Equine Science encompasses the study of horses and their management, health, and performance. This field integrates various scientific disciplines such as biology, genetics, nutrition, physiology, and veterinary medicine to understand and improve the well-being and capabilities of horses. Areas of focus include equine anatomy, reproduction, behavior, and disease prevention. Research in equine science aims to enhance horse care, optimize training and performance, and address health challenges. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the diverse aspects of equine science, providing insights into the latest advancements and methodologies in the field.
Gisler J, Chiavaccini L, Blum S, Montavon S, Spadavecchia C.Osteoarthritis is a prevalent degenerative joint disease initiating chronic pain and lameness in horses. While several objective gait analysis systems have been developed and validated to quantify lameness severity in horses, methods to evaluate whether peripheral sensitization contributes to the pain experienced are missing. Unassigned: To evaluate whether periarticular pressure pain mapping could be proposed as an auxiliary assessment tool in horses. Specific aims were to evaluate the feasibility and intra- and inter-rater reliability of pressure pain thresholds (PPT) determination at sites ...
Liu Y, Du M, Li X, Zhang L, Zhao B, Wang N, Dugarjaviin M.This study aimed to investigate differences in testicular tissue morphology, gene expression, and marker genes between sexually immature (1-year-old) and sexually mature (10-year-old) Mongolian horses. The purposes of our research were to provide insights into the reproductive physiology of male Mongolian horses and to identify potential markers for sexual maturity. The methods we applied included the transcriptomic profiling of testicular cells using single-cell sequencing techniques. Our results revealed significant differences in tissue morphology and gene expression patterns between the tw...
de la Cuesta-Torrado M, Velloso Alvarez A, Neira-Egea P, Cuervo-Arango J.Equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM) has severe impact on the sport horse population. Objective: Study the influence of EHM on the likelihood of affected horses to return to their previous performance and investigate the association of clinical variables with prognosis. Methods: Twenty-six horses positive for equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) were admitted to a veterinary teaching hospital (VTH) during a natural EHM outbreak at an international jumping event. Methods: Data collected from the VTH, the International Equestrian Federation, and surveys completed by the riders and horse own...
Ming KM, Le Verger K, Geiger M, Schmelzle T, Georgalis GL, Shimbo G, Sasaki M, Ohdachi SD, Sánchez-Villagra MR.The horse () varieties from Skyros and Rhodes islands (Greece) in the Aegean archipelago are extremely small, reaching shoulder heights of only about 1 m. Furthermore, the Japanese archipelago is home to eight small, native horse breeds. We investigated the evolutionary morphology and provided a review of historical documentations of these horses of cultural interest in Greece and Japan, thus providing a comparison of the independent evolution of small size in islands. We integrate cranial data from historical literature with data from newly gathered and curated skulls and analyse a measureme...
Ho HSM, Ho ENM, Wong WT.Estra-4,9-diene-3,17-dione (dienedione) is an anabolic androgenic steroid (AAS) sold as a bodybuilding supplement. It is prohibited in both human and equine sports. With no report of 4,9-diene configuration in endogenous steroids, dienedione has long been considered a synthetic AAS. Nevertheless, the reoccurring detection of dienedione in colt (entire male horse) urine samples lead to the investigation of its possible endogenous nature in horses. This paper describes (i) the detection of naturally occurring dienedione in colts, (ii) the conjugation study of dienedione and (iii) the population ...
Guyonnet AE, Whishaw IQ.The domestic horse (Equus ferus caballus) makes dung deposits to form "stud-piles" and compulsively examines dung droppings, suggesting that dung contains species-relevant information. The present study investigates horses' use of location (place), odor (object) and memory for dung sniff encounters. Horses were video recorded in 2 indoor and 4 outdoor riding arenas as they were taken at different time intervals to experimenter-determined objects or dung deposits that they could sniff. Frame-by-frame video analysis measured approaches, sniff duration, nostril use, ear position and blinking asso...
Merridale-Punter MS, Elias B, Wodajo AL, El-Hage CM, Zewdu H, Tesfaye R, Hailegebreal G, Sori T, Wiethoelter AK, Hitchens PL.Millions of working equids provide socio-economic support for many low-income communities worldwide. With the prevalence of harness-related wounds reported as higher than 60%, this study aims to describe the equipment used by working equids in three locations of the Ethiopian national regional state of Oromia (Fiche, Bishoftu and Shashamene), and the attitudes and practices of equid owners, users and harness makers regarding work equipment. This mixed-methods study consists of cross-sectional surveying of working equids used for taxi or transport of goods or water, as well as cart-driver quest...
Pryor AJE, Ameen C, Liddiard R, Baker G, Kanne KS, Milton JA, Standish CD, Hambach B, Orlando L, Chauvey L, Schiavinato S, Calvière-Tonasso L....This paper reports a high-resolution isotopic study of medieval horse mobility, revealing their origins and in-life mobility both regionally and internationally. The animals were found in an unusual horse cemetery site found within the City of Westminster, London, England. Enamel strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope analysis of 15 individuals provides information about likely place of birth, diet, and mobility during the first approximately 5 years of life. Results show that at least seven horses originated outside of Britain in relatively cold climates, potentially in Scandinavia or the West...
Pratt-Phillips SE, Liburt NR.In the United States, there is little clarity on the qualifications and availability of equine nutritionists. Currently, no regulatory body exists for formal credentialing outside of veterinary medicine. Most equine nutritionists are not veterinarians but do have advanced scientific degrees (Master of Science and/or Doctor of Philosophy) in the field of Animal Science. However, not all reporting to be equine nutritionists have formal education in the field of equine nutrition. To discuss this, a workshop was held at the 2023 Equine Science Society (ESS) meeting. The purpose of this discussion ...
Jeppesen A, Eyers R, Evans D, Ward MP, Quain A.Jumps racing is a form of Thoroughbred horse racing that involves hurdles and steeples and typically longer distances, and heavier weights compared with flat racing, which does not incorporate obstacles. In Australia, jumps racing is carried out only in Victoria, one of eight states and territories. The continuation of jumps racing is contentious due to the higher risk of fatalities, falls and injuries for horses, compared with flat racing. While measures have been introduced by the industry to improve the safety of riders and horses, the rates of fatalities, falls and injuries in horses parti...
Hamad MH, Islam SI, Jitsamai W, Chinkangsadarn T, Naraporn D, Ouisuwan S, Taweethavonsawat P.Mixed strongylid infections significantly impact equine health and performance. Traditional microscopy-based methods exhibit limitations in accurately identifying strongylid species. Nemabiome deep amplicon sequencing approach previously succeeded in describing the strongylid communities in livestock including equids. However, there are no available studies that describe the structural communities of strongylid parasites in horses in Thailand. Therefore, this study was undertaken encompassing the ITS-2 rDNA metabarcoding assay to characterize strongylid species within horse fecal samples colle...
Koehler G, McNeill G, Hobson KA.We investigated the stable isotope hydrology of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada over a five year period from September, 2017 to August, 2022. The H and O values of integrated monthly precipitation were weakly seasonal and ranged from -66 to -15 ‰ and from -9.7 to -1.9 ‰, respectively. Fitting these monthly precipitation data resulted in a local meteoric water line (LMWL) defined by: H = 7.22 ± 0.21 · O + 7.50 ± 1.22 ‰. Amount-weighted annual precipitation had H and O values of -36 ± 11 ‰ and -6.1 ± 1.4 ‰, respectively. Deep groundwater had mor...
Fournier AK, French M, Letson EA, Hanson J, Berry TD, Cronin S.This study examined human-animal symbiosis in an animal-assisted intervention through observations of animal maintenance behaviors. The rise of psychotherapy, learning, and recreation incorporating animals warrants exploration of the welfare of the animals involved in these interventions. The analysis of welfare in multispecies engagements can be discussed in terms of symbiosis. Regarding an intervention's animal provider (e.g., therapy horse) and human recipient (psychotherapy client), the balance of cost and benefit is important. Research describing human and animal during interventions is ...
Szemán K, Végvári Z, Gőri S, Kapocsi I, Székely T, Manning JA.Social behaviour is thought to be a major component of survival, reproduction, and resilience of populations. Thus, it is a key component in management and conservation of wild populations. In polygynous breeding species, group size influences the reproductive success of males and females, and hence it is essential to understand the environmental and demographic factors that shape the phenology of group size within populations. Here, we investigate harem size and its determinants using a 15-year dataset of annual harem size phenology-based metrics from a reintroduced population of wild Przewal...
Semevolos SA, Marchant EA.The marginal transitional zone (MTZ) is peripherally located within the diarthrodial joint, and represents the junction of synovium, fibrous joint capsule, articular cartilage, periosteum, and bone. The purpose of this study is to characterize age-related differences in protein expression of matrix and molecular regulators in the marginal transitional zone of neonatal and weanling foals. Several families of proteins with known roles in cartilage and bone development are investigated, including matrix molecules, members of the Wnt signaling family, apoptotic factors and paracrine cell signaling...
Connolly K, Ekholm Fry N.An increasing number of universities and colleges in the United States are offering coursework on adaptive/therapeutic riding and the incorporation of horses in human service areas such as psychotherapy, education, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology. The first study to identify coursework in these areas was published in 2018. In order to track development over time, we conducted a replication study to determine the prevalence of coursework on horses in human services at higher education institutions. Information gathered for the 2021-2022 academic year includ...
Tong P, Palidan N, Song X, Tian S, Zhang L, Wu G, Deng H, Jia C, Duan R, Suo Y, Pan J, Dang Y, Kuang L, Xie J.Nine different species of Equus caballus papillomavirus (EcPV) and three bovine papillomaviruses (BPVs) have been reported to infect horses. However, there are few descriptions of such infections in China. In our pioneer study on Chinese horses, we identified EcPV-2 in the nasal swabs (4/230, 1.7%) of Yili horses, and the semen (3/18, 16.7%) of thoroughbred horses. This indicated that EcPV is indeed hosted by horses in China, and that EcPV-2 might be transmitted though breeding. Further detection of EcPVs in the lung tissues of aborted fetuses of Yili horses, which were originally negative for...
Fritz SA, Charnas S, Ensley S.Blue green algae cyanotoxins have become increasingly more prevalent due to environmental, industrial, and agricultural changes that promote their growth into harmful algal blooms. Animals are usually exposed via water used for drinking or bathing, though specific cases related to equines are very limited. The toxic dose for horses has not been determined, and currently only experimental data in other animals can be relied upon to aid in case interpretation and treatment. Treatment is mostly limited to supportive care, and preventative control methods to limit exposures are more likely to aid ...
Altmann N, Bowlby C, Coughlin H, Belacic Z, Sullivan S, Durgam S.Prolonged inflammation during tendon healing and poor intrinsic healing capacity of tendon are causal factors associated with tendon structural and functional degeneration. Tendon cells, consisting of mature tenocytes and tendon progenitor cells (TPC) function to maintain tendon structure via extracellular matrix (ECM) synthesis. Tendon cells can succumb to tissue cytokine/chemokine alterations during healing and consequently contribute to tendon degeneration. Interleukin-(IL-)1β, IL-6 and TNFα are key cytokines upregulated in injured tendons; the specific effects of IL-6 on flexor tendon-de...
Fowler MA.In 1853, Rosa Bonheur first exhibited what would become her most widely celebrated work: . Although the work's modern setting and animal-focused subject matter do not obviously characterize it as an instance of classical reception, the artist claimed that it was inspired by the Parthenon frieze. A significant amount of feminist and queer scholarship has been dedicated to Rosa Bonheur's life, career, and art practices, all of which reveal the complex ways in which the artist negotiated the gender norms of 19th-century France. These ranged from her decision never to marry, instead living in hous...
Maniego J, Pesko B, Habershon-Butcher J, Hincks P, Taylor P, Stewart G, Proudman C, Ryder E.Gene doping in horses is a threat to the fairness in sport and has serious implications for animal welfare. To investigate the effect of long-term storage on the detection of AAV in plasma and whole blood, samples from an administration study using an adeno-associated virus serotype 6 expressing green fluorescence protein (AAV6-GFP) were stored at -20°C for 8 months before analysis. The AAV vector was detected in stored plasma samples, following the same detection profile as the fresh plasma samples. The stored blood showed lower overall DNA detection but followed the same detection profile ...
da Silva CMB, Cano FEM, Gaitskell-Phillips G, Vega FJP.Flow cytometry is a powerful tool for the analysis of cell samples formed of multipopulations, such as spermatozoa. In recent years, multiparametric cytometers have evolved, allowing the study of different cellular characteristics, such as protein expression, DNA analysis, or mitochondrial activity. Whether using traditional fluorescent dyes or fluorophore-conjugated antibodies, each cell or cellular component is individually stained, the sample is analyzed at high velocities, and then is displayed and interpreted in a dot-plot. We hereby describe the procedure to perform a multiparametric flo...
du Toit N.Geriatric horses have a high prevalence of dental disease, which is a culmination of age-related dental changes and dental disease throughout the life of the horse that may have long-term consequences. Wear abnormalities, diastemata with periodontal disease, pulpitis and endodontic disease, infundibular caries, and equine odontoclastic tooth resorption and hypercementosis become more prevalent with age. Recognition of age-related dental disease at an early stage can help to treat and possibly preserve teeth for longer. With a natural decrease in masticatory efficiency, it is even more importan...
Gáspárdy A, Gallagher G, Bartha B, Cseh S, Fekete SG, Somoskői B.The authors aimed to determine the plasma melatonin concentration in mares and their new-born foals in the early post-partum period. Blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of 53 mare-foal pairs within twelve hours after parturition. Plasma melatonin levels were measured by ELISA. The melatonin concentration, adjusted for the moment of parturition using a generalised linear model, was 34.58 pg mL-1 in mares. It was significantly lower (27.63 pg mL-1) in the new-born foals. However, the melatonin concentration declined differently by the end of the twelve hours, it decreased less in...
Studying animal societies needs detailed observation of many individuals, but technological advances offer new opportunities in this field. Here, we present a state-of-the-art drone observation of a multilevel herd of Przewalski's horses, consisting of harems (one-male, multifemale groups). We track, in high spatio-temporal resolution, the movements of 238 individually identified horses on drone videos, and combine movement analyses with demographic data from two decades of population monitoring. Analysis of collective movements reveals how the structure of the herd's social network is related...
Meurice A, Pujol R, De Fourmestraux C, Coquillon M, Tessier C.Surgical approaches to the equine rectum and perirectal area are described in the literature. However, surgeries in this region can be challenging. Objective: To describe the surgical anatomy of the presacral space and to evaluate its access using a retroperitoneoscopic approach. Methods: Ex vivo experiment. Methods: Preliminary dissections were performed in two cadavers to define the boundaries of the presacral space and to determine portal locations for the surgical approach. After that, nine cadavers were used for experimental presacral retroperitoneoscopic procedure in a standing position....
Bellitto NA, Oliver FB, Pollock PJ.To evaluate the use of bidirectional knotless barbed suture material for closure of the equine linea alba. Methods: Laboratory study. Methods: Adult light horse cadavers (n = 24). Methods: A 25 cm incision was made through the linea alba, and a 200 L polyurethane bladder was positioned within the abdomen. The linea alba was closed either using USP2/EP5 bidirectional polydioxanone barbed suture or USP2/EP5 standard polydioxanone suture in a simple continuous pattern. Closure time was recorded for each suture type. The bladder was air-insufflated at 40 L/min, and the pressure at body w...
Song X, Jiang H, Lv P, Cui K, Liu Q, Yin S, Liu H, Li Z.Oocyte in vitro maturation is necessary for the study and application of animal-assisted reproduction technology in animal reproduction and breeding. The comprehensive transcriptional profile of equine oocyte maturated in vitro has not been fully mined yet, which makes many key transcriptional events still unidentified. Here, Smart-seq2 was performed to analyse the gene expression pattern and the underlying regulatory mechanism of horse germinal vesicle (GV) and in vitro metaphase II (MII) oocytes. The results showed that 6402 genes (2640 up-regulated and 3762 down-regulated in MII samples com...
Stover SM, Pool RR, Martin RB, Morgan JP.The dorsal cortex of the equine third metacarpal mid-diaphyseal bone was characterised during growth by the histological and microradiographic examination of specimens from 30 horses ranging in age from 2 months to 8 y. Bone from horses aged less than 6 months was characterised by rapid periosteal apposition of circumferential trabeculae of woven bone that were next connected by radial trabeculae to the parent cortex. Deposition of lamellar bone on the inner trabecular surfaces resulted in rows of primary osteons. Replacement of primary bone occurred only after 4 months of age and preferential...
Thomson PC, Hayek AR, Jones B, Evans DL, McGreevy PD.Significant proportions of horses leave the Australian Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing industries, which has ramifications for both the economic sustainability and the public perception of racing. The aim of this study was to quantify potential horse wastage, describe the destinations of exiting horses and identify risk factors for horses going to these destinations. Methods: Questionnaires were sent to 1258 selected Thoroughbred and 981 Standardbred trainers, with response rates of 30% and 32%, respectively. The survey investigated the role of various risk factors for wastage, including ...
Ishida N, Oyunsuren T, Mashima S, Mukoyama H, Saitou N.The noncoding region between tRNAPro and the large conserved sequence block is the most variable region in the mammalian mitochondrial DNA D-loop region. This variable region (ca. 270 bp) of four species of Equus, including Mongolian and Japanese native domestic horses as well as Przewalskii's (or Mongolian) wild horse, were sequenced. These data were compared with our recently published Thoroughbred horse mitochondrial DNA sequences. The evolutionary rate of this region among the four species of Equus was estimated to be 2-4 x 10(-8) per site per year. Phylogenetic trees of Equus species demo...
Schurink A, Wolc A, Ducro BJ, Frankena K, Garrick DJ, Dekkers JC, van Arendonk JA.Insect bite hypersensitivity is a common allergic disease in horse populations worldwide. Insect bite hypersensitivity is affected by both environmental and genetic factors. However, little is known about genes contributing to the genetic variance associated with insect bite hypersensitivity. Therefore, the aim of our study was to identify and quantify genomic associations with insect bite hypersensitivity in Shetland pony mares and Icelandic horses in the Netherlands. Methods: Data on 200 Shetland pony mares and 146 Icelandic horses were collected according to a matched case-control design. C...
Mach N, Midoux C, Leclercq S, Pennarun S, Le Moyec L, Rué O, Robert C, Sallé G, Barrey E.Emerging evidence indicates that the gut microbiome contributes to endurance exercise performance. Still, the extent of its functional and metabolic potential remains unknown. Using elite endurance horses as a model system for exercise responsiveness, we built an integrated horse gut gene catalog comprising ~25 million unique genes and 372 metagenome-assembled genomes. This catalog represents 4179 genera spanning 95 phyla and functional capacities primed to exploit energy from dietary, microbial, and host resources. The holo-omics approach shows that gut microbiomes enriched in Lachnospiraceae...
Marín Navas C, Delgado Bermejo JV, McLean AK, León Jurado JM, Torres ARBYR, Navas González FJ.Genetic diversity and population structure were analyzed using the historical and current pedigree information of the Arabian (PRá), Spanish Purebred (PRE), and Hispano-Arabian (Há) horse breeds. Genetic diversity parameters were computed and a canonical discriminant analysis was used to determine the contributions of ancestor breeds to the genetic diversity of the Há horse. Pedigree records were available for 207,100 animals born between 1884 and 2019. Nei's distances and the equivalent subpopulations number indicated the existence of a highly structured, integrated population for the Há ...
Swinburne JE, Boursnell M, Hill G, Pettitt L, Allen T, Chowdhary B, Hasegawa T, Kurosawa M, Leeb T, Mashima S, Mickelson JR, Raudsepp T, Tozaki T....A genetic linkage map of the horse consisting of 742 markers, which comprises a single linkage group for each of the autosomes and the X chromosome, is presented. The map has been generated from two three-generation full-sibling reference families, sired by the same stallion, in which there are 61 individuals in the F2 generation. Each linkage group has been assigned to a chromosome and oriented with reference to markers mapped by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The average interval between markers is 3.7 cM and the linkage groups collectively span 2772 cM. The 742 markers comprise 734 mic...
Gustafson MB, Martin RB, Gibson V, Storms DH, Stover SM, Gibeling J, Griffin L.This work determined whether mineral dissolution due to prolonged testing or storage of bone specimens in normal saline would alter their elastic modulus. In one experiment, small pieces of equine third metacarpal bone were soaked in normal saline supplemented with varying amounts of CaCl2. Changing Ca ion concentrations in the bath were monitored and the equilibrium concentration was determined. In a second experiment, the elastic moduli of twenty 4 x 10 x 100 mm equine third metacarpal beams were determined non-destructively in four-point bending. Half the beams were then soaked for 10 days ...
Shi MW, Zhang NA, Shi CP, Liu CJ, Luo ZH, Wang DY, Guo AY, Chen ZX.Many animal species present sex differences. Sex-associated genes (SAGs), which have female-biased or male-biased expression, have major influences on the remarkable sex differences in important traits such as growth, reproduction, disease resistance and behaviors. However, the SAGs resulting in the vast majority of phenotypic sex differences are still unknown. To provide a useful resource for the functional study of SAGs, we manually curated public RNA-seq datasets with paired female and male biological replicates from the same condition and systematically re-analyzed the datasets using stand...
Ishida N, Hasegawa T, Takeda K, Sakagami M, Onishi A, Inumaru S, Komatsu M, Mukoyama H.The D-loop regions in equine mitochondrial DNA were cloned from three thoroughbred horses by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The total number of bases in the D-loop region were 1114 bp, 1115 bp and 1146 bp. The equine D-loop region is A/T rich like many other mammalian D-loops. The large central conserved sequence block and small conserved sequence blocks 1, 2 and 3, that are common to other mammals, were observed. Between conserved sequence blocks 1 and 2 there were tandem repeats of an 8 bp equine-specific sequence TGTGCACC, and the number of tandem repeats differed among individual horses....
Cook D, Brooks S, Bellone R, Bailey E.Champagne coat color in horses is controlled by a single, autosomal-dominant gene (CH). The phenotype produced by this gene is valued by many horse breeders, but can be difficult to distinguish from the effect produced by the Cream coat color dilution gene (CR). Three sires and their families segregating for CH were tested by genome scanning with microsatellite markers. The CH gene was mapped within a 6 cM region on horse chromosome 14 (LOD = 11.74 for theta = 0.00). Four candidate genes were identified within the region, namely SPARC [Secreted protein, acidic, cysteine-rich (osteonectin)], SL...
Milner PI, Wilkins RJ, Gibson JS.To examine the effect of O(2) and the role, and source, of reactive oxygen species (ROS) on pH regulation in articular chondrocytes. Methods: Cartilage from equine metacarpo/tarsophalangeal joints was digested (collagenase) to isolate chondrocytes and loaded with 2',7'-bis-2-(carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxylfluorescein, a pH-sensitive fluorophore. O(2) tension was maintained using Eschweiler tonometers and a Wosthoff gas mixer. Cells were exposed to agents which alter ROS levels, mitochondrial inhibitors and/or inhibitors of protein phosphorylation. ROS levels were determined by dichlorofluorescein...
Lester HE, Matthews JB.Equine gastrointestinal nematodes are ubiquitous; in horses that graze contaminated pasture and that are not treated appropriately, large numbers of worms can accumulate, which can lead to serious clinical disease. Nematode control has traditionally followed interval treatment regimens, which involve regular anthelmintic administration to all horses based on the strongyle egg reappearance periods of each drug, usually defined around the time of licensing. Interval treatment programmes have resulted in substantial reductions in large strongyle disease, but have made major contributions to the d...
The Journal of nutritionJune 4, 2002
Volume 132, Issue 6 Suppl 2 1622S-7S doi: 10.1093/jn/132.6.1622S
Marlin DJ, Fenn K, Smith N, Deaton CD, Roberts CA, Harris PA, Dunster C, Kelly FJ.Prolonged low-medium intensity exercise is associated with increased oxidative stress in humans. We hypothesized that competitive equine endurance racing would induce changes in circulatory antioxidants and produce systemic oxidative stress. Forty horses competing in a 140-km endurance race in warm conditions [shade temperature 15-19 degrees C; 62-88% relative humidity (%RH)] were sampled before (Pre), immediately after exercise (End) and at approximately 16 h into recovery (+16 h). Plasma ascorbic acid concentration was not different between Pre [11.1 (median); 4.6-20.3 micromol/L (range)] an...
Morris GJ, Faszer K, Green JE, Draper D, Grout BW, Fonseca F.The cellular damage that spermatozoa encounter at rapid rates of cooling has often been attributed to the formation of intracellular ice. However, no direct evidence of intracellular ice has been presented. An alternative mechanism has been proposed by Morris (2006) that cell damage is a result of an osmotic imbalance encountered during thawing. This paper examines whether intracellular ice forms during rapid cooling or if an alternative mechanism is present. Horse spermatozoa were cooled at a range of cooling rates from 0.3 to 3,000 degrees C/min in the presence of a cryoprotectant. The ultra...
Eivers SS, McGivney BA, Gu J, MacHugh DE, Katz LM, Hill EW.Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator 1α (PGC-1α) has emerged as a critical control factor in skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise, acting via transcriptional control of genes responsible for angiogenesis, fatty acid oxidation, oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondrial biogenesis and muscle fibre type composition. In a previous study, we demonstrated a significant increase in mRNA expression for the gene encoding PGC-1α (PPARGC1A) in Thoroughbred horse skeletal muscle following a single bout of endurance exercise. In this study, we investigated mRNA expression changes i...
Kaiser TM, Fortelius M.A new approach of reconstructing ungulate diet, the mesowear method, was recently introduced by Fortelius and Solounias ([2000] Am Mus Novitat 3301:1-36). Mesowear is based on facet development on the occlusal surfaces of the teeth. Restricting mesowear investigation to maxillary cheek teeth would allow mesowear investigation only in assemblages of large numbers of individuals and therefore would generally restrict this method to relatively few assemblages of recent and fossil ungulates. Most of the fossil, subfossil, and recent ungulate osteological assemblages that may be assigned to a singl...
Krueger K, Flauger B, Farmer K, Hemelrijk C.Herds of ungulates, flocks of birds, swarms of insects and schools of fish move in coordinated groups. Computer models show that only one or very few animals are needed to initiate and direct movement. To investigate initiation mechanisms further, we studied two ways in which movement can be initiated in feral horses: herding, and departure from the group. We examined traits affecting the likelihood of a horse initiating movement i.e. social rank, affiliative relationships, spatial position, and social network. We also investigated whether group members join a movement in dominance rank order....
Daly JM, Yates PJ, Newton JR, Park A, Henley W, Wood JL, Davis-Poynter N, Mumford JA.Two lineages of antigenically distinct equine influenza A H3N8 subtype viruses, American and European, co-circulate. Experiments were conducted in ponies to investigate the protection induced by vaccines containing virus from one lineage against challenge infection with homologous or heterologous virus. Regression analysis showed that vaccinated ponies with average pre-challenge single radial haemolysis (SRH) antibody levels (i.e. 45-190mm2) had a higher probability of becoming infected if they were vaccinated with virus heterologous to the challenge strain than if they were vaccinated with ho...
Chirnside ED, de Vries AA, Mumford JA, Rottier PJ.Complementary DNAs encoding ORFs 2 to 7 equine arteritis virus (EAV) have been cloned into the expression vector pGEX to produce glutathione-S-transferase fusion proteins. Recombinant proteins were affinity purified and screened in ELISA with equine sera to identify immunoreactive polypeptides. The large envelope glycoprotein (GL) was identified as the most reactive to EAV-positive equine sera and an immuno-dominant epitope was mapped between amino acids 55 and 98 by subcloning and expression. A fusion protein covering this region and a GL-specific synthetic peptide (residues 75 through 97) in...
Popescu S, Diugan EA, Spinu M.This paper presents a different approach to the welfare of working horses through the indicators of good welfare, their interrelations and their relationships with the type of work performed by the horses. 697 working horses were assessed by using observation, behavioural tests, clinical exams and questionnaires. The correlated results highlight the complex and multiple interrelations between the good welfare indicators, showing once again that animal welfare is under the influence of all its three dimensions (physical and emotional wellbeing and naturalness). In working horses, the heavier th...
Gao W, Chan Y, You M, Lacap-Bugler DC, Leung WK, Watt RM.This study explored the range of bacterial taxa present within healthy subgingival (below the gum-line) niches in the horse oral cavity using 16S rRNA gene amplicon pyrosequencing. Pooled subgingival plaque samples were collected from approximately 200 sulcus sites from two horses (EQ1, EQ2) for analysis. A total of 14,260 quality-filtered pyrosequencing reads were obtained, which were assigned to 3875 operational taxonomic units (OTUs; 99% identity cut-off); 1907 OTUs for EQ1 and 2156 OTUs for EQ2. Diverse taxa from 12 phyla were identified, including Actinobacteria (3.17%), Bacteroidetes (25...
Saiz JC.West Nile virus (WNV) is a widely distributed enveloped flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes, which main hosts are birds. The virus sporadically infects equids and humans with serious economic and health consequences, as infected individuals can develop a severe neuroinvasive disease that can even lead to death. Nowadays, no WNV-specific therapy is available and vaccines are only licensed for use in horses but not for humans. While several methodologies for WNV vaccine development have been successfully applied and have contributed to significantly reducing its incidence in horses in the US, n...
Klein C.Maintenance of pregnancy is dependent on the exchange of signals between the conceptus and the endometrium. The objective of this study was to use next-generation sequencing to determine transcriptome blueprints of the conceptus and endometrium 16 days after ovulation in the horse. There were 7760 and 10 182 genes expressed in the conceptus and endometrium, respectively, of which 7029 were present in both. Genes related to developmental processes were enriched among conceptus-specific transcripts, whereas many endometrium-specific genes had known roles in cell communication, cell adhesion and ...
Fenner K, Hyde M, Crean A, McGreevy P.Owner-reported behavioural observations form an essential part of the veterinarians' diagnosis and treatment plan. The way we train and manage horses affects their behaviour and, in turn, their health and welfare. Current horse training and management practices are largely driven by traditional techniques and longstanding methodologies. These approaches generally lack an evidence base for evaluation purposes. The absence of evidence and evaluation contributes to the persistent use of risky practices and this, in turn, increases risk of potential harms for both horse and rider, and fuels questi...
Borjesson DL, Peroni JF.This article focuses on the emerging field of equine regenerative medicine with an emphasis on the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for orthopedic diseases. We detail laboratory procedures and protocols for tissue handling and MSC isolation, characterization, expansion, and cryopreservation from bone marrow, fat, and placental tissues. We provide an overview of current clinical uses for equine MSCs and how MSCs function to heal tissues. Current laboratory practices in equine regenerative medicine mirror those in the human field. However, the translational use of autologous and allogeneic M...
Rivero JL, Serrano AL, Barrey E, Valette JP, Jouglin M.Combined methodologies of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrilamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), immunoblotting, traditional myofibrillar ATPase (mATPase) histochemistry and immunocytochemistry of whole biopsied samples were used to study myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms in the equine gluteus medius muscle. The ELISA technique allowed the quantification of the three MHC isoforms known to be present in different horse muscles: slow (MHC-I) and two fast (termed MHC-IIA and MCH-IIX). The SDS-PAGE method resolved MHCs in three bands: MHC-I, MHC-IIX and M...
Kienapfel K, Link Y, König V Borstel U.Much controversy exists among riders, and in particular among those practicing dressage, regarding what can be considered an "appropriate" Head-Neck-Position (HNP). The objective was to assess the prevalence of different HNPs in the field, the behavioural reactions of horses during warm-up and competition rides in relation to HNP and the relation between HNP and marks achieved in the competition. Horses (n = 171) were selected during dressage competitions according to their HNP (3 categories based on the degree of flexion), and their behaviour was recorded during 3 minutes each of riding i...
Simon EL, Gaughan EM, Epp T, Spire M.To determine the amount of time required for surface temperatures of thoracic and pelvic limbs in horses to return to pre-exercise temperatures after high-speed treadmill exercise, as detected via infrared thermographic imaging. Methods: Prospective study. Methods: 6 Thoroughbreds. Methods: All horses had been trained on and conditioned to use of a high-speed treadmill. Baseline thermographic images were obtained 3 days prior to exercise (baseline). Horses were exercised on a treadmill at a walk for 5 minutes, a slow trot (3 m/s) for 5 minutes, a trot (5 to 6 m/s) for 5 minutes, and a slow gal...
Townsend HG, Leach DH.The anatomical features of 21 equine thoracolumbar spines, obtained from horses with clinically normal backs, were examined and the results compared with recent data on the mobility of the joint complexes of the horse's spine. The thoracolumbar spine can be divided into four regions based upon the morphology of the joint complexes: the first thoracic intervertebral joint (T1-2), the cranial and mid thoracic region (T2-T16), the caudal thoracic and lumbar region (T16-L6) and the lumbosacral joint. The mobility of the intervertebral joints in each of these regions can be related to their morphol...
