Equine diseases encompass a wide range of health conditions that can affect horses, including infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, and genetic conditions. These diseases can impact the overall health, performance, and well-being of horses. Common equine diseases include equine influenza, equine herpesvirus, laminitis, and equine metabolic syndrome. Diagnosis and management of these diseases often require a combination of clinical evaluation, laboratory testing, and appropriate treatment strategies. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the etiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment options for various equine diseases, providing valuable insights for veterinarians and researchers in the field.
Olitsky PK, Harford CG.Young (12 to 15 day old) mice are approximately as susceptible to the virus of equine encephalomyelitis, Eastern or Western strain, when it is given intraperitoneally as are adult mice when the virus is injected intracerebrally. With this susceptibility by the intraperitoneal route as a basis, the injection of immune serum-virus mixtures intraperitoneally was found to result in protection in dilutions which give rise to infection after intracerebral inoculation. The difference of protective power by the two indicated routes was shown not to depend on the amount of inoculum nor on the age of th...
Tenbroeck C, Hurst EW, Traub E.Equine encephalomyelitis of the eastern type is a disease of the late summer and fall and cases are found in greatest numbers near salt marshes. The epidemiological findings are against its transmission by contact and favor the view that it is insect borne. Although virus can be demonstrated in the blood of infected horses it is present for a relatively short time, and the possibility that the disease is not primarily an infection of horses but that it is transmitted to them from another host is considered.
Hurst EW.The virus of equine encephalomyelitis (eastern strain) evokes in the horse, calf, sheep and dog an unusually intense encephalomyelitis characterized by acute primary degeneration of nerve cells, the appearance in neurons of the brain stem and elsewhere of nuclear inclusions resembling those in Borna disease and poliomyelitis, polymorphonuclear infiltration in the nervous tissues with early microglial proliferation, and perivascular cuffing with mononuclears and polymorphonuclears in varying proportions. The grey matter is affected more than the white. Lesions may be less marked in the striatum...
Olitsky PK, Cox HR, Syverton JT.We have studied certain properties, additional to those previously described (3), of the virus of vesicular stomatitis of horses, and of the characteristic biological reactions of the virus of equine encephalomyelitis. It has been found that the virus of stomatitis, ordinarily dermotropic, can acquire neurotropism and the neurotropic encephalomyelitis virus can, in turn, be rendered dermotropic in its action. The neurotropism in both instances is associated with definite, although not pronounced, viscerotropism. Both viruses can bring about a similar infection in the white mouse, rat, guinea p...
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...
Gomiero C, Bertolutti G, Martinello T, Van Bruaene N, Broeckx SY, Patruno M, Spaas JH.Tendons regenerate poorly due to a dense extracellular matrix and low cellularity. Cellular therapies aim to improve tendon repair using mesenchymal stem cells and tenocytes; however, a current limitation is the low proliferative potential of tenocytes in cases of severe trauma. The purpose of this study was to develop a method useful in veterinary medicine to improve the differentiation of Peripheral Blood equine mesenchymal stem cells (PB-MSCs) into tenocytes. PB-MSCs were used to study the effects of the addition of some growth factors (GFs) as TGFβ3 (transforming growth factor), EGF2 (Epi...
Barnard K, Leadon DP, Silver IA.Collagen, elastin and structural glycoprotein content of the lungs of 38 fetal and neonatal foals, 8 of which were showing dysmaturity or convulsive syndrome, were measured by standard biochemical means. Glycoprotein content showed little or no change between 100 and 340 days of gestation; elastin remained constant from 100 to about 260 days when there was an exponential increase up to the time of birth, while collagen content rose linearly from 100 days to birth. In dysmature animals there was significantly less collagen in the lungs at birth but the difference in elastin content between the ...
Hunt RJ, Allen D, Mueller PO.Heterotopic polyodontia is typically associated with a sinus and a fistulous tract with a secreting membrane which extends to an ectopic tooth attached to the temporal bone. Recommendations for treatment include complete excision of the tract, the dental component, and the lining of the alveolar socket. Iatrogenic cerebral trauma was encountered during surgical extraction of an ectopic tooth. At post-mortem examination a second ectopic tooth was found compressing the right side of the cerebellum.
Velineni S, Timoney JF, Artiushin SC, Donahue JM, Steinman M.Foals of mares infected with Leptospira interrogans serovar Pomona type kennewicki (Lk) may be aborted/stillborn or delivered as healthy foals. Is fetal survival explained in part by the immune response of the fetus to Leptospira antigens? Objective: To describe an outbreak of Leptospira abortion in which infected mares delivered dead/sick or normal foals and determine specificities of antibody in a collection of 54 fetuses from similar outbreaks. Methods: Outbreak investigation in combination with a case-control study of a larger set of samples from aborted fetuses. Methods: Serology and poly...
McCarrel TM, Minas T, Fortier LA.Numerous methods are available for platelet-rich plasma (PRP) generation, but evidence defining the optimum composition is lacking. We hypothesized that leukocyte-reduced PRP would result in lower inflammatory cytokine expression compared with concentrated-leukocyte PRP and that maintaining the platelet:white blood cell (WBC) ratio would compensate for the effect of increased WBC concentration. Methods: Blood and flexor digitorum superficialis tendons were collected from young adult horses. Three PRP groups were generated with the same platelet concentration but different WBC concentrations: i...
Zamith Cunha R, Zannoni A, Salamanca G, De Silva M, Rinnovati R, Gramenzi A, Forni M, Chiocchetti R.The metacarpophalangeal joint undergoes enormous loading during locomotion and can therefore often become inflamed, potentially resulting in osteoarthritis (OA). There are studies indicating that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) modulates synovium homeostasis, and could be a promising target for OA therapy. Some cannabinoid receptors, which modulate proliferative and secretory responses in joint inflammation, have been functionally identified in human and animal synovial cells. Unassigned: To characterize the cellular distribution of the cannabinoid receptors 1 (CB1R) and 2 (CB2R), and the can...
Newton JR, Geraghty RJ, Castillo-Olivares J, Cardwell JM, Mumford JA.Several laboratories worldwide have recently experienced problems related to serum cytotoxicity with the equine arteritis virus (EAV) neutralisation test (VN) when using Office International des Epizooties (OIE) reference laboratory prescribed rabbit kidney (RK-13) indicator cells. Cytotoxicity can be mistaken for viral cytopathic effect and has led to increasing difficulties in test interpretation, consequently causing disruption to both equine breeding and disease surveillance. Results from experimental and field-derived data suggest that this serum cytotoxicity is associated with use of a t...
Pipers FS, Zent W, Holder R, Asbury A.Ultrasonographic detection of pregnancy was performed in 952 Thoroughbred mares. Characteristic images were obtained between 12 and 55 days after breeding. Twins in the same uterine horn as well as twins in opposite horns were imaged, and for the first few months of gestation appeared similar to single pregnancies. Growth curves as a function of time were developed, utilizing horizontal diameters of the blastocysts versus breeding dates. Comparisons between horizontal and vertical diameters demonstrated no appreciable differences when observed as a group. Growth curves derived from twins did n...
Fernández-Pinero J, Fernández-Pacheco P, Rodríguez B, Sotelo E, Robles A, Arias M, Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM.A highly sensitive and specific TaqMan-MGB real-time RT-PCR assay has been developed and standardised for the detection of African horse sickness virus (AHSV). Primers and MGB probe specific for AHSV were selected within a highly conserved region of genome segment 7. The robustness and general application of the diagnostic method were verified by the detection of 12 AHSV isolates from all of the nine serotypes. The analytical sensitivity ranged from 0.001 to 0.15 TCID(50) per reaction, depending on the viral serotype. Real-time PCR performance was preliminarily assessed by analysing a panel of...
Carminatti A, Chitolina MB, Ribeiro AB, Forest M, Collet SG, Prestes AM, Camillo G.To facilitate exploration of the immense range of gastrointestinal parasites in horses and the impact of parasitism on equine health, the present study aimed to evaluate the occurrence and risk factors associated with these infections in horses reared in different management systems in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Samples were collected from 208 horses: 91 from extensive, 64 from semi-extensive, and 53 from intensive rearing systems. The identified helminths included those of the Strongylida order (80.29%), Parascaris equorum (3.36%), Oxyuris equi (4.33%), and Anoplocephala spp. (1.92%...
Casillas JM, Jacobs CC, Manfredi JM.To identify radiographic locations of soft tissue attachments in the tarsal region of horses and describe any variability in the gross anatomy of those attachments. Methods: 15 cadaveric limbs from 8 adult horses. Methods: 8 limbs were used for dissection and radiography of soft tissue structures, with metallic markers used to identify radiographic locations of soft tissue attachments. The remaining 7 limbs were used to evaluate anatomic variations in the insertion of the tendon of the fibularis tertius muscle. A consensus list of preferred radiographic views for evaluating each soft tissue at...
Rowan C, Puggioni A, Hoey SE, O'Leary JM, Kearney C, Connolly SE, Skelly C.The requirement to pack the sulcus of the equine foot as an aid to diagnostic interpretation before acquisition of dorsoproximal-palmarodistal oblique projections is debatable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the benefit of packing the sulcus in the assessment of normal anatomy. 23 cadaver limbs were radiographed in a podoblock (https://www.podoblock.com/products-page/podoblock/podoblock/) A non-packed image (NP) and a packed image (P) of the same foot were acquired. The image quality of P was graded against the reference NP by five observers, where -1=P was superior, 0=no differe...
Pérez-Castrillo S, González-Fernández ML, Gutiérrez-Velasco L, Villar-Suárez V.To characterize the ultrastructure of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that were harvested from the adipose tissue (AT-MSCs) and bone marrow (BM-MSCs) of horses and transfected with green fluorescent protein. Methods: MSCs from adipose tissue and bone marrow of 6 adult female Hispano-Bretón horses. Methods: Harvested equine MSCs were cultivated and transfected with green fluorescent protein, and the immunophenotypes of the MSCs were characterized by use of anti-CD90 and anti-CD105 monoclonal antibodies. When stable transfection of MSCs was achieved, the morphological and ultrastructural characte...
Rodrigues VD, de Freitas MG, Milan B, Reckziegel GH, Borges DGL, Nakatani MTM, Tutija JF, Borges FA.The equine pinworm could become an increasingly common problem, as there are reports of failure in the control of this parasite. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of ivermectin (IVM) and IVM combined with pyrantel pamoate (PYR). Thirteen parasitological positive equines were treated with oral IVM (200 µg/kg) and therapeutic efficacy, clinical recovery and the egg reappearance period (ERP) were evaluated. In cases for which ERP was shorter than the pre-patent period (PPP), a second treatment was performed with IVM (200 µg/kg) + PYR (6.6 mg/kg), followed by the same evaluatio...
Rodgerson DH, Belknap JK, Moore JN, Fontaine GL.To determine messenger RNA expression of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, and interleukin- (IL)-1beta from cultured equine smooth muscle cells (SMC). Methods: Segments of palmar digital artery harvested from 6 clinically normal adult horses. Methods: Explants were collected from the tunica media of arteries for primary culture of SMC. Equine mononuclear cells were used as control cells. Subcultured vascular SMC and control cells were exposed to lipopolysaccharide (20 microg/ml and 100 ng/ml, respectively). Northern blot analysis with equine-specific probes for COX-2, ...
Satué K, Fazio E, Gardón JC, Medica P.The interpretation of the blood count is essential to help the equine clinician in the diagnosis, prognosis, patient management, and control of equine diseases. Hematologic alterations often reflect the condition of the individual or an overall response to a pathological situation. A thorough clinical examination of the patient is essential to correctly interpret the hematological results. The most common abnormalities in the erythrogram are mainly anemia and polycythemia. The frequent causes of anemia in horses are acute and chronic blood loss, hemolytic anemia, and anemia caused by chronic d...
Paraskevaidi M, Hook PD, Morais CLM, Anderson JR, White R, Martin-Hirsch PL, Peffers MJ, Martin FL.Reliable and validated biomarkers for osteoarthritis (OA) are currently lacking. Objective: To develop an accurate and minimally invasive method to assess OA-affected horses and provide potential spectral markers indicative of disease. Methods: Observational, cross-sectional study. Methods: Our cohort consisted of 15 horses with OA and 48 without clinical signs of the disease, which were used as controls. Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy was used to investigate serum samples (50 μL) collected from these horses. Spectral processing and multivariat...
Reef VB, Levitan CW, Spencer PA.Sixty-seven horses presented with atrial fibrillation (AF) from January 1, 1980 to August 1, 1986. All horses were evaluated for the type and severity of the underlying cardiac disease and the probable duration of the arrhythmia. Fifty-two (78%) of the horses were treated with quinidine sulfate and/or digoxin. The response to treatment was assessed in each horse. Horses were followed for periods extending from 8 months to 7 years. Standardbreds, young horses, and males predominated in the study group. There were more male horses (stallions and geldings) than mares. Most horses with AF had no e...
McConnico RS, Argenzio RA, Roberts MC.The objective of this project was to determine early tissue biochemical events associated with increased colonic secretion during the acute stage of castor-oil-induced colitis by measuring cecal mucosal and submucosal malondialdehyde (MDA) and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), levels in ponies. Intestinal tissue (inflamed or healthy) samples were obtained from 4 age- and sex-matched Shetland ponies. Biochemical methods were used to determine MDA and PGE2 levels in intestinal tissue samples from inflamed and healthy equine intestine. Inflamed tissue MDA and PGE2 levels increased with time after castor o...
Badr C, Souiai O, Arbi M, El Behi I, Essaied MS, Khosrof I, Benkahla A, Chabchoub A, Ghram A.Equid herpesvirus (EHV) is a contagious viral disease affecting horses, causing illness characterized by respiratory symptoms, abortion and neurological disorders. It is common worldwide and causes severe economic losses to the equine industry. The present study was aimed at investigating the incidence of EHVs, the genetic characterization of Tunisian isolates and a spatiotemporal study, using 298 collected samples from diseased and clinically healthy horses. The global incidence of EHV infection was found to be about 71.81%. EHV2 and EHV5 were detected in 146 (48.99%) and 159 (53.35%) sampled...
Rossi SL, Guerbois M, Gorchakov R, Plante KS, Forrester NL, Weaver SC.Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is an arbovirus that causes periodic outbreaks that impact equine and human populations in the Americas. One of the VEEV subtypes located in Mexico and Central America (IE) has recently been recognized as an important cause of equine disease and death, and human exposure also appears to be widespread. Here, we describe the use of an Internal Ribosome Entry Site (IRES) from encephalomyocarditis virus to stably attenuate VEEV, creating a vaccine candidate independent of unstable point mutations. Mice infected with this virus produced antibodies and wer...
McConnico RS, Stokes AM, Eades SC, Moore RM.To examine the secretory response (in the presence and absence of prostaglandin inhibition) in vitro and structural alterations of colonic mucosa in horses after intragastric administration of black walnut extract (BWE). Methods: 14 adult horses. Methods: Seven horses were administered BWE intragastrically and monitored for 11 hours. Tissue samples were obtained from the right ventral, left ventral, and right dorsal colons (RVC, LVC, and RDC, respectively) of the 7 BWE-treated and 7 control horses. Tissue samples were examined via light microscopy, and the extent of hemorrhage, edema, and gran...
Page AE, Wood C, Partridge E, Horohov DW, Adam E.The use of lipopolysaccharide to induce a localized source of inflammation (acute synovitis) and allow for monitoring of changes in systemic mRNA expression has been recently reported. Here, the goal was to maintain a significant systemic mRNA response while limiting the severity of lameness such that this model can be used to examine the effects of various anti-inflammatory treatment modalities on mRNA expression. Three mixed breeds, four-year-old geldings were utilized for this study. One milliliter of phosphate-buffered saline containing 1,000 ng or less of lipopolysaccharide from E. coli O...
Thomas KL, Carmalt JL, Burnett WD, Arjmand H, Johnston JD.OBJECTIVE To compare strain at the bone-pin and cast-pin interfaces among 3 transfixation pin-cast constructs applied to equine forelimbs. ANIMALS 15 forelimbs from 15 adult horses. PROCEDURES Limbs were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 constructs. Centrally threaded positive-profile pins were used for all constructs, and the most distal pin was placed just proximal to the epicondyles of the third metacarpal bone. Construct 1 consisted of two 6.3-mm-diameter pins spaced 4 cm apart at 30° to each other. Construct 2 was the same as construct 1 except the pins were placed 5 cm apart. Construct 3 cons...
Brommer H, van Weeren PR, Brama PA, Barneveld A.The equine fetlock joint has the largest number of traumatic and degenerative lesions of all joints of the appendicular skeleton. Objective: To gain insight into the distribution of cartilage degeneration across the articular surface in relation to age in order better to understand the dynamic nature and progression of osteoarthritis (OA). Objective: That there would be a specific age-related distribution pattern of cartilage degeneration in the equine metacarpophalangeal joint. Methods: The proximal articular cartilage surfaces of the first phalanges (P1) of 73 slaughter horses (age range 0.4...
García EDA, Khusro A, Pacheco EBF, Adegbeye MJ, Barbabosa-Pliego A, Lagunas BC, Salas JMC, Mateos RG, Aarti C, Elghandour MMMY.The present context was designed to investigate the efficacy of devil fish (DF; Plecostomus sp.) silage and Staphylococcus saprophyticus on fermentation characteristics as well as greenhouse gases production mitigation attributes in horses. Four levels of ensiled DF at 0 (control DF0), 6 (DF6), 12 (DF12), and 18 (DF18) % were added into the diet. Moreover, three doses of S. saprophyticus (0, 1, and 3 mL/g dry matter [DM]) were used for in vitro fecal fermentation. The use of ensiled DF resulted in increased (P < .0001) pH during fermentation. The asymptotic gas production was the highest (P...
Tatarov G, Martinov S, Panova M.It was established that the complement binding reaction (CBR) is a suitable and very fast method for horse rhino-pneumonitis diagnostics. Cell cultural virus produced in cell cultures of pig kidneys was used as antigen. The antigen lots tested have no anticomplementary properties. Highest complement binding activity was evident in the non-diluted antigen, which discovered specific antibodies in immune serums. The CBR specificity was tested by the aid of homologous and heterologous serums and antigens. The titers of complement binding antibodies in the serums of 255 horses recovered from the di...
Tijssen M, Hernlund E, Rhodin M, Bosch S, Voskamp JP, Nielen M, Serra Braganςa FM.A prolonged break-over phase might be an indication of a variety of musculoskeletal disorders and can be measured with optical motion capture (OMC) systems, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and force plates. The aim of this study was to present two algorithms for automatic detection of the break-over phase onset from the acceleration and angular velocity signals measured by hoof-mounted IMUs in walk and trot on a hard surface. The performance of these algorithms was evaluated by internal validation with an OMC system and a force plate separately. Seven Warmblood horses were equipped with two ...
Goodman NL, Baker BK.Lameness problems constitute a major part of racing Quarter Horse practice. This article considers the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of the frequently encountered lamenesses. The main conditions included are synovitis, intra-articular fractures, osteochondritis dissecans, and degenerative joint disease as they relate to the coffin, fetlock, carpal, and tarsal joints. Intra-articular injection techniques and medications are discussed because of the frequency of joint disease. Bucked shins and stress fractures are also reviewed.
