Genetics in horses encompasses the study of hereditary traits and the genetic makeup that influences various characteristics and health conditions in equine populations. This field involves the analysis of genes and their functions, inheritance patterns, and the impact of genetic variations on traits such as coat color, performance ability, and susceptibility to diseases. Research in equine genetics employs techniques such as genome mapping, sequencing, and genetic testing to identify specific genes and mutations associated with these traits. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the genetic basis of equine traits, the methodologies used in genetic research, and the implications for breeding, health management, and conservation of horse breeds.
Cebo C, Rebours E, Henry C, Makhzami S, Cosette P, Martin P.Although several studies have been devoted to the colloidal and soluble protein fractions of mare milk (caseins and whey proteins), to date little is known about the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) protein fraction from mare milk. The objective of this study was thus to describe MFGM proteins from Equidae milk and to compare those proteins to already described MFGM proteins from cow and goat milk. Major MFGM proteins (namely, xanthine oxidase, butyrophilin, lactadherin, and adipophilin) already described in cow or goat milk were identified in mare milk using mass spectrometry. However, specie...
Doan R, Cohen N, Harrington J, Veazey K, Juras R, Cothran G, McCue ME, Skow L, Dindot SV.Copy number variants (CNVs) represent a substantial source of genetic variation in mammals. However, the occurrence of CNVs in horses and their subsequent impact on phenotypic variation is unknown. We performed a study to identify CNVs in 16 horses representing 15 distinct breeds (Equus caballus) and an individual gray donkey (Equus asinus) using a whole-exome tiling array and the array comparative genomic hybridization methodology. We identified 2368 CNVs ranging in size from 197 bp to 3.5 Mb. Merging identical CNVs from each animal yielded 775 CNV regions (CNVRs), involving 1707 protein- and...
Takasu M, Hiramatsu N, Tozaki T, Kakoi H, Hasegawa T, Maeda M, Kusuda S, Doi O, Murase T, Mukoyama H.The objective of this study was to clarify the current status of endangered Kiso horse, population statistics and biological traits, in order to take a step for the conservation by scientific approach. We surveyed 125 Kiso horses (86.2% of the whole breed), analyzed the construction of the population, and calculated the coefficient of inbreeding and effective population size. Moreover, we confirmed coat color variations and the traditional traits of the Kiso horse, and measured their height at the withers and chest circumference to clarify their physical characteristics. The population pyramid...
Ohya T, Kondo T, Yoshikawa Y, Watanabe K, Orino K.In mammal circulation, various ferritin-binding proteins (FBPs) are thought to be involved in the clearance of circulating ferritin after complex formation with it. However, horse FBPs are known to cause inhibitory effects on ferritin immunoassay due to the concealment of the ferritin molecule to anti-ferritin antibodies used in the ferritin immunoassay. These inhibitory effects are eliminated by heat treatment of horse serum at 75°C for 15 min. The inhibitory effects on ferritin immunoassay in the sera of ten foal sera (5 females and 5 males) from 1 to 18 months were detected during all peri...
McGivney BA, Browne JA, Fonseca RG, Katz LM, Machugh DE, Whiston R, Hill EW.Myostatin, encoded by the MSTN gene, is a member of the TGF-β superfamily that regulates skeletal muscle development. A MSTN SNP significantly associated with Thoroughbred horse racing phenotypes has recently been identified as well as significant reductions in Thoroughbred skeletal muscle gene expression for three transcripts 400-1500 base pairs downstream of the MSTN gene following a period of training. Together, these findings indicate that MSTN genotypes may influence MSTN gene expression. To investigate this, MSTN mRNA expression was measured in biopsies from the middle gluteal muscle fr...
Noronha LE, Harman RM, Wagner B, Antczak DF.The low-affinity Fc receptor CD16 plays a central role in the inflammatory and innate immune responses of many species, but has not yet been investigated in the horse. Using the predicted extracellular region of equine CD16 expressed as a recombinant fusion protein with equine IL-4 (rIL-4/CD16), we generated a panel of mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) that recognize equine CD16. Nine mAbs were chosen for characterization based upon recognition of CD16, but not IL-4, in ELISA. All nine mAbs recognized full-length, cell-surface CD16 expressed as a GFP fusion protein by CHO cells, but not the c...
Erol E, Sells SF, Williams NM, Kennedy L, Locke SJ, Labeda DP, Donahue JM, Carter CN.Nocardioform placentitis associated with gram positive branching actinomycetes caused a record number of abortions in mares diagnosed by the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (UKVDL) affecting the 2011 foal crop (2011 foal crop: the cohort of foals conceived during the 2010 breeding season). The goal of the present study is to make a comprehensive analysis of this outbreak in terms of frequencies of the bacteria causing nocardioform placentitis mediated abortions and to investigate the ages of fetuses, abortion months and breeding times. In the present study, characterist...
Noronha LE, Huggler KE, de Mestre AM, Miller DC, Antczak DF.To identify equine orthologs of major NK cell marker genes and utilize them to determine whether NK cells are present among the dense infiltration of lymphocytes that surround the endometrial cup structures of the horse placenta during early pregnancy. Methods: PCR primers were developed to detect the equine orthologs of NKP46, CD16, CD56, and CD94; gene expression was detected in RNA isolated from lymphocytes using standard 2-step reverse transcriptase (RT) PCR and products were cloned and sequenced. Absolute real-time RT-PCR was used to quantitate gene expression in total, CD3+, and CD3- per...
Onishi JC, Park JW, Häggblom MM, Fennell MJ, Fugaro MN.A common sequella of chronic laminitis in horses is repeated abscesses with variable lameness and drainage. It is unclear whether the exudate represents the debridement phase of a non-septic inflammatory process involving clearance of laminar tissue damaged during the acute episode of laminitis, or a response to a microbial infection developed by ascent of microbes from the environment to the tissue via the white line. The objective of this study was to evaluate the possibility that an undiagnosed microbial infection in laminar tissue is present in laminar tissue collected from chronically lam...
Chiers K, Deschaght P, De Baere T, Dabrowski S, Kotlowski R, De Clercq D, Ducatelle R, Vaneechoutte M.Routine cultivation methods are able to distinguish between isolates of the Mycobacterium avium and the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. However, molecular tools are needed to further identify the several subspecies in the M. avium complex, especially for the subspecies avium and silvaticum. A rapid technique using HhaI restriction digestion of a 349 bp amplification product of the 85B antigen (α-antigen) gene was used for the identification of M. avium subsp. silvaticum in a three-year-old gelding presenting with caseous, necrotizing, granulomatous lesions. The result was confirmed by seq...
Doan R, Cohen ND, Sawyer J, Ghaffari N, Johnson CD, Dindot SV.The catalog of genetic variants in the horse genome originates from a few select animals, the majority originating from the Thoroughbred mare used for the equine genome sequencing project. The purpose of this study was to identify genetic variants, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertion/deletion polymorphisms (INDELs), and copy number variants (CNVs) in the genome of an individual Quarter Horse mare sequenced by next-generation sequencing. Results: Using massively parallel paired-end sequencing, we generated 59.6 Gb of DNA sequence from a Quarter Horse mare resulting in an...
Wattrang E, Palm AK, Wagner B.Synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotides (ODN) may prove useful immune modulators in equine medicine. It is however important to assess the effects of each specific ODN in the species it is intended to be used in. The present study therefore aimed to evaluate some ODN for induction of cytokine production; i.e. type I interferons (IFN), IFN-γ, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and proliferation of equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). A panel of four ODN containing unmethylated cytosine-guanosine sequences (CpG) was used: ODN 1 and ODN 8 repre...
Dhar M, Neilsen N, Beatty K, Eaker S, Adair H, Geiser D.Two studies report variability in proliferation and limited adipocyte differentiation of equine peripheral blood-derived adult mesenchymal stem cells, thus casting doubt on their adipogenic potential. Peripheral blood can be a valuable source of adult mesenchymal stem cells if cell culture conditions permissive for their adherence, proliferation and differentiation are defined. Hyperbaric oxygen treatment has been reported to mobilise haematopoietic progenitor stem cells into the peripheral blood in humans and mice, but similar experiments have not been done in horses. Objective: To optimise c...
Kulikov E, Kropinski AM, Golomidova A, Lingohr E, Govorun V, Serebryakova M, Prokhorov N, Letarova M, Manykin A, Strotskaya A, Letarov A.Lytic coliphage vB_EcoP_G7C and several other highly related isolates were obtained repeatedly from the samples of horse feces held in the same stable thus representing a component of the normal indigenous intestinal communities in this population of animals. The genome of G7C consists of 71,759 bp with terminal repeats of about 1160 bp, yielding approximately 73 kbp packed DNA size. Seventy-eight potential open reading frames, most of them unique to N4-like viruses, were identified and annotated. The overall layout of functional gene groups was close to that of the original N4 phage, with som...
Sykora S, Samek L, Schönthaler K, Palm F, Borzacchiello G, Aurich C, Brandt S.Squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) are malignant tumours arising from keratinocytes. In horses, there is increasing evidence for Equus caballus papillomavirus type 2 (EcPV-2) being causally involved in SCC development. However, only little is known regarding intralesional transcription of the virus, and sparse information on the incidence of EcPV-2 infection in healthy equids is available so far. Using RT-PCR, total mRNA from 8 EcPV-2 DNA-positive and 1 EcPV-2 negative SCC/SCC precursor lesions was screened for the presence of EcPV-2 E6 and E1 transcripts. Using PCR, we tested 193 sample specimens...
Puppione DL, Della Donna L, Bassilian S, Souda P, MacDonald MH, Whitelegge JP.As a continuation of our proteogenomic studies of equine apolipoproteins, we have obtained molecular masses for several of the apolipoproteins associated with the HDL in horse cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Using electrospray-ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), we report on values for apolipoproteins, A-I and A-II, as well as acylated apoA-I. In comparison with our previously published data on equine plasma apolipoproteins, there appears to be a higher percentage of acylated apoA-I in the CSF than in plasma. As was the case in plasma, apoA-II circulates as a homodimer. These studies also reveal...
Bogaert L, Willemsen A, Vanderstraeten E, Bracho MA, De Baere C, Bravo IG, Martens A.Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) represents the most common genital malignant tumor in horses. Similar to humans, papillomaviruses (PVs) have been proposed as etiological agents and recently Equine papillomavirus type 2 (EcPV2) has been identified in a subset of genital SCCs. The goals of this study were (1) to determine the prevalence of EcPV2 DNA in tissue samples from equine genital SCCs, penile intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and penile papillomas, using EcPV2-specific PCR, (2) to examine the prevalence of latent EcPV2 infection in healthy genital mucosa and (3) to determine genetic variabili...
Collins CW, Songsasen NS, Vick MM, Wolfe BA, Weiss RB, Keefer CL, Monfort SL.The ex situ population of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) is not self-sustaining (20% foaling rate), and the demography is skewed toward aging individuals with low gene diversity. We designed the present study to gain a better understanding of the reproductive biology of the Przewalski's mare and to determine whether age and gene diversity influenced reproductive function. Urine samples were collected 3-7 days/wk from 19 mares from May to September, and ultrasound examinations of follicular structures were performed 3 days/wk for 5 wk from May through July in nine individuals....
Schröper F, Baumann A, Offenhäusser A, Mayer D.During the last decade protein electrochemistry at miniaturized electrodes has become important not only for functional studies of the charge transfer properties of redox proteins but also for fostering the development of sensitive biosensor and bioelectronic devices. One of the major challenges in this field is the directed coupling between electronic and biologically active components. A prerequisite for a fast and reversible electron transfer between electrode and protein is that the protein can be bound to the electrode in a favourable orientation. We examined electrostatic and bioaffinity...
Holzhausen L, Nowak M, Junginger J, Puff C.A 15-year-old gelding presented with a progressive lameness of the left forelimb of 2.5 months duration. Clinically, a dilation of the deep flexor tendon sheath with a firm elastic consistency and a pronounced tenderness was noted. Ultrasonically, a marked swelling of the flexor tendon sheath with an irregular density of the mesotendineum was observed. The white, firm material forming a nodular distension of the flexor tendon sheath with a diameter of approximately 1 cm was excised and sent for histopathological examination. Biopsies of the deep flexor tendon and corresponding tendon sheath we...
Achilli A, Olivieri A, Soares P, Lancioni H, Hooshiar Kashani B, Perego UA, Nergadze SG, Carossa V, Santagostino M, Capomaccio S, Felicetti M....Archaeological and genetic evidence concerning the time and mode of wild horse (Equus ferus) domestication is still debated. High levels of genetic diversity in horse mtDNA have been detected when analyzing the control region; recurrent mutations, however, tend to blur the structure of the phylogenetic tree. Here, we brought the horse mtDNA phylogeny to the highest level of molecular resolution by analyzing 83 mitochondrial genomes from modern horses across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Our data reveal 18 major haplogroups (A-R) with radiation times that are mostly confined ...
Shakhsi-Niaei M, Klukowska-Rötzler J, Drögemüller C, Swinburne J, Ehrmann C, Saftic D, Ramseyer A, Gerber V, Dolf G, Leeb T.Recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), or 'heaves', is a common performance-limiting allergic respiratory disease of mature horses. It is related to sensitization and exposure to mouldy hay and has a familial basis with a complex mode of inheritance. In a previous study, we detected a QTL for RAO on ECA 13 in a half-sib family of European Warmblood horses. In this study, we genotyped additional markers in the family and narrowed the QTL down to about 1.5 Mb (23.7-25.2 Mb). We detected the strongest association with SNP BIEC2-224511 (24,309,405 bp). We also obtained SNP genotypes in an independent...
Fuentealba NA, Sguazza GH, Eöry ML, Valera AR, Pecoraro MR, Galosi CM.Equid herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) infection has a significant economic impact on equine production, causing abortion, respiratory disease, neonatal death and neurological disorders. The identification of specific EHV-1 genes related to virulence and pathogenicity has been the aim of several research groups. The purpose of the present study was to analyze different genomic regions of Argentinean EHV-1 strains and to determine their possible relationship with virulence or clinical signs. Twenty-five EHV-1 Argentinean isolates recovered from different clinical cases between 1979 and 2007 and two refere...
Ma G, Feineis S, Osterrieder N, Van de Walle GR.Major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules play an important role in host immunity to infection by presenting antigenic peptides to cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), which recognize and destroy virus-infected cells. Members of the Herpesviridae have developed multiple mechanisms to avoid CTL recognition by virtue of downregulation of MHC-I on the cell surface. We report here on an immunomodulatory protein involved in this process, pUL56, which is encoded by ORF1 of equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), an alphaherpesvirus. We show that EHV-1 pUL56 is a phosphorylated early protein w...
Iacono E, Brunori L, Pirrone A, Pagliaro PP, Ricci F, Tazzari PL, Merlo B.Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been derived from multiple sources of the horse including umbilical cord blood (UCB) and amnion. This work aimed to identify and characterize stem cells from equine amniotic fluid (AF), CB and Wharton's Jelly (WJ). Samples were obtained from 13 mares at labour. AF and CB cells were isolated by centrifugation, while WJ was prepared by incubating with an enzymatic solution for 2 h. All cell lines were cultured in DMEM/TCM199 plus fetal bovine serum. Fibroblast-like cells were observed in 7/10 (70%) AF, 6/8 (75%) CB and 8/12 (66.7%) WJ samples. Statistically ...
Bower MA, McGivney BA, Campana MG, Gu J, Andersson LS, Barrett E, Davis CR, Mikko S, Stock F, Voronkova V, Bradley DG, Fahey AG, Lindgren G....Selective breeding for speed in the racehorse has resulted in an unusually high frequency of the C-variant (g.66493737C/T) at the myostatin gene (MSTN) in cohorts of the Thoroughbred horse population that are best suited to sprint racing. Here we show using a combination of molecular- and pedigree-based approaches in 593 horses from 22 Eurasian and North-American horse populations, museum specimens from 12 historically important Thoroughbred stallions (b.1764-1930), 330 elite-performing modern Thoroughbreds and 42 samples from three other equid species that the T-allele was ancestral and there...
Coli A, Nocchi F, Lamanna R, Iorio M, Lapi S, Urciuoli P, Scatena F, Giannessi E, Stornelli MR, Passeri S.The amnion is a particular tissue whose cells show features of multipotent stem cells proposed for use in cellular therapy and regenerative medicine. From equine amnion collected after the foal birth we have isolated MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells), namely EAMSCs (equine amnion mesenchymal stem cells), from the mesoblastic layer. The cells were grown in α-MEM (α-modified minimum essential medium) and the effect of EGF (epidermal growth factor) supplementation was evaluated. To assess the growth kinetic of EAMSCs we have taken into account some parameters [PD (population doubling), fold increas...
Caetano AR, Pomp D, Murray JD, Bowling AT.Polymerase chain reaction primers designed from horse cDNA sequences and from consensus sequences highly conserved in mammalian species were used to amplify markers for synteny mapping 18 equine type I genes. These markers were used to screen a horse-mouse somatic cell hybrid panel (UCDavis SCH). Fourteen primer sets amplified horse-specific fragments, while restriction enzyme digests of PCR products were used to distinguish the fragments amplified from horse and mouse with four primer sets. Synteny assignments were made based on correlation values between each marker tested and other markers ...
Naylor JM.The purpose of this review is to present an up-to-date summary of the signs, diagnosis, treatment, and implications of equine hyperkalemic periodic paralysis. The review encompasses all original articles published between 1986 and early 1993. Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis is the result of a genetic mutation in the skeletal muscle sodium channel gene. It is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait; most affected horses are heterozygotes. The classical signs are muscle fasciculation, spasm, and weakness associated with hyperkalemia. However, these signs are only rarely observed in affected hor...
Netherwood T, Wood JL, Mumford JA, Chanter N.During an epidemiological study of foal diarrhoea, over half of the cases yielded Clostridium perfringens which was significantly associated with disease (Netherwood et al., 1996b). However, the association could not be accounted for by enterotoxigenic isolates which had a low prevalence (Netherwood et al., 1997). Nonetheless, we have hypothesized that the association may be caused by a pathogenic sub-population which would be significantly more common amongst C. perfringens-positive cases compared with C. perfringens-positive healthy controls if it acted as a pathogen when present. Conversely...
The Journal of heredityAugust 26, 2021
Volume 112, Issue 5 436-442 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esab034
Cieslak J, Brooks SA, Wodas L, Mantaj W, Borowska A, Sliwowska JH, Ziarniak K, Mackowski M.Only the blue dun coat color, produced by the action of the dun allele on the background of a black base coat, is officially permitted in the Polish primitive horse (PPH, Konik) breed, yet the population is not visually homogenous and various coat color shades occur. Herein, the molecular background of PPH coat color was studied based on genotyping of known causative variants in equine coat color-related genes (ASIP, MC1R, TBX3, SLC36A1, SLC45A2, PMEL17, and RALY). Additionally, screening for the new polymorphisms was conducted for the ASIP gene coding sequence and the TBX3 1.6-kb insert (asso...
The Journal of heredityMarch 1, 1991
Volume 82, Issue 2 167-169 doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a111053
Woolf CM.Common white facial and leg markings have a multifactorial mode of inheritance in Equus caballus. Evidence for the complexity of the genetic component is the observation that chestnut (e/e) horses have more extensive white markings than do bay (E/-) horses. Computerized records obtained from the Arabian Horse Registry of America, Inc., were used to determine if heterozygous (E/e) bay horses have more extensive white facial markings than do homozygous (E/E) bay horses. Thirty-five sire families were analyzed. Each sire family consists of a sire, his foals, and the dams of those foals. The facia...
Merkl M, Ertl R, Handschuh S, Aurich C, Schäfer-Somi S.In the present study, we assessed the presence of the ATP-binding-cassette (ABC) transporter molecules ABCA1 in spermatozoa of adult stallions and in testicular and epididymal tissue of prepubertal and adult stallions. For this purpose, semen samples from six fertile Shetland pony stallions aged 4 to 19 years were collected. Semen was collected from each stallion on three consecutive days. Ejaculates were analyzed immediately after collection, and only ejaculates meeting minimal requirements for fertile stallions were further evaluated. ABCA1 immunosignal was localized after staining of semen ...
Stephano MA, Guidolin R, Higashi HG, Tambourgi DV, Sant'Anna OA.The main features associated with pit viper envenomations include the intense local lesions such as oedema, necrosis, acute renal failure and other effects. The severity of these reactions to snakebite depends on the degree of envenomation. Lachesis muta venom (LMV) has weak lethal activity, but due to the large amount often inoculated, the effects are extremely severe and demand anti-venom with a high neutralizing capacity. LMV had the lowest neutralizing antibody induction capacity in horses when compared with that of other venoms. For example, Bothrops anti-venom serum neutralizes 180 times...
Poelaert KCK, Van Cleemput J, Laval K, Xie J, Favoreel HW, Nauwynck HJ.The ancestral equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1), closely related to human herpes viruses, exploits leukocytes to reach its target organs, accordingly evading the immune surveillance system. Circulating EHV1 strains can be divided into abortigenic/neurovirulent, causing reproductive/neurological disorders. Neurovirulent EHV1 more efficiently recruits monocytic CD172a cells to the upper respiratory tract (URT), while abortigenic EHV1 tempers monocyte migration. Whether similar results could be expected for T lymphocytes is not known. Therefore, we questioned whether differences in T cell recruitment c...
Mancill SS, Blodgett G, Arnott RJ, Alvarenga M, Love CC, Hinrichs K.3 sets of monozygotic twins resulting from transfers of single embryos to recipient mares were examined. Results: In all 3 recipient mares with twin pregnancies, only 1 embryonic vesicle was detected before day 25 of gestation. In 1 recipient mare, 2 apparent adjacent vesicles, each containing an embryo with a heartbeat, were visualized on ultrasonographic examination on day 37 of gestation. The other 2 recipient mares underwent ultrasonographic examination on day 30 of gestation, at which time only 1 vesicle and embryo was identified. In these latter 2 recipient mares, however, a thorough ult...
Musiał AD, Ropka-Molik K, Piórkowska K, Jaworska J, Stefaniuk-Szmukier M.In horses, the identification of the genetic background of phenotypic variation, especially with regard to performance characteristics and predisposition to effort, has been extensively studied. As α-actinin-3 function is related to the regulation of muscle contraction and cell metabolism, the ACTN3 gene is considered one of the main genetic factors determining muscle strength. The aim of the present study was to assess the genotype distribution of two SNP variants within the equine ACTN3 gene (g.1104G > A and c.2334C > T) across different utility types and horse breeds. The ana...
Warner SL, Boggs J, Lee JK, Reddy S, Banes M, Cooley J.Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from the blood, lungs, and liver of a 5-week-old American Quarter Horse filly that presented with a 2-day history of fever, lethargy, ataxia, and seizure activity. The foal was born on a well-managed breeding facility to a multiparous mare with no periparturient complications. At 8 hr of age, the foal had an adequate passive transfer of immunity (immunoglobulin G > 2,000 mg/dl). Since the time of birth, the foal reportedly had mild, intermittent diarrhea that responded to gastrointestinal protectants and probiotics. Despite prompt and aggressive treatment af...
Matczuk AK, Skarbek M, Jackulak NA, Bażanów BA.Equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) is one of the main infectious causative agents of abortion in mares and can also be associated with stillbirth, neonatal foal death, rhinopneumonitis in young horses and a neurological disorder called equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM). The neuropathogenicity of the virus was shown to be significantly higher in EHV-1 strains that carry a single nucleotide point (SNP) mutation in the ORF30, which encodes a catalytic subunit of viral DNA polymerase (ORF30 D). Another gene, ORF68 is frequently used for phylogenetic analysis of EHV-1. 27 EHV-1 strains iso...
Morgan R, Keen J, Halligan D, O'Callaghan A, Andrew R, Livingstone D, Abernethie A, Maltese G, Walker B, Hadoke P.Glucocorticoids are potent inhibitors of angiogenesis in the rodent in vivo and in vitro but the mechanism by which this occurs has not been determined. Administration of glucocorticoids is used to treat a number of conditions in horses but the angiogenic response of equine vessels to glucocorticoids and, therefore, the potential role of glucocorticoids in pathogenesis and treatment of equine disease, is unknown. This study addressed the hypothesis that glucocorticoids would be angiostatic both in equine and murine blood vessels.The mouse aortic ring model of angiogenesis was adapted to assess...
Tully LJ, Murphy AM, Smith RK, Hulin-Curtis SL, Verheyen KL, Price JS.To explore whether genetic susceptibility is a potential risk factor for superficial digital flexor (SDF) tendinopathy in Thoroughbred (TB) racehorses. Objective: To identify informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that capture genetic diversity across a range of candidate genes and to investigate, in a case-control study, their association with SDF tendinopathy in UK National Hunt TB racehorses in training. Methods: Case-control candidate gene association study. Methods: This study used in silico gene assembly and DNA sequencing to screen candidate genes for SNPs. Seven candidate g...
Dik KJ, van den Broek J.From progeny lists of 30 Dutch Warmblood sires, 586 3-year-old females by these stallions were randomly selected, each progeny group aimed at 20 animals for statistical reasons. The front feet of the sires and female progeny were examined radiographically using lateromedial and dorsopalmar upright pedal projections. The radiological features associated with navicular disease were classified 0-4 using a standardised classification, grades 3 and 4 representing the more severe changes. The shape of the proximal articular border of the navicular bone outline on the dorsopalmar view was classified ...
Proverbio D, Perego R, Baggiani L, Ferrucci F, Zucca E, Nobile F, Spada E.A knowledge of the blood groups and alloantibodies present is essential for the safe transfusion of blood products in horses. Pre-transfusion screening and blood typing minimizes the risk of incompatible RBC transfusions and prevents immunization of the recipient against incompatible RBC antigens. The frequencies of blood groups can vary among different breeds. Knowledge of a breed's blood group prevalence can be very useful for identifying the best blood donors during transfusion in clinical practice. The aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of the Ca blood type in horses from I...
Tonpitak W, Pathomsakulwong W, Sornklien C, Krajaejun T, Wutthiwithayaphong S.Pythiosis is caused by , a fungus-like organism in the class . It can infect humans and a variety of animal species in tropical, subtropical and some temperate regions. Cases of animal pythiosis have occurred predominantly in horses in the skin and subcutaneous tissue at the limbs and in the ventral portion of thoracoabdominal wall - lesions in the nasal region are rarely reported. Moreover, although many human pythiosis cases have been reported in Thailand, no cases of animal pythiosis in Thailand have been reported. Methods: We report a case of pythiosis in a horse infected at the nasal cavi...
Hinrichs K, Williams KA.Horse oocytes with expanded (EX) cumuli appear to have greater meiotic competence than do horse oocytes with compact (CP) cumuli but are thought to come from atretic follicles. We evaluated the relationships among cumulus expansion, follicle viability, initial chromatin configuration, and meiotic competence of horse oocytes. Follicle walls were sectioned for histological examination, and the follicles were scraped to obtain the oocytes. Half of the oocytes were evaluated immediately and half were matured for 24 h in vitro. Cumulus expansion was significantly associated with follicle atresia. I...
Kozai K, Tokuyama S, Szóstek AZ, Toishi Y, Tsunoda N, Taya K, Sakatani M, Takahashi M, Nambo Y, Skarzynski DJ, Yamamoto Y, Kimura K, Okuda K.In mares, prostaglandin F2α (PGF2α) secreted from the endometrium is a major luteolysin. Some domestic animals have an auto-amplification system in which PGF2α can stimulate its own production. Here, we investigated whether this is also the case in mares. In an in vivo study, mares at the mid-luteal phase (days 6-8 of estrous cycle) were injected i.m. with cloprostenol (250 µg) and blood samples were collected at fixed intervals until 72 h after treatment. Progesterone (P4) concentrations started decreasing 45 min after the injection and continued to decrease up to 24 h (P < 0.05). In t...
Todd EW.Antiproteinase sera were prepared by immunizing horses with filtrates from a selected strain of group A streptococcus. This strain, which produced high titred proteinase but no erythrogenic toxin, was selected from forty-two strains of group A streptococci which produced varying amounts of proteinase. A few strains belonging to groups B, C, and G were also tested; they were all proteinase-negative. Methods are described for titrating streptococcal proteinase in crude culture filtrates and for measuring the antiproteinase activity of serum. The antiproteinase titres of sera from immunized horse...
Voß K, Tetens J, Thaller G, Becker D.Roan (Rn) horses show a typical seasonal change of color. Their body is covered with colored and white hair. We performed a descriptive statistical analysis of breeding records of Icelandic horses to challenge the hypothesis of roan being lethal in utero under homozygous condition. The roan to non-roan ratio of foals from roan × roan matings revealed homozygous roan Icelandic horses to be viable. Even though roan is known to be inherited in a dominant mode and epistatic to other coat colors, the causative mutation is still unknown. Nevertheless, an association between roan phenotype and the K...
Lee SK, Park D, Lee I.Equine parvovirus-hepatitis (EqPV-H) causes equine hepatitis. The prevalence of EqPV-H in healthy horses has been reported in the United States, China, Germany, and Austria. The present study determined the prevalence of EqPV-H in the sera of clinically healthy horses in South Korea to identify the potential factors for infection and examine the genetic diversity of EqPV-H DNA sequences through comparison with foreign strains. Serum samples collected from 321 horses were tested for EqPV-H using non-structural protein 1 (NS1)-specific polymerase chain reaction. The associations of EqPV-H infect...
Asadollahpour Nanaei H, Ayatollahi Mehrgardi A, Esmailizadeh A.Equine athletes have a genetic heritage that has been evolved for millions of years, which provides an opportunity to study the genetics of locomotion pattern and performance in mammals. The Hanoverian, a breed originating in Germany, is arguably among the most athletic of horse breeds, as well as possessing a balanced character and beautiful appearance. Here, we compared the whole genomes of Hanoverian with three other horse breeds (Akhal-Teke, Franches-Montagnes, and Standardbred), using the fixation index (Fst) and cross-population composite likelihood ratio (XP-CLR) methods for testing the...
Arai K, Tagami M, Hatazoe T, Nishimatsu E, Shimizu Y, Fujiki M, Misumi K.We investigated the relationship between cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP) levels in synovial fluid (SF), serum and urine and the development of osteochondral damage and osteophyte (OP) formation following intraarticular fractures of the carpus in racehorses in order to assess the clinical usefulness of COMP as a diagnostic biomarker of developmental osteoarthritis (OA). Two monoclonal antibodies (mAb clones 2A11 and 3C8) raised against equine COMP were shown to be capable of detecting the molecule in serum and urine as well as SF. Fifty-one samples were obtained from 26 OP-positive (...
Jindra C, Hainisch EK, Rümmele A, Wolschek M, Muster T, Brandt S.Bovine papillomaviruses types 1 and 2 (BPV1, BPV2) commonly induce skin tumours termed sarcoids in horses and other equids. Sarcoids seriously compromise the health and welfare of affected individuals due to their propensity to resist treatment and reoccur in a more severe form. We have developed influenza (Flu) A and B virus vectors that harbour a truncated NS1 gene (iNS) assuring interferon induction and co-express shuffled BPV1 E6 and E7 antigens for sarcoid immunotherapy. In a safety trial involving 12 healthy horses, intradermal administration of iNSA/E6E7equ and iNSB/E6E7equ was well tol...
Wnuk M, Bugno-Poniewierska M, Lewinska A, Oklejewicz B, Zabek T, Bartosz G, Słota E.Recently, the old horse has been proposed as a model to study telomere-dependent senescence, immunosenescence and inflamm-aging. In the present paper, we used 80 Hucul and Anglo-Arabian horses divided into 3 age groups (juvenile, adult, old) to evaluate age-dependent changes at the genomic and DNA level and in cell proliferative potential. The level of positive TUNEL cells (both apoptotic and with DNA fragmentation), oxidative DNA damage (8-oxoG immunostaining), sister chromatid exchange and bleomycin-induced chromatid breaks were significantly increased in the combined old group compared to t...
Viklund A, Näsholm A, Strandberg E, Philipsson J.For Swedish Warmblood sport horses, breeding values (BVs) are predicted using a multiple-trait animal model with results from competitions and young horse performance tests. Data go back to the beginning of the 1970s, and earlier studies have indicated that some of the recorded traits have changed through the years. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of including all performance data or excluding the older ones compared to a bivariate model (BM) considering performance traits in early and late periods as separate traits. The bivariate approach was assumed to give the mo...
Arata AB, Cooke CL, Jang SS, Hirsh DC.It is difficult to distinguish isolates of Taylorella equigenitalis, the cause of contagious equine metritis, from a T. equigenitalis-like organism isolated from asymptomatic donkeys and horses. Although T. equigenitalis is responsible for a severe, contagious disease of the reproductive tract of equids, the T. equigenitalis-like organism, although contagious, does not appear to produce disease. Because of the economic consequences of correctly distinguishing isolates of these 2 microorganisms, a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay was developed that will distinguish isolates of T. equ...
Bartolomé E, Goyache F, Molina A, Cervantes I, Valera M, Gutiérrez JP.A method to quantify the contribution of subpopulations to genetic diversity in the whole population was assessed using pedigree information. The standardization of between- and within-subpopulation mean coancestries was developed to account for the different coat colour subpopulation sizes in the Spanish Purebred (SPB) horse population. The data included 166264 horses registered in the SPB Studbook. Animals born in the past 11 years (1996 to 2006) were selected as the 'reference population' and were grouped according to coat colour into eight subpopulations: grey (64 836 animals), bay (33 633...
