Equine health encompasses the study and management of diseases, disorders, and overall well-being of horses. It involves understanding various physiological systems, preventive care, and treatment strategies to maintain optimal health in equine populations. Common areas of focus include nutrition, infectious diseases, orthopedic conditions, and reproductive health. Research in equine health aims to advance knowledge on diagnostic methods, therapeutic interventions, and management practices that improve horse welfare and performance. This page collects peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the diverse aspects of equine health, offering insights into current findings and advancements in the field.
Connard SS, Schnabel LV.This review explores the use of biologics in the treatment of tendon and ligament injuries in horses, focusing on current and emerging therapies aimed at enhancing tissue repair and regeneration. It discusses the role of scaffold-based therapies, growth factors, blood-derived and tissue-derived biologics, and gene therapy as biologic regenerative therapies for improving healing outcomes. The review evaluates the mechanisms, efficacy, and challenges of biologics in clinical applications, highlighting recent advances and clinical studies. It provides an overview of current trends and future dire...
Tay A, McMaster M.Equine tendon lacerations are not uncommon secondary to traumatic wounds and degloving lacerations. These wounds are often contaminated and, therefore, basic principles of wound assessment and management are critical to identify the extent of an injury. Ancillary tools to aid physical examination include radiography, ultrasonography, and synoviocentesis (eg, if involving a joint and/or tendon sheath). Prolonged convalescence period, continued external coaptation, and controlled exercise are mainstays of treatment following tenorrhaphy. A poor prognosis for return to full athletic function is e...
Ellis KL, Giancola S.Rehabilitation for tendon/ligament injury requires a multimodal approach to reduce pain, restore range of motion, improve proprioception/neuromotor control, and improve strength/endurance. Multiple tools are available to accomplish these goals. The rehabilitation program must be tailored to the individual patient regardless of injury type in order to return the horse to full athletic activity and reduce the risk of reinjury.
Legere RM, Ott JA, Poveda C, Vanover D, Borba KER, Yeon Joo J, Martin CL, da Silveira BP, Bray JM, Landrock K, Wright GA, Blazier JC, Hillhouse AE....Inhalation of Rhodococcus equi causes severe pneumonia in humans and animals worldwide, most commonly affecting horse foals. The standard for preventing R. equi pneumonia in foals is transfusion of hyperimmune plasma, which is expensive and carries the risk of adverse effects. Our goal was to passively immunize foals against R. equi by nebulizing mRNA encoding an equine monoclonal antibody (mAb) against the virulence-associated protein A (VapA) directly into the lungs. VapA-specific memory B cells from an immunized horse were used to identify and select the sequence for an equine immunoglobuli...
Munoz Moran JA.This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of intra-articular (IA) injections of a combination of platelet rich plasma (PRP) and hyaluronic acid (HA) on joint effusion following arthroscopic removal of OCD in the tarso-crural joint (TCJ) in young Andalusian horses. Methods: Forty Andalusian horses diagnosed with OCD of the distal intermediate ridge of the tibia (DIRT) were included in the study. Horses enrolled in this study had persisting synovial effusion after arthroscopic removal of OCD in the TCJ. A subjective semi-quantitative effusion score was adopted in the study to define the ...
Ellis K, Van Zeeland EM, Ashton L, Wist S, Broeckling C, Harris M, Frisbie DD, Sikes KJ.To (1) identify tissue-specific metabolic profiles of the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT), deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT), and suspensory ligament (SL) and (2) evaluate metabolic profile differences in the SDFT, DDFT, and SL between the equine forelimb and hindlimb. Unassigned: 2 SDFT, DDFT, and SL specimens were collected from the forelimbs and hindlimbs of 10 horses of mixed breed, age, and sex that were euthanized for other reasons. One specimen was processed for histology to confirm that there were no underlying soft-tissue pathologies. One specimen was processed for 2 forms of...
Tarillion M, Hertzsch R, Richter A.Since 28.01.2022, veterinary medicinal products must be used in accordance with the conditions of authorization (Regulation (EU) 2019/6, Article 106). This entails further restrictions on therapeutic freedom, e. g., with regard to dose deviations. To date, there is no data available in equine medicine on the scope of off-label use as any use deviating from the expert information for antibiotics, on the basis of which the feasibility of implementing the new regulations in Germany can be assessed.To collect data on the off-label use of antibiotics, a Germany-wide anonymous online survey was th...
de Preux M, Precht C, Becker R, Stieglitz L, Easley J, Koch C.Trigeminal-mediated headshaking is a neuropathic disorder in horses, characterized by signs of regional pain similar to trigeminal neuralgia in humans. The injection of glycerol into the trigeminal cistern to ablate pain-conducting nerve fibers within the trigeminal ganglion -known as glycerol rhizotomy- is a well-established treatment in human medicine. This study compares two approaches to the equine trigeminal cistern using a navigation system for guiding needle placement, a previously described ventral and a newly developed transmandibular lateral approach. The surgical accuracy and risk o...
Maguire M, Brusie R.To determine the outcome of skeletally mature performance horses with subchondral bone cysts and fissures in the proximal aspect of the first phalanx treated by lag screw compression. Unassigned: Case records of horses that underwent lag screw compression to treat subchondral bone lesions in the proximal aspect of the first phalanx were reviewed. Performance horses > 5 years old with lameness referrable to the fetlock region; radiographic or other advanced imaging evidence of subchondral bone lesions, with no other concurrent cause for lameness; and at least 6 months of follow-up data were inc...
Crabtree NE, Capper AM, McKinnon LH, Epstein KL.The objective was to compare perioperative factors that may influence clinician decisions regarding antimicrobial therapy duration and outcomes in horses undergoing exploratory celiotomy. Unassigned: Horses > 1 mo of age undergoing exploratory celiotomy for colic that survived without repeat celiotomy for ≥ 5 d. Unassigned: Retrospective cohort study. Cases were grouped by duration of antimicrobial therapy: G1, ≤ 24 h; G2, 1 to 3 d; G3, > 3 d. Admission, surgical, and postoperative data from the medical records and long-term outcome assessed telephone follow-up were compared among g...
Hellige M, Geburek F.Diagnostic imaging is an important part of the diagnostic approach in equine spinal ataxia especially with the cervical spine being commonly involved. The spinal cord may be affected by a variety of conditions including cervical vertebral malformations, osteoarthritis of the articular process joints or less commonly neoplasia. Advanced imaging techniques such as myelography are more accurate in diagnosing spinal cord compression and may be performed under general anesthesia in neutral, flexed and extended positions of the cervical spine. The use of ultrasound is non-invasive and allows ultraso...
Beaumont A, Emond AL, Pourcelot P, Fayaubot L, Ravary-Plumioen B, Dupays AG, Desquilbet L, Denoix JM, Crevier-Denoix N.To quantify changes in the cross-sectional area (CSA) of the midmetacarpal superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) in young Trotters during training. Unassigned: In this experimental study, 12 healthy 3-year-old French Trotters, assigned to either a soft-track or a hard-track group, were trained for 4 months (June through September of 2012 and 2013). Both groups followed the same exercise program of increasing intensity. Ultrasonographic examinations of both forelimb SDFTs of each horse were performed before the beginning of training (D0), after 2 months of training (M2), and after 4 months o...
Foucaud M, Haegeman L, Kadic D, Vinardell T, Mariën T, Declercq J.To describe a direct arthroscopic approach of the distal pouch of the palmar/plantar recess of the fetlock to facilitate fragment removal, highlighting its advantages over previously described arthroscopic methods for the fetlock. Additionally, to evaluate and present a retrospective case series. Methods: Ex vivo and retrospective clinical study. Methods: A total of 25 fetlocks in 23 horses. Methods: A direct approach to the distal pouch of the palmar/plantar recess of the fetlock was developed on five cadaveric limbs. Arthroscopic anatomy and landmarks were examined. The approach was clinical...
Kiełbik P, Witkowska-Piłaszewicz O.Iron is unquestionably an essential element of physical performance for horses, just as it is for many other animals, including humans. Although post-exercise equine iron deficiency is not a common problem, recent studies showed that equine athletes may be considered a model for human exercise physiology. Sports anemia among human athletes is a common nutritional issue and remains one reason for poor physical fitness. Thus, this study area needs comprehensive knowledge since iron homeostasis changes in equine athletes remain unrecognized. The current review aims to summarize studies describing...
Boado A, Pollard D, Dyson S.There is limited information about the orthopaedic health of dressage horses. This study aimed to document the orthopaedic status, lesion distribution, and evolution of injuries in 70 horses undergoing a minimum of five in-depth orthopaedic assessments at six-months' intervals. Warmblood (70.0%) and Iberian (24.3%) breeds predominated. The median lameness grade at initial examination was 2/5 (interquartile range 2,2; range 0,3). Hypermetria (42.9%) or hypermetria and weakness (12.9%) were observed at the initial examination and did not change over time. Metacarpophalangeal/metatarsophalangeal ...
Bauquier J, Takahashi C, Rosales C, Pitt J.There is limited published information on Malva parviflora toxicosis in horses. Four previously reported cases all resulted in death or euthanasia. The aim of this cluster investigation was to describe historical, clinical and clinicopathological findings of four ponies with suspected M. parviflora toxicosis and compare these to previously reported cases. Historical, clinical and clinicopathological findings were collated. Ponies were grazing pasture of approximately >90% M. parviflora. Pony 1 died rapidly without veterinary examination. Pony 2 was examined for prolonged recumbency attribut...
Peeters MWJ, Ott S, van Veggel E, Berner D, Perrier M.Limited reports in the literature are available regarding desmitis of the palmar/plantar ligaments of the proximal interphalangeal joint (PL-PIPJ); the clinical significance of such injuries is unknown. Objective: To describe the ability to differentiate the PL-PIPJ on low-field magnetic resonance (MR) examination. To describe the injury characteristics of the PL-PIPJ on MR examination and the correlation with clinical features and lameness. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: Data and MR images of 29 horses were collected from the databases of three institutions. Horses were included...
Medica AJ, Swegen A, Seifi-Jamadi A, McIntosh K, Gibb Z.Oxidative stress plays a critical role in regulating sperm function, yet species-specific antioxidant mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study compared hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) tolerance in horse and human sperm and investigated the roles of catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) in horses. A H2O2 dose-response assay (0-2000 µM) showed that horse sperm were significantly more resistant to oxidative damage, with an IC50 for progressive motility over 14-fold higher than that of human sperm (391.6 µM vs. 27.3 µM). Horse sperm also accumulated more intracellular H2O2 without loss of m...
Barandalla M, Colleoni S, Perota A, Galli C, Lazzari G.The introduction of ovum pick-up, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) and in vitro embryo production in equine reproduction offers significant advantages, including overcoming infertility, high blastocyst yields, embryo cryopreservation, and preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) by collecting few cells extruded spontaneously during embryo growth using a mouth pipette. PGT enables embryo selection before transfer and is particularly useful in breeds with a preference for specific offspring genders, coat color, and detecting genetic diseases. Here, we present the first large-scale validation...
Bonow S, Hernlund E, Eriksson S, Strandberg E, Gelinder Viklund Å.Sweden has a strong tradition of insuring horses for veterinary costs, and orthopedic diagnoses are the most common for insurance claims. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in prevalence and risk of orthopedic diagnoses for Swedish warmblood (SWB) horses classified as jumping (J) or dressage (D) horses. Also, other factors that may influence orthopedic health were investigated, i.e., sex, birth cohort, and participation in young horse tests and competition. The data consisted of 15,619 insured SWB horses born between 2010 and 2020. Horses were classified as J or D horses acco...
Coelho C, Vintem C, Silva AS, Santos C, Santos AM, Leite A, Souza V, Siqueira R, Filho HCM, Simões J.The present work aimed to evaluate the influence of a training programme on energy expenditure (EE), cost of transport (COT, cardiac beats to move the body mass during exercise) and metabolic power (Pmet) in young Purebred Lusitano horses used in dressage. With this purpose, nine male horses, ~4 years old, were evaluated before (M1) and after 6 weeks (M2) of a training programme that included 40-80 min of preparatory dressage exercises, 6×/week, individually adjusted. In M1 and M2, the animals were examined in a dressage field test (DFT), when heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR), body...
Huang X, Deng R, Huang H, Xie H, Chen A.This case report detailed a rare co-infection of and in a 9-year-old warmblood mare, leading to severe cellulitis and secondary lymphangitis following traditional hoof blood-letting therapy. The mare exhibited acute limb swelling, fever, cutaneous ulceration, lymphatic dysfunction and unknown anemia. Comprehensive diagnostics, including bacterial culture, whole-genome sequencing, anti-elastin antibody (AEAb) ELISA, and diagnostic imaging, confirmed the pathogens causing cellulitis and secondary lymphangitis. AEAb levels were elevated, correlating with lymphatic degradation, while radiography...
Clarke EJ, Jensen A, Gillen AM, Bardell D, Senior M, Anderson JR, Peffers MJ.To determine the protein composition of equine platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and PRP-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) and evaluate their effects on tendon inflammation in vitro. As tendon injuries are common in horses and treatment with PRP derived from the horse's own blood shows promise, but outcomes vary due to inconsistent composition. PRP contains EVs that facilitate cell communication. Unassigned: From December 2022 through May 2023, equine plasma (n = 3, adult) was isolated via double centrifugation and PRP produced using a commercial kit. Extracellular vesicles were isolated using dif...
Lai CS, Wong ASY, Wong KS, Wan TSM, Ho ENM.In the screening of prohibited substances (PS) in horse biological samples with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) for doping control, an enormous number of chromatograms are generated. Reviewing these chromatograms to identify suspicious findings requires an extensive manual effort. Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) enable its use to classify images into different categories. This can potentially be utilized to perform first-line analysis of chromatograms, which are usually displayed as images, by classifying them...
van Maanen K, van den Wollenberg L, de Haan T, Frippiat T.Monitoring infectious diseases is essential for safeguarding equine health and ensuring the sustainability of the horse industry. In 2019, the Royal Veterinary Association of the Netherlands (KNMvD) and Royal GD (GD Animal Health) launched SEIN (Surveillance of Equine Infectious diseases in the Netherlands), a voluntary surveillance system for laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), equid alphaherpesvirus 4 (EHV-4), equine influenza virus (EIV), and subsp. . This retrospective study analyzed 364 confirmed outbreaks reported through SEIN between June 2019 and April ...
Osorio-Cardona JJ, Usuga-Moreno VM, Martínez-Aranzales JR.The dexamethasone suppression test (DST) has been used in humans for the diagnosis of psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety and Cushing's syndrome, and in horses for the ante mortem diagnosis of dysfunction of the intermediate part of the pituitary. Objective: This study aimed to examine the functionality of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis through the DST and the cortisol index (CI), to evaluate the rhythmicity of the circadian cycle of cortisol in healthy horses with crib-biting or windsucking. Methods: A total of 20 Colombian Creole horses of both sexes, under similar mana...
Atay YE, Ekinci G, Öztürk AE, Timur MC, Mete A, Altınbay K, Derelli FM, Akar Y, Keleş İ.Equine Coital Exanthema (ECE) is an endemic herpesvirus disease primarily affecting the external genitalia and impairing mating activities in horses. Its extremely contagious nature, latency and subclinical features can result in outbreaks and significant economic losses. Transmission occurs primarily through mating activities; therefore, robust biosecurity measures are crucial in breeding facilities. This study aims to determine the clinical prevalence of ECE among horses in a covering station in Türkiye from 2021 to 2024. It also aims to assess the efficacy of routine PCR implementation wit...
Dosi M, Scott L, Payne H, Poldy J, Keen J, McGorum B, Malbon A, Morgan R.Hyperinsulinaemia (HI) is an important feature of Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS). It has been suggested that reduced hepatic clearance of insulin contributes to HI, particularly in humans affected by metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Objective: In obese horses with HI, insulin clearance is impaired and associated with MASLD. Methods: Tissue samples were collected at post-mortem from clinically well-characterized horses with HI (n = 13; basal insulin > 20 mIU/l) and without HI (control; n = 20). Methods: Retrospective observational study. Molecular d...
Thouless ME, Bryden AS, Flewett TH, Woode GN, Bridger JC, Snodgrass DR, Herring JA.Human, piglet, mouse, foal, lamb, calf and rabbit rotaviruses all infected, but could not readily be subcultured in LLC MK2 cells. Cells infected with mouse and calf rotaviruses reacted by indirect immunofluorescence (FA) with convalescent serum from children, piglets, mice, foals, lambs, calves or rabbits, taken after rotavirus infection. Human, calf, piglet, mouse and foal rotaviruses reacted with human, calf, mouse, foal and lamb convalescent serum by complement fixation (CF). It was not possible to distinguish between different rotaviruses by CF or FA. Neutralization tests, however, detect...
Morales MA, Barrandeguy M, Fabbri C, Garcia JB, Vissani A, Trono K, Gutierrez G, Pigretti S, Menchaca H, Garrido N, Taylor N, Fernandez F, Levis S....West Nile virus (WNV) was isolated from the brains of 3 horses that died from encephalitis in February 2006. The horses were from different farms in central Argentina and had not traveled outside the country. This is the first isolation of WNV in South America.
Asplin KE, Sillence MN, Pollitt CC, McGowan CM.The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of prolonged administration of insulin, whilst maintaining normal glucose concentrations, on hoof lamellar integrity in vivo on healthy ponies with no known history of laminitis or insulin resistance. Nine clinically healthy, unrelated ponies were randomly allocated to either a treatment group (n =5; 5.9+/-1.7 years) or control group (n =4; 7.0+/-2.8 years). The treatment group received insulin via a euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp technique modified and prolonged for up to 72 h. Control ponies were infused with an equivalent volume of...
Leroy G, Mary-Huard T, Verrier E, Danvy S, Charvolin E, Danchin-Burge C.Effective population sizes of 140 populations (including 60 dog breeds, 40 sheep breeds, 20 cattle breeds and 20 horse breeds) were computed using pedigree information and six different computation methods. Simple demographical information (number of breeding males and females), variance of progeny size, or evolution of identity by descent probabilities based on coancestry or inbreeding were used as well as identity by descent rate between two successive generations or individual identity by descent rate. Results: Depending on breed and method, effective population sizes ranged from 15 to 133 ...
Vidal MA, Walker NJ, Napoli E, Borjesson DL.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from adult and neonatal tissues are intensively investigated for their use in regenerative medicine. The purpose of this study was to compare the onset of replicative senescence in MSCs isolated from equine bone marrow (BMSC), adipose tissue (ASC), and umbilical cord tissue (UCMSC). MSC proliferation (cell doubling), senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining, telomere length, Sox-2, and lineage-specific marker expression were assessed for MSCs harvested from tissues of 4 different donors. The results show that before senescence ensued, all cell types prolife...
Schmiedel J, Falgenhauer L, Domann E, Bauerfeind R, Prenger-Berninghoff E, Imirzalioglu C, Chakraborty T.Multiresistant Gram-negative bacteria producing extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs) are an emerging problem in human and veterinary medicine. This study focused on comparative molecular characterization of β-lactamase and ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae isolates from central Hesse in Germany. Isolates originated from humans, companion animals (dogs and cats) and horses. Results: In this study 153 (83.6%) of the human isolates (n = 183) and 163 (91.6%) of the animal isolates (n = 178) were confirmed as ESBL producers by PCR and subsequent sequencing of the PCR amplicons. Predomin...
Pelkonen S, Lindahl SB, Suomala P, Karhukorpi J, Vuorinen S, Koivula I, Väisänen T, Pentikäinen J, Autio T, Tuuminen T.Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (S. zooepidemicus) is a zoonotic pathogen for persons in contact with horses. In horses, S. zooepidemicus is an opportunistic pathogen, but human infections associated with S. zooepidemicus are often severe. Within 6 months in 2011, 3 unrelated cases of severe, disseminated S. zooepidemicus infection occurred in men working with horses in eastern Finland. To clarify the pathogen's epidemiology, we describe the clinical features of the infection in 3 patients and compare the S. zooepidemicus isolates from the human cases with S. zooepidemicus isolates...
Baptiste KE, Williams K, Willams NJ, Wattret A, Clegg PD, Dawson S, Corkill JE, O'Neill T, Hart CA.We determined the molecular characteristics of methicillin-resistant staphylococci from animals and staff at a small animal and equine hospital. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) identical to human EMRSA-15 was found in dogs and hospital staff. In contrast, 5 distinct MRSA strains were isolated from horses but not from hospital staff.
Onyiche TE, Suganuma K, Igarashi I, Yokoyama N, Xuan X, Thekisoe O.Equine Piroplasmosis (EP) is a tick-borne disease caused by apicomplexan protozoan parasites, and . The disease is responsible for serious economic losses to the equine industry. It principally affects donkeys, horses, mules, and zebra but DNA of the parasites has also been detected in dogs and camels raising doubt about their host specificity. The disease is endemic in tropical and temperate regions of the world where the competent tick vectors are prevalent. Infected equids remain carrier for life with infection, whilst, infection with is cleared within a few years. This review focuses on...
Goodrich LR, Nixon AJ.The medical treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) in the horse is one of the most utilized therapeutic regimens in the equine practice. It is important to understand the anatomy of synovial joints and the pathophysiology of the disease process to treat OA adequately. Once a thorough understanding of the disease process is comprehended the proper combination of systemic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), intraarticular steroids, viscosupplementation and chondroprotectants can be used to treat the disease and inhibit further progression of degenerative changes to the cartilage surface. Th...
Journal of medical entomologyOctober 5, 2006
Volume 43, Issue 5 936-946 doi: 10.1603/0022-2585(2006)43[936:hbahba]2.0.co;2
Balenghien T, Fouque F, Sabatier P, Bicout DJ.After 35 yr of disease absence, West Nile virus (family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus, WNV) circulation has been regularly detected in the Camargue region (southern France) since 2000. WNV was isolated from Culex modestus Ficalbi, which was considered the main vector in southern France after horse outbreaks in the 1960s. Recent WNV transmissions outside of the Cx. modestus distribution suggested the existence of other vectors. To study potential WNV vectors, horse- and bird-baited traps and human landing collections of mosquitoes were carried out weekly from May to October 2004 at two Camargu...
Reef VB, Bonagura J, Buhl R, McGurrin MK, Schwarzwald CC, van Loon G, Young LE.Murmurs and arrhythmias are commonly detected in equine athletes. Assessing the relevance of these cardiovascular abnormalities in the performance horse can be challenging. Determining the impact of a cardiovascular disorder on performance, life expectancy, horse and rider or driver safety relative to the owner's future expectations is paramount. A comprehensive assessment of the cardiovascular abnormality detected is essential to determine its severity and achieve these aims. This consensus statement presents a general approach to the assessment of cardiovascular abnormalities, followed by a ...
Peregrine AS, Molento MB, Kaplan RM, Nielsen MK.Parascaris equorum and cyathostomins are currently considered the most important parasites of horses and have traditionally been controlled with anthelmintics belonging to three drug classes: benzimidazoles, the tetrahydropyrimidine pyrantel, and macrocyclic lactones. Unfortunately, resistance to benzimidazoles, and to a lesser extent pyrantel, is widespread in cyathostomins around the world. Furthermore, resistance to macrocyclic lactones appears to be in the early stages of development in cyathostomins in multiple locations. In contrast, P. equorum populations have remained susceptible to th...
Wise LN, Kappmeyer LS, Mealey RH, Knowles DP.Equine piroplasmosis is caused by one of 2 erythrocytic parasites Babesia caballi or Theileria equi. Although the genus of the latter remains controversial, the most recent designation, Theileria, is utilized in this review. Shared pathogenesis includes tick-borne transmission and erythrolysis leading to anemia as the primary clinical outcome. Although both parasites are able to persist indefinitely in their equid hosts, thus far, only B. caballi transmits across tick generations. Pathogenesis further diverges after transmission to equids in that B. caballi immediately infects erythrocytes, wh...
Walsh C, Gangloff M, Monie T, Smyth T, Wei B, McKinley TJ, Maskell D, Gay N, Bryant C.LPS signals through a membrane bound-complex of the lipid binding protein MD-2 and the receptor TLR4. In this study we identify discrete regions in both MD-2 and TLR4 that are required for signaling by lipid IVa, an LPS derivative that is an agonist in horse but an antagonist in humans. We show that changes in the electrostatic surface potential of both MD-2 and TLR4 are required in order that lipid IVa can induce signaling. In MD-2, replacing horse residues 57-66 and 82-89 with the equivalent human residues confers a level of constitutive activity on horse MD-2, suggesting that conformational...
Baumber J, Ball BA, Gravance CG, Medina V, Davies-Morel MC.The objective of this study was to examine the influence of reactive oxygen species (ROS), generated through the use of the xanthine (X)-xanthine oxidase (XO) system, on equine sperm motility, viability, acrosomal integrity, mitochondrial membrane potential, and membrane lipid peroxidation. Equine spermatozoa were separated from seminal plasma on a discontinuous Percoll gradient, and spermatozoa were incubated with 0.6 mM X and 0.05 U/mL XO for 30 minutes. Catalase (150 U/mL), superoxide dismutase (SOD, 150 U/mL), or glutathione (GSH, 1.5 mM) were evaluated for their ability to preserve sperm ...
Hammond SA, Cook SJ, Lichtenstein DL, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) provides a natural model system by which immunological control of lentivirus infections may be studied. To date, no detailed study addressing in parallel both the humoral and cellular immune responses induced in horses upon infection by EIAV has been conducted. Therefore, we initiated the first comprehensive characterization of the cellular and humoral immune responses during clinical progression from chronic disease to inapparent stages of EIAV infection. Using new analyses of antibody avidity and antibody epitope conformation dependence that had not been...
Ericsson AC, Johnson PJ, Lopes MA, Perry SC, Lanter HR.Horses are exquisitely sensitive to non-specific gastrointestinal disturbances as well as systemic and extraintestinal conditions related to gut health, yet minimal data are available regarding the composition of the microbiota present in the equine stomach, small intestine, and cecum and their relation to fecal microbiota. Moreover, there is minimal information regarding the concordance of the luminal and mucosal microbial communities throughout the equine gut. Illumina-based 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of the luminal and mucosal microbiota present in seven regions of the gastrointestin...
Catlin BW.The clinical significance, Gram stain reaction, and genus affiliation of Gardnerella vaginalis have been controversial since Gardner and Dukes described the organism as the cause of "nonspecific vaginitis," a common disease of women which is now called bacterial vaginosis. The organism was named G. vaginalis when taxonomic studies showed that it was unrelated to bacteria in various genera including Haemophilus and Corynebacterium. Electron microscopy and chemical analyses have elucidated the organism's gram-variable reaction. Controversy over the etiology of bacterial vaginosis was largely res...
Vidal MA, Kilroy GE, Lopez MJ, Johnson JR, Moore RM, Gimble JM.To characterize equine adipose tissue-derived stromal cell (ASC) frequency and growth characteristics and assess of their adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation potential. Methods: In vitro experimental study. Methods: Horses (n=5; aged, 9 months to 5 years). Methods: Cell doubling characteristics of ASCs harvested from supragluteal subcutaneous adipose tissue were evaluated over 10 passages. Primary, second (P2), and fourth (P4) passage ASCs were induced under appropriate conditions to undergo adipogenesis and osteogenesis. Limit dilution assays were performed on each passage to determine ...
Rubin CT, Lanyon LE.Rosette strain gauges were attached to the midshaft of the radius and tibia of two horses and two dogs, which ran on a treadmill through their entire range of speed and gait. The relative magnitudes of the principal strains on the opposite cortices of each bone remained constant through the stance phase of the stride, and their orientation varied by a maximum of only 14 degrees through the entire speed range. The maximum strain rate increased linearly with speed, but the peak strain magnitude was also dependent upon the gait used, increasing incrementally by up to 59% at the transition from wa...
White LM, Sussman MS, Hurtig M, Probyn L, Tomlinson G, Kandel R.To prospectively assess T2 mapping characteristics of normal articular cartilage and of cartilage at sites of arthroscopic repair, including comparison with histologic results and collagen organization assessed at polarized light microscopy (PLM). Methods: Study protocol was compliant with the Canadian Council on Animal Care Guidelines and approved by the institutional animal care committee. Arthroscopic osteochondral autograft transplantation (OAT) and microfracture arthroplasty (MFx) were performed in knees of 10 equine subjects (seven female, three male; age range, 3-5 years). A site of art...
Guo Y, Wang M, Kawaoka Y, Gorman O, Ito T, Saito T, Webster RG.In March 1989 a severe outbreak of respiratory disease occurred in horses in the Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces of Northeast China that caused up to 20% mortality in some herds. An influenza virus of the H3N8 subtype was isolated from the infected animals and was antigenically and molecularly distinguishable from the equine 2 (H3N8) viruses currently circulating in the world. The reference strain A/Equine/Jilin/1/89 (H3N8) was most closely related to avian H3N8 influenza viruses. Sequence comparisons of the entire hemagglutinin (HA), nucleoprotein (NP), neuraminidase (NA), matrix (M), and NS...
Timoney JF.Streptococci pathogenic for the horse include S. equi (S. equi subsp. equi), S. zooepidemicus (S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus), S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis and S. pneumoniae capsule Type III. S. equi is a clonal descendent or biovar of an ancestral S. zooepidemicus strain with which it shares greater than 98% DNA homology and therefore expresses many of the same proteins and virulence factors. Rapid progress has been made in identification of virulence factors and proteins uniquely expressed by S. equi. Most of these are expressed either on the bacterial surface or are secreted. Notable e...
Hill EW, Gu J, Eivers SS, Fonseca RG, McGivney BA, Govindarajan P, Orr N, Katz LM, MacHugh DE.Variants of the MSTN gene encoding myostatin are associated with muscle hypertrophy phenotypes in a range of mammalian species, most notably cattle, dogs, mice, and humans. Using a sample of registered Thoroughbred horses (n = 148), we have identified a novel MSTN sequence polymorphism that is strongly associated (g.66493737C>T, P = 4.85x10(-8)) with best race distance among elite racehorses (n = 79). This observation was independently validated (P = 1.91x10(-6)) in a resampled group of Thoroughbreds (n = 62) and in a cohort of Thoroughbreds (n = 37, P = 0.0047) produced by the same trainer...
Telford EA, Watson MS, Aird HC, Perry J, Davison AJ.The complete DNA sequence of equine herpesvirus 2 (EHV-2) strain 86/67 was determined. The genome is 184,427 bp in size and has a base composition of 57.5% G + C. Unusually for a herpesvirus, about a third of the sequence distributed in several large blocks appears not to encode proteins. The 79 open reading frames that were identified as probably polypeptide-coding are predicted to encode 77 distinct proteins. Amino acid sequence comparisons confirmed that EHV-2 is a gamma-herpesvirus that is genetically collinear with herpesvirus saimiri (HVS; a gamma 2-herpesvirus) and Epstein-Barr virus (E...
Cappelli K, Felicetti M, Capomaccio S, Spinsanti G, Silvestrelli M, Supplizi AV.Adequate stress response is a critical factor during athlete horses' training and is central to our capacity to obtain better performances while safeguarding animal welfare. In order to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying this process, several studies have been conducted that take advantage of microarray and quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) technologies to analyse the expression of candidate genes involved in the cellular stress response. Appropriate application of qRT-PCR, however, requires the use of reference genes whose level of expression is not affected by the test, by ge...
