thoroughbred population at a typical flat race training yard. The model is parameterised using data from equine challenge experiments conducted by the Animal Health Trust (relating to the latent and infectious period of animals) and also published data on previous epidemics (to estimate the transmission rate for equine influenza). Using 89 ponies, an empirical relationship between pre-challenge antibody and the probability of becoming infectious is established using logistic regression. Changes in...
Grzyb J, Podstawski Z, Bulski K.Keeping horses in good condition requires providing them with living conditions that meet welfare requirements. These animals should be accommodated with suitable space, access to high nutritional fodder and water, and a suitable microclimate in their shelters. When it comes to the environment in the stables, a serious problem is created by particulate matter (PM), which consists of bacteria. PM concentration may be responsible for developing multiple lower respiratory tract diseases in horses, including allergies and recurrent airway obstruction (RAO). In turn, these ailments may lead to decr...
Ozaki H, Sugiura T, Sugita S, Imagawa H, Kida H.Antibodies to the nonstructural protein (NS1) of A/equine/Miami/1/63 (H3N8) influenza virus were detected exclusively in the sera of mice experimentally infected with A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) and horses infected with A/equine/Kentucky/1/81 (H3N8) or A/equine/La Plata/1/93 (H3N8), but not in those of the animals immunized with the inactivated viruses, by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a recombinant NS1 as antigen. The results indicate that the present method is useful for serological diagnosis to distinguish horses infected with equine H3 influenza viruses from those immunized with ...
Physick-Sheard PW, Avison A, Chappell E, MacIver M.The Province of Ontario maintains a registry of racehorse deaths occurring within 60 days of a race or trial entry that provides insight into mortality rates and costs of competition. Objective: To characterise and quantify mortality and identify breed differences. Methods: Retrospective annualised cohort study. Methods: The Ontario Death Registry for 2003-2015, containing 1713 cases, was audited and information on the relationship between death and official work added. Race and trial data from industry performance databases were used to determine mortality rates according to breed, year, age...
Mann RA, Fegan M, O'Riley K, Motha J, Warner S.Virus was detected in the central nervous system (CNS) tissue of 11 horses from Victoria that died displaying neurological symptoms during an outbreak of disease in Australia in 2011. Five horses were identified as being infected with Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) and 6 as being infected with West Nile virus subtype Kunjin (WNV(KUN)). Analysis of partial sequence information from the NS5 and E genes indicated that the MVEVs within the samples were highly homogenous and all belonged to lineage I, which is enzootic to the tropical regions of northern Australia. Likewise, analysis of pa...
Vidyashankar AN, Kaplan RM, Chan S.Resistance to anthelmintics in gastrointestinal nematodes of livestock is a serious problem and appropriate methods are required to identify and quantify resistance. However, quantification and assessment of resistance depend on an accurate measure of treatment efficacy, and current methodologies fail to properly address the issue. The fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) is the practical gold standard for measuring anthelmintic efficacy on farms, but these types of data are fraught with high variability that greatly impacts the accuracy of inference on efficacy. This paper develops a statis...
Carossino M, Barrandeguy ME, Li Y, Parreño V, Janes J, Loynachan AT, Balasuriya UBR.Equine rotavirus A (ERVA) is the leading cause of diarrhea in neonatal foals and a major health problem to the equine breeding industry worldwide. The G3P[12] and G14P[12] ERVA genotypes are the most prevalent in foals with diarrhea. Control and prevention strategies include vaccination of pregnant mares with an inactivated vaccine containing a prototype ERVA G3P[12] strain with limited and controversial field efficacy. Here, we performed the molecular characterization of ERVA strains circulating in central Kentucky using fecal samples collected during the 2017 foaling season. The data indicat...
Lai AC, Rogers KM, Glaser A, Tudor L, Chambers T.Phylogenetic and antigenic analyses indicate that recent circulating equine-2 influenza viruses in the United States have been alternating between two genetic and antigenic distinct lineages since 1996. The evolution rates for these two lineages, the Kentucky and the Florida lineage, are very similar. For the earlier isolates in the Kentucky lineage, there are multiple and sequential nonsynonymous substitutions at antigenic sites B and D. However, there are no changes at any of these antigenic sites for KY98 and OK00. In the Florida lineage, except for NY99 with one amino acid substitution at ...
Bartova E, Machacova T, Sedlak K, Budikova M, Mariani U, Veneziano V.The consumption of horse meat has been epidemiologically linked to clinical toxoplasmosis in humans and neosporosis that may cause clinical illness in horses. Here we determined seroprevalence of antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii Nicolle et Manceaux, 1908 and species of Neospora Dubey, Carpenter, Speer, Topper et Uggla, 1988 in horses from Italy. Blood samples were collected from 643 apparently healthy horses from 60 farms of 51 municipalities in southern Italy. The presence of antibodies against T. gondii and Neospora spp. were detected by indirect fluorescence antibody test (IFAT); a titr...
Hemberg E, Lundeheim N, Einarsson S.During 1997-2001, a total of 430 Thoroughbred mares were mated by one of the two Thoroughbred stallions on a well-managed stud farm in the central part of Sweden. On arrival, a thorough gynaecological examination of all mares was performed. An early pregnancy examination was performed on days 14 and 15 after ovulation. The overall conception rates for the two stallions were 92.2 and 88.8%, and the corresponding live foal rates were 82.6 and 75.2%, respectively. The mean number of served oestrous cycles was 1.60 per mare per conception and 1.86 per live foal. The first and second cycle concepti...
Fabiani JV, Lyons ET, Nielsen MK.Parasite control in foals is of utmost importance due to the high susceptibility to parasitic infection and disease in this age group. Foals are commonly co-infected with strongyle and ascarid parasites, which complicate parasite control strategies. The present study retrospectively investigated necropsy records of foals born into a university herd kept without anthelmintic treatment since 1979. The aims were to statistically analyze the relationship between fecal egg counts, worm burdens, foal age, sex, and season with specific focus on Parascaris and Strongylus spp. A total of 83 foals born ...
Machová K, Daďová K, Chaloupková H, Svobodová I.Many studies have shown that having a dog has an impact on the increase in physical activity (PA) of people. However, what is often not taken into account in many such studies is owning of other pets. The aim of this study was to compare PA levels between animal owners and non-owners and to research potential differences between owners of different kinds of animals. Methods: 111 young females of mean age 21 ± 1.2 years enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Czech version of short International physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess PA level, supplemented with a quest...
