Horse feces serve as an important indicator of digestive health and overall well-being. The composition and consistency of equine feces can provide insights into the horse's diet, hydration status, and gastrointestinal function. Factors such as feed type, water intake, and gut microbiota can influence fecal characteristics. Abnormalities in feces, such as changes in color, consistency, or frequency, may signal underlying health issues, including colic, parasitic infections, or dietary imbalances. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the analysis, implications, and management of fecal characteristics in equine health.
Collinet A, Grimm P, Jacotot E, Julliand V.Large intestine barrier disturbances can have serious consequences for the health of horses. The loss of mucosal integrity that leads to increased intestinal permeability may result from a local inflammatory immune response following alterations of the microbiota, known as dysbiosis. Therefore, our research aimed to identify noninvasive biomarkers for studying the intestinal permeability and the local inflammatory immune response in horses. Regarding the biomarkers used in other mammalian species, we measured the concentrations of lipopolysaccharides (LPS), reflected by 3-OH C14, C16, and C18 ...
Zhang K, Zhou R, Huang H, Ma W, Qi Y, Li B, Zhang D, Li K, Chu H.The aim of this study was to identify the aggregation sites and transmission characteristics of Gasterophilus pecorum, the dominant pathogen of endangered equines in desert steppe. Therefore, we tested with a four-arm olfactometer the olfactory response of the G. pecorum adults to the odors that have a great impact on their life cycle, and also investigated the occurrence sites of the adults in the area where the Przewalski's horse (Equus przewalskii) roam frequently during the peak period of G. pecorum infection. The results of four-directional olfactory test showed that the fresh horse feces...
Xu C, Wei Z, Tan F, Liu A, Yu F, Zhao A, Zhang L, Qi M, Zhao W.Cryptosporidium is a protozoan parasite causing diarrhoea in humans and animals. Although Cryptosporidium has been found in domestic horses (farmed or kept at pasture), there has been only one published study of Cryptosporidium infections in Chinese racehorses, which was restricted to a very small geographical area. Objective: To investigate the presence of Cryptosporidium spp. in the faeces of racehorses in China and to perform molecular characterisation of the parasite. Methods: Cross-sectional. Methods: A total of 621 fresh faecal samples were collected for DNA extraction from racehorses at...
Weinert-Nelson JR, Biddle AS, Williams CA.Diet is a key driver of equine hindgut microbial community structure and composition. The aim of this study was to characterize shifts in the fecal microbiota of grazing horses during transitions between forage types within integrated warm- (WSG) and cool-season grass (CSG) rotational grazing systems (IRS). Eight mares were randomly assigned to two IRS containing mixed cool-season grass and one of two warm-season grasses: bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] or crabgrass [Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop.]. Fecal samples were collected during transitions from CSG to WSG pasture sections (...
Ferreira L, Machado N, Gouvinhas I, Santos S, Celaya R, Rodrigues M, Barros A.n-Alkanes and long-chain alcohols (LCOH) have been used as faecal markers to assess the feeding behaviour of both wild and domestic herbivore species. However, their chemical analysis is time-consuming and expensive, making it necessary to develop more expeditious methodologies to evaluate concentrations of these markers. This work aimed to evaluate the use of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technology in the near infrared (NIR) and mid infrared (MIR) intervals, for the determination of n-alkane and LCOH concentrations of different plant species and faecal samples of domestic he...
Yoon J, Park T, Sohn Y, Lee SK, Park BJ, Ahn HS, Go HJ, Kim DH, Lee JB, Park SY, Song CS, Lee SW, Choi IS.Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is an emerging zoonotic pathogen causing hepatitis worldwide. Despite the prevalent evidence of interspecies HEV infection in various animal species, the role of horses in HEV epidemiology remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of HEV infection in 283 blood and 114 fecal samples from 397 horses using sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Among the 283 serum samples, 35 were positive for anti-HEV antibodies (12.4%; 95% confidence interval: 8.8-16.8), and four of the five sampling reg...
Alvarado TD, Elghandour MMMY, Ekanem NJ, Alcala-Canto Y, Velázquez AE, Pacheco EBF, Purba RAP, Salem AZM.The present study was conducted to investigate the aqueous extracts of Azadirachta indica (AZN), Cnidoscolus angustidens (CNA), and their combination (MIX) at dosages of 0-, 0.6-, 1.2-, and 1.8- mL for their ability to reduce greenhouse gases and fermentation profiles in an in vitro study using horse feces and a nutrient-dense diet (as substrate). The quantity of greenhouse gas and fermentation profiles were determined in in vitro incubation for 48 h. Extracts of AZN, CNA, and MIX reduced total gas production of the incubated and degraded substrates in a dose-dependent and time-dependent manne...
Hernández-Quiroz F, Murugesan S, Flores-Rivas C, Piña-Escobedo A, Juárez-Hernández JI, García-Espitia M, Chávez-Carbajal A, Nirmalkar K....Horses are non-ruminant, herbivorous mammals, been used through history for various purposes, with a gut microbiota from cecum to the colon, possessing remarkable fermentative capacity. We studied the fecal microbiota of Azteca, Criollo, Frisian, Iberian, Pinto, Quarter and Spanish horse breeds living in Mexico by next-generation DNA sequencing of 16S rRNA gene libraries. Dominant phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Fibrobacteres, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia have different relative abundances among breeds, with contrasted alpha and beta diversities as well. He...
Lucassen A, Hankel J, Finkler-Schade C, Osbelt L, Strowig T, Visscher C, Schuberth HJ.Feed supplements such as fermentation products (SCFP) alter immune responses in horses. The purpose of this study was to analyze whether a prebiotic activity of the SCFP alters the gut microbiome in horses. Racehorses were fed either SCFP (Olimond BB, OLI, = 6) or placebo pellets (PLA, = 5) for 43 days. Fecal microbiota analysis was performed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The numbers and function of circulating immune cell subpopulations were analyzed by flow cytometry. SCFP supplementation resulted in non-consistent differences in fecal microbiota between the PLA and OLI during the feedi...
Acosta JAD, Elghandour MMMY, Mariezcurrena-Berasain MD, Adegbeye MJ, Fajemisin AN, Pliego AB, Salem AZM.This study aimed to evaluate the dietary administration of the Caesalpinia coriaria (CC) extract for 30 days on in vitro fecal greenhouse gases production. Fecal samples, as inoculums, were collected from horses given daily 0- (Fecal 0), 60- (Fecal 60) and 120- (Fecal 60) mL CC aqueous extract per animal. The extract dose was mixed with the morning feeding diet at 6:00 h for each horse. During incubation, 0-, 0.6-, 1.2- and 1.8-mL CC extracts were added to the basal diet which was fed to horses (as subtract) and evaluated with each fecal type. Feces from the horses given no CC extract produc...
Kinoshita Y, Niwa H, Uchida-Fujii E, Nukada T, Ueno T.Antimicrobial administration can lead to imbalances of gastrointestinal microbiota, called dysbiosis. Dysbiosis sometimes results in diarrhea and enteritis in horses. Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is used to treat affected horses, but whether it is effective as a prophylactic approach for dysbiosis in horses receiving antimicrobials remains unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of simultaneous FMT against metronidazole-induced dysbiosis in horses. Changes in the ratios of bacterial families, determined by metagenomic analysis, were similar between the metronidazole...
Paruch L, Paruch AM.Zoogenic faecal contamination of the environment is one of the indices included in the evaluation of ecological threats, health hazards and adverse impacts on various ecosystems. The risks and environmental concerns are associated with the fact that faeces of wild and domesticated animals constitute the largest source of environmental loading of enteropathogens associated with transmission of zoonotic diseases (enteric zoonoses). Although sick animals are more likely to transmit pathogens, healthy ones can also be the carriers and defecate them into the environment. This is of particular impor...
Tuemmers C, Fellenberg C, Pérez EJ, Paillaqueo J.There are no studies of potential zoonotic diseases in Mapuche communities' horses. Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of Cryptosporidium in horses of the Mapuche communities. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Methods: Faecal samples from 100 randomly selected horses (n = 100) were taken from rural Mapuche communities from four municipalities from the Araucanía Region. These samples were processed with the modified Ziehl-Neelsen staining technique and grouped by sex, age and municipality. Results: The general prevalence of Cryptosporidium spp. wa...
Gilroy R, Leng J, Ravi A, Adriaenssens EM, Oren A, Baker D, La Ragione RM, Proudman C, Pallen MJ.The horse plays crucial roles across the globe, including in horseracing, as a working and companion animal and as a food animal. The horse hindgut microbiome makes a key contribution in turning a high fibre diet into body mass and horsepower. However, despite its importance, the horse hindgut microbiome remains largely undefined. Here, we applied culture-independent shotgun metagenomics to thoroughbred equine faecal samples to deliver novel insights into this complex microbial community. We performed metagenomic sequencing on five equine faecal samples to construct 123 high- or medium-quality...
Chapuis RJJ, Becker AAMJ, Dowling PM, Weese JS.Antimicrobial-associated diarrhoea is a common adverse effect of antimicrobial treatment in horses and has been reported following the administration of oral doxycycline. The administration of antimicrobials has also been associated with changes in the equine intestinal microbiota diversity yet has not been explored under doxycycline treatment. Objective: To describe the dynamics of the faecal microbial diversity following a 5-day oral administration of doxycycline in healthy horses with Streptococcus zooepidemicus infected tissue chambers. Methods: Experimental prospective cohort study in a s...
Fowler AL, Hayes SH, Crum AD, Lawrence LM.Titanium dioxide has been used as a marker for determining diet digestibility indirectly, but some authors have expressed difficulty in measuring TiO2 concentrations in fecal material. We developed an accurate and precise method to determine TiO2 concentrations in equine feces. The method includes dry-ashing samples, digestion with (NH4)2SO4 in concentrated sulfuric acid, followed by the addition of H2O2 to produce a yellow to orange color that can be read spectrophotometrically. Accuracy was tested by spike recovery, and precision was tested by examining the coefficient of variation (CV) betw...
Lindroth KM, Dicksved J, Vervuert I, Müller CE.Free faecal liquid (FFL) is a condition in horses characterised by two-phase (one solid and one liquid) separation of faeces. Causes of the condition are unknown, but disturbed hindgut fermentation has been suggested as it may alter biochemical composition and appearance of faeces in equines. However, information on faecal composition in horses with FFL is scarce. Faecal chemical composition (dry matter, osmolality, ash, macro minerals, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and pH) and physical characteristics (free liquid, sand, water holding capacity and particle size distribution) were compared in...
Saastamoinen M, Särkijärvi S, Suomala H.Six Finnhorse mares were used in a digestibility trial, in which six typical horse diets were compared. The diets were: (A) haylage 100%; (B) hay 100%; (C) hay 70% and oats 30%; (D) hay 70% and soybean meal + oats 30%; (E) hay 70%, rapeseed meal + oats 30% and (F) hay 70 %, linseed meal + oats 30%. The trial was conducted according to an unbalanced 6 × 4 Latin square design with four 3-week experimental periods. The experimental period consisted of 17-day preliminary feeding which was followed by a 4-day total faecal and urine collection periods to evaluate N excretion. The digestibilities of...
Scare Kenealy JA, Steuer AE.All horses are susceptible to the equine gastrointestinal parasite, Strongylus vulgaris, which is known to cause significant disease and death. The parasite undergoes development from the egg through the first (L1), second (L2) and third (L3) larval stages outside the horse. The L3 is the infective stage. The universally available technique for detection of S. vulgaris larvae is the larval culture method. This requires a 10-14 day culture period to induce development from egg to L3, followed by Baermannization and identification of the L3s to genus and/or species. It is unknown if the culture ...
Ribeiro DSC, Martins AV, Lobão LF, Ribeiro MS, Palmer JPS, Corrêa LL, Uchôa CMA, da Silva S, Meireles MV, Amendoeira MRR, Barbosa ADS.An analysis was made of the frequency of Cryptosporidium spp. in fecal samples from horses raised on farms in the Teresópolis city, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the risk factors that favored this infection. Between 2019 and 2020, 314 samples of equine feces were collected, 287 of which came from English Thoroughbred horses and 27 from ponies. Information on the horses and their management were retrieved from a stud book and forms filled out by trainers. The fecal samples were subjected to macroscopic analysis, modified Sheather's and Lutz parasitological techniques, safranin staining,...
O'Donnell D, Sukovaty L, Webb G.This study evaluated the effect of storage conditions of equine fecal material on the viability of microbial inoculum used for in vitro equine digestibility trials. Pooled fecal material from three mature Quarter Horse geldings was stored at 39 °C anaerobically for 15 min (control), while aerobic samples were stored at 22 °C for 6 h (SC1), 3 °C for 6 h (SC2), and -18 °C for 24 h (SC3). Following storage, the feces were utilized to prepare microbial inoculum for the digestion of six different forages using the Daisy II Incubator. After incubation, DM, NDF, and ADF compositions were determin...
Franzan BC, Coelho IDS, de Souza MT, Santos MMM, de Almeida FQ, Silva VP.Sudden changes in horses' diet have been previously associated with gastrointestinal disease. This study evaluated the effects of a sudden change of diet composed exclusively of Coastcross hay (CHD) to a complete extruded diet (CED) on the fecal microbiome of horses. A completely randomized design with repeated measurements was used. The study started with eight adult horses randomly split into group A, fed with CHD, and group B, fed with CED. After 34 days of diet adaptation, the diets were abruptly changed between the groups. Fecal samples were collected at 0, 24, and 96 hours after the diet...
Paßlack N, van Bömmel-Wegmann S, Vahjen W, Zentek J.Zinc supplements are often used in equine nutrition to support skin and hoof quality or the immune function. However, no data on the effects of dietary zinc on the intestinal microbiota of horses and ponies are available so far. In the present study, varying dietary zinc concentrations (maintenance (4 mg/kg BW/day), 120 mg/kg dry matter (DM)/day and 240 mg/kg DM/day) were achieved by the supplementation of either zinc chloride hydroxide or zinc methionine (six treatment periods of 4 weeks each). Eight healthy adult ponies and two healthy adult horses were included, and faecal samples were coll...
Di Pietro R, Arroyo LG, Leclere M, Costa MC.All current studies have used Illumina short-read sequencing to characterize the equine intestinal microbiota. Long-read sequencing can classify bacteria at the species level. The objectives of this study were to characterize the gut microbiota of horses at the species level before and after trimethoprim sulfadiazine (TMS) administration and to compare results with Illumina sequencing. Nine horses received TMS (30 mg/kg) orally for 5 days twice a day to induce dysbiosis. Illumina sequencing of the V4 region or full-length PacBio sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene was performed in fecal samples co...
Laustsen L, Edwards JE, Hermes GDA, Lúthersson N, van Doorn DA, Okrathok S, Kujawa TJ, Smidt H.Free faecal water (FFW) in equines results in pollution of the hindquarters and tail and can also involve clinical signs. Though the cause of FFW is unknown, it was hypothesized that it may involve the gut microbiota. This hypothesis was addressed as follows. First, the faecal prokaryotic community composition of horses suffering from FFW relative to healthy controls ( = 10) was compared. Second, FFW horses were treated with a standardised faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) protocol ( = 10), followed by assessment of FFW symptom severity and faecal prokaryotic community composition over a...
Khusro A, Arasu MV, Sahibzada MUK, Salem AZM, Al-Dhabi NA, Rivas-Caceres RR, Seidel V, Choi KC.This study was designed to assess in vitro probiotic attributes of potent bacterium isolated from the feces of healthy horse. Initially, a total of eight bacteria were isolated from the feces and evaluated their antibacterial activities against indicator bacterial pathogens using agar well diffusion assay. Results showed significant (P < .05) antibacterial property of Lactobacillus plantarum strain LF4 against pathogens tested with maximum growth inhibitory activity of 320.16 ± 3.4 AU/mL against Staphylococcus aureus. Further, in vitro probiotic properties of strain LF4 were determined using ...
Fernandes KA, Rogers CW, Gee EK, Kittelmann S, Bolwell CF, Bermingham EN, Biggs PJ, Thomas DG.The management of competition horses in New Zealand often involves rotations of short periods of stall confinement and concentrate feeding, with periods of time at pasture. Under these systems, horses may undergo abrupt dietary changes, with the incorporation of grains or concentrate feeds to the diet to meet performance needs, or sudden changes in the type of forage fed in response to a lack of fresh or conserved forage. Abrupt changes in dietary management are a risk factor for gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances, potentially due to the negative effects observed on the population of GI microb...
Li XB, Huang XX, Zang CJ, Ma C, Chen KX, Zhao GD, Li Q, Li XY, Zhang WJ, Yang KL.There is little objective information concerning the effect of steam-flaked grains on foal's growth performance and faecal microbiota. To determine the effects of steam-flaked grains on foal's growth performance and faecal microbiota, faecal samples were collection from 18 foals which had been fed either corn, oat or barley diets over the 60 days of the experiment. Body weight and conformation measurements were collected. Next-generation sequencing of the V3 + V4 region of the 16 S rRNA gene was used to assess the microbial composition of faeces. Alpha diversity, Venn graph, Relative abun...
Lindroth KM, Lindberg JE, Johansen A, Müller CE.Free faecal liquid (FFL) in horses is characterised by the excretion of faeces in two phases (one solid and one liquid), which may cause dermatitis on the hindlegs. The causes of FFL are not known. Results from previous studies have indicated that feed ration composition and management factors may play important roles in the occurrence of FFL. A case-control study was therefore performed in which data on feed rations, feeding practices and management factors were compared between horses with (case) and without (control) FFL on 50 private farms in Sweden and Norway. The comparisons show that ca...
Kulikov EE, Golomidova AK, Efimov AD, Belalov IS, Letarova MA, Zdorovenko EL, Knirel YA, Dmitrenok AS, Letarov AV.Tailed bacteriophages constitute the bulk of the intestinal viromes of vertebrate animals. However, the relationships between lytic and lysogenic lifestyles of phages in these ecosystems are not always clear and may vary between the species or even between the individuals. The human intestinal (fecal) viromes are dominated mostly by temperate phages, while in horse feces virulent phages are more prevalent. To our knowledge, all the previously reported isolates of horse fecal coliphages are virulent. Temperate coliphage Hf4s was isolated from horse feces, from the indigenous equine Escherichia ...
Berg EL, Fu CJ, Porter JH, Kerley MS.Short-chain fructooligosaccharides (FOS) were supplemented to the diets of nine quarter horses ranging in age from 489 to 539 d with initial BW averaging 400.6 +/- 21.2 kg. The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of dietary FOS on the fecal responses in terms of pH, the microbial population, and VFA concentrations. The horses were used in a 3 x 3 replicated Latin square design, fed according to NRC requirements, and their individual diets were supplemented with no FOS (CON), 8 g of FOS/d (LOW), or 24 g of FOS/d (HIGH) over three 10-d feeding periods. On the last 3 d of each ...
Whitfield-Cargile CM, Chamoun-Emanuelli AM, Cohen ND, Richardson LM, Ajami NJ, Dockery HJ.Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are routinely used in both veterinary and human medicine. Gastrointestinal injury is a frequent adverse event associated with NSAID use and evidence suggests that NSAIDs induce gastrointestinal microbial imbalance (i.e., dysbiosis) in both animals and people. It is unknown, however, whether cyclooxygenase (COX)-2-selective NSAIDs induce dysbiosis, or if this phenomenon occurs in horses administered any class of NSAIDs. Therefore, our objectives were to determine whether the composition and diversity of the fecal microbiota of adult horses were alt...
Endo A, Roos S, Satoh E, Morita H, Okada S.Two strains of lactic acid bacteria were isolated from faeces of two actively racing thoroughbred horses. The isolates formed a subcluster in the Lactobacillus reuteri phylogenetic group, closely related to Lactobacillus fermentum, L. gastricus, L. ingluviei and L. mucosae, by phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences. Levels of DNA-DNA relatedness revealed that the isolates belonged to the same taxon and were genetically separated from their phylogenetic relatives. Biochemical and physiological characteristics also distinguished the isolates from their phylogenetic relatives. The...
Kuzmina TA, Kuzmin YI, Kharchenko VA.Experimental studies on the survival of infective stage larvae of horse strongyles and their ability to overwinter on pasture were carried out in central Ukraine (Poltavska oblast). Faecal pats (1.5 kg each) of naturally infected horses were placed on pasture, and samples of faeces and surrounding vegetation (10 g each) were collected each month, excluding the winter months, from November 2002 until April 2004. The number of infective third stage larvae was calculated in each sample and compared with that from the control faecal samples cultivated in the laboratory. In the control samples, the...
Bordin AI, Suchodolski JS, Markel ME, Weaver KB, Steiner JM, Dowd SE, Pillai S, Cohen ND.Rhodococcus equi is an important pathogen of foals. Enteral administration of live, virulent R. equi during early life has been documented to protect against subsequent intrabronchial challenge with R. equi, indicating that enteral mucosal immunization may be protective. Evidence exists that mucosal immune responses develop against both live and inactivated micro-organisms. The extent to which live or inactivated R. equi might alter the intestinal microbiome of foals is unknown. This is an important question because the intestinal microbiome of neonates of other species is known to change over...
Xing J, Liu G, Zhang X, Bai D, Yu J, Li L, Wang X, Su S, Zhao Y, Bou G, Dugarjaviin M.The community of microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of monogastric herbivores played critical roles in the absorption of nutrients and keeping the host healthy. However, its establishment at different age groups has not been quantitatively and functionally examined. The knowledge of microbial colonization and its function in the intestinal tract of different-age donkeys is still limited. By applying the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and functional prediction on fecal samples from different-age donkeys, we characterized the gut microbiota during the different age...
Majewska AC, Solarczyk P, Tamang L, Graczyk TK.A total of 564 fecal specimens from 318 horses used for recreational riding, child hippotherapy, and racing at ten commercial and government-run stables in western Poland were tested for Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts by microscopic examination of Ziehl-Neelsen stained smears, enzyme immunoassay, and combined direct immunofluorescent antibody and fluorescent in situ hybridization. Also, seven stool specimens from five personnel who had repeated contact with these horses were tested for C. parvum oocysts. Eleven horses that shed C. parvum oocysts were found in five of ten stables (50%). The pre...
Traub-Dargatz JL, Garber LP, Fedorka-Cray PJ, Ladely S, Ferris KE.To estimate prevalence of fecal shedding of Salmonella spp among horses in the US horse population and prevalence of Salmonella spp in grain or other concentrate used as horse feed on equine operations in the United States. Methods: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: Horses on 972 operations in 28 states. Methods: Fecal samples were collected from horses resident at each operation. Only a single sample was collected from any individual horse; number of horses from which samples were collected on each operation was determined on the basis of number of horses on the operation. A single sample of g...
Grønvold AM, L'Abée-Lund TM, Strand E, Sørum H, Yannarell AC, Mackie RI.Antimicrobial treatment is associated with the spread of antimicrobial resistance and disturbances in the ecological balance of intestinal microbiota. In horses, the main adverse effect of antimicrobial treatment is colitis. We used culture and 16S rRNA gene based molecular methods to monitor the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance and changes in predominant fecal populations during penicillin treatment and general anesthesia of horses in the clinical setting. After 5 days of parenteral administration of penicillin, fecal Escherichia coli were resistant to multiple unrelated antimicrobial a...
Proudman CJ, Edwards GB.Faeces samples from 116 horses with colic and 115 non-colic cases were assayed by a centrifugation/floatation method for the presence of tapeworm eggs. Analysis of these data failed to demonstrate an association between tapeworm infection and colic of all types. The data were further analysed according to anatomical site of the lesion causing colic. The risk of ileocaecal colic was increased in the presence of tapeworms. Age, breed and sex were evaluated as possible confounding factors but had no association with the incidence of colic. This study suggests an association between tapeworms and ...
Morotomi M, Yuki N, Kado Y, Kushiro A, Shimazaki T, Watanabe K, Yuyama T.Lactobacillus equi sp. nov. is described on the basis of 18 strains isolated as one of the predominant intestinal lactobacilli from horse faecal specimens. These 18 strains were isolated from 10 horses of 6 different farms out of 20 horses of 10 farms examined. They were gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, catalase-negative, non-spore-forming, non-motile, lactic-acid-homofermentative rods. The DNA G+C content was 38.9+/-0.8 mol %. DNA-DNA hybridization failed to associate these strains closely with any of the validly described type strains used. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence of re...
Pusterla N, Wattanaphansak S, Mapes S, Collier J, Hill J, Difrancesco M, Gebhart C.Equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) is an emerging disease of weanling foals. Objective: Describe clinical, hematologic, biochemical, serologic, molecular, and ultrasonographic findings in foals experimentally infected with Lawsonia intracellularis. Methods: Eight foals. Methods: Recently weaned foals were assigned to either the challenge (n = 3), the sentinel (n = 3), or the control (n = 2) group. Foals were experimentally challenged via intragastric inoculation of 3 x 10(10)L. intracellularis organisms grown in culture. Each experimentally infected foal was housed with a sentinel foal in ...
Tassone S, Renna M, Barbera S, Valle E, Fortina R.Successful studies on in vitro digestibility measurement of feedstuffs with fecal inoculum have been reported for horses, whereas data on donkeys are currently lacking. In this study, we evaluated the use of the Daisy Incubator for in vitro digestibility measurement of feedstuffs using donkey feces as source of microbial inoculum. The method was tested using seven feedstuffs commonly used in donkey diets (alfalfa, bromegrass, ryegrass, and timothy hays; wheat bran and wheat straw; barley grains). Feces were obtained from four female donkeys, and incubations were carried out at 1-week interva...
Sadikalay S, Reynaud Y, Guyomard-Rabenirina S, Falord M, Ducat C, Fabre L, Le Hello S, Talarmin A, Ferdinand S.Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs), especially those of the CTX-M type, represent a major public health problem throughout the world. Although the carriage of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae (EPE) in feces of horses is now well recognized, little is known about the diversity of EPE after treatment of horses with antibiotics. We undertook this study to assess and follow the diversity of EP Escherichia coli isolated from horses after antibiotic treatment for an infection. Fecal samples from two horses treated and two that were untreated were tested for the presence of EPE on different d...
Sanz MG, Kwon S, Pusterla N, Gold JR, Bain F, Evermann J.Currently, diagnosis of equine coronavirus (ECoV) relies on the exclusion of other infectious causes of enteric disease along with molecular detection of ECoV in feces or tissue. Although this approach is complete, it is costly and may not always be achievable. Objective: We hypothesized that the overall fecal shedding of ECoV in hospitalized horses is low. Our objective was to determine whether systemically healthy horses and horses with gastrointestinal disorders shed ECoV in their feces at the time of admission to a referral hospital and after 48 hours of stress associated with hospitaliz...
Leng J, Proudman C, Darby A, Blow F, Townsend N, Miller A, Swann J.Equine grass sickness (EGS) is a frequently fatal disease of horses, responsible for the death of 1 to 2% of the U.K. horse population annually. The etiology of this disease is currently uncharacterized, although there is evidence it is associated with Clostridium botulinum neurotoxin in the gut. Prevention is currently not possible, and ileal biopsy diagnosis is invasive. The aim of this study was to characterize the fecal microbiota and biofluid metabolic profiles of EGS horses, to further understand the mechanisms underlying this disease, and to identify metabolic biomarkers to aid in diagn...
Gavriliuc S, Stothart MR, Henry A, Poissant J.The development of next-generation sequencing technologies has spurred a surge of research on bacterial microbiome diversity and function. But despite the rapid growth of the field, many uncertainties remain regarding the impact of differing methodologies on downstream results. Sample storage temperature is conventionally thought to be among the most important factors for ensuring reproducibility across marker gene studies, but to date much of the research on this topic has focused on short-term storage in the context of clinical applications. Consequently, it has remained unclear if storage a...
Daniels SP, Leng J, Swann JR, Proudman CJ.Anthelmintic treatment is a risk factor for intestinal disease in the horse, known as colic. However the mechanisms involved in the onset of disease post anthelmintic treatment are unknown. The interaction between anthelmintic drugs and the gut microbiota may be associated with this observed increase in risk of colic. Little is known about the interaction between gut microbiota and anthelmintics and how treatment may alter microbiome function. The objectives of this study were: To characterise (1) faecal microbiota, (2) feed fermentation kinetics in vitro and (3) metabolic profiles following m...
Madrigal RG, Shaw SD, Witkowski LA, Sisson BE, Blodgett GP, Chaffin MK, Cohen ND.Current screening tests for Rhodococcus equi pneumonia in foals lack adequate accuracy for clinical use. Real-time, quantitative PCR (qPCR) for virulent R. equi in feces has not been systematically evaluated as a screening test. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of qPCR for vapA in serially collected fecal samples as a screening test for R. equi pneumonia in foals. Methods: One hundred and twenty-five foals born in 2011 at a ranch in Texas. Methods: Fecal samples were collected concurrently with thoracic ultrasonography (TUS) screening examinations at ages 3, ...
Osterman Lind E, Eysker M, Nilsson O, Uggla A, Höglund J.This study was conducted on a stud farm in Sweden to investigate the species composition of cyathostomins expelled in the faeces of horses after deworming using three different anthelmintic preparations. Twenty-seven horses excreting > or = 200 strongyle eggs per gram faeces (EPG) were divided into three comparable groups and dewormed on day 0 with either of following compounds: 0.2 mg ivermectin per kg body weight (bw), 19 mg pyrantel pamoate per kg bw or 7.5 mg fenbendazole per kg bw. For each of the 3 days following anthelmintic treatment faeces was collected from individual horses and s...
Tomczuk K, Kostro K, Szczepaniak KO, Grzybek M, Studzińska M, Demkowska-Kutrzepa M, Roczeń-Karczmarz M.The autopsy of 487 slaughter horses revealed the presence of Anoplocephala perfoliata in 36 animals. The invasions varied in the intensity (3 to 2,069 tapeworms) and in the level of tapeworms' proglottid maturity. Twenty nine horses were found to contain tapeworms with gravid proglottid. Fecal samples collected from the rectum were tested using following techniques: flotation with solution-saturated NaCl, decantation, McMaster's, and modified sedimentation-flotation methods (50 g feces samples, flotation solution-saturated NaCl and sucrose, specific gravity 1.25 g/ml). The number of A. perfoli...
Pérez R, Cabezas I, Sutra JF, Galtier P, Alvinerie M.A study was undertaken to evaluate and compare faecal excretion of moxidectin and ivermectin in horses after oral administration of commercially available preparations. Ten clinically healthy adult horses, weighing 390-446 kg body weight (b.w.), were allocated to two experimental groups. Group I was treated with an oral gel formulation of moxidectin at the manufacturer's recommended therapeutic dose of 0.4 mg/kg b.w. Group II was treated with an oral paste formulation of ivermectin at the recommended dose of 0.2 mg/kg b.w. Faecal samples were collected at different times between 1 and 75 days ...
Smith BP, Reina-Guerra M, Hardy AJ.Feces from 1,451 horses entering a veterinary hospital over a 13-month period were cultured for salmonella. A total of 46 horses (3.2%) yielded 1 or more salmonella-positive fecal cultures. Twenty horses were found to be excreting salmonella in the feces on admission, and 5 of these later had severe diarrhea associated with enteric salmonellosis. Abdominal surgery and other severe stresses were associated with all cases of severe enteric salmonellosis. Serotypes of salmonella isolated included Salmonella agona (15), S anatum (14), S typhimurium (7), S typhimurium var copenhagen (4), S infantis...
Janabi AHD, Kerkhof LJ, McGuinness LR, Biddle AS, McKeever KH.There are many choices for methods of extracting bacterial DNA for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) from fecal samples. Here, we compare our modifications of a phenol/chloroform extraction method plus an inhibitor removal solution (C3) (ph/Chl+C3) to the PowerFecal® DNA Isolation Kit (MoBio-K). DNA quality and quantity coupled to NGS results were used to assess differences in relative abundance, Shannon diversity index, unique species, and principle coordinate analysis (PCoA) between biological replicates. Six replicate samples, taken from a single ball of horse feces manually collected from ...
Gokbulut C, Nolan AM, McKellar QA.The present study was carried out to investigate whether the pharmacokinetics of avermectins or a milbemycin could explain their known or predicted efficacy in the horse. The avermectins, ivermectin (IVM) and doramectin (DRM), and the milbemycin, moxidectin (MXD), were each administered orally to horses at 200 microg/kg bwt. Blood and faecal samples were collected at predetermined times over 80 days (197 days for MXD) and 30 days, respectively, and plasma pharmacokinetics and faecal excretion determined. Maximum plasma concentrations (Cmax) (IVM: 21.4 ng/ml; DRM: 21.3 ng/ml; MXD: 30.1 ng/ml) w...
Lauková A, Styková E, Kubašová I, Gancarčíková S, Plachá I, Mudroňová D, Kandričáková A, Miltko R, Belzecki G, Valocký I, Strompfová V.Probiotic bacteria or their antimicrobial proteinaceous substances called bacteriocins (enterocins) hold promising prophylactic potential for animal breeding. This study present the results achieved after application of Enterocin M in horses. Enterocin M has never been applied to horses before. Clinically healthy horses (10) were involved in this pilot experiment. They were placed in the stables of the University of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy, Košice, Slovakia, with the approval of the University Ethics Committee. The animals were fed twice a day with hay and oats, or alternatively graz...
Paßlack N, Vahjen W, Zentek J.Cellobiose is a disaccharide with potential prebiotic effects, as demonstrated in different animal species, but not yet in horses. It was, therefore, the aim of the present study to evaluate the impact of dietary cellobiose on the fecal microbiota of horses. Eight healthy adult horses and two ponies were included in this study. The animals received a diet without or with 10 g and 20 g cellobiose per day for 14 days each. At the end of the feeding periods, fresh fecal samples were collected to measure bacterial metabolites and the microbial composition. For the microbiota analysis, 16S rRNA ...
Lyons ET, Tolliver SC.Prevalence of internal parasites was determined by fecal examination for eggs and oocysts in Thoroughbred foals in central Kentucky in 2003. Fecal samples were examined from 733 foals on 14 farms. This included 70 trips to the farms and a total of 2,346 fecal samplings. Monthly collection of fecal samples was begun for four farms in February, six in March, three in April, and one farm in May. Termination of the study for all farms was the end of July. A criterion was that the foals be at least 10 days old for initial samplings. If available, the same foals were sampled each time, in addition t...
Pusterla N, Byrne BA, Hodzic E, Mapes S, Jang SS, Magdesian KG.A quantitative real-time (RT)-PCR assay was developed to detect Salmonella spp. in the feces of 911 equine species admitted to a veterinary hospital. Fresh feces and feces enriched for 24h in selenite broth were assessed by conventional culture and by RT-PCR targeting the Salmonella invA gene. The detection limit for the RT-PCR assay was 3 and 10 organisms, respectively, when spiked samples were purified from selenite broth and feces. The analytical specificity was 100% based on the detection of a panel of 40 salmonella serotypes from five serogroups and the lack of cross-reactivity with non-r...
