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.
Smith AV, Wilson C, McComb K, Proops L.In the original publication, data availability text was incorrectly published. The correct text should read as below.
Brom-de-Luna JG, Canesin HS, Wright G, Hinrichs K.Nuclear transfer using somatic cells from frozen semen (FzSC) would allow cloning of animals for which no other genetic material is available. Horses are one of the few species for which cloning is commercially feasible; despite this, there is no information available on the culture of equine FzSC. After preliminary trials on equine FzSC, recovered by density-gradient centrifugation, resulted in no growth, we hypothesized that sperm in the culture system negatively affected cell proliferation. Therefore, we evaluated culture of FzSC isolated using fluorescence-assisted cell sorting. In Exp. 1,...
Ferrari CR, Cooley J, Mujahid N, Costa LR, Wills RW, Johnson ME, Swiderski CE.Severe equine asthma, formerly recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), is the horse counterpart of human asthma, affecting horses maintained indoors in continental climates. Equine pasture asthma, formerly summer pasture RAO, is clinically similar but affects grazing horses during hot, humid conditions in the southeastern United States and United Kingdom. To advance translational relevance of equine pasture asthma to human asthma, histologic features of airway remodeling in human asthma were scored in lung lobes from 15 pasture asthma-affected and 9 control horses of mixed breeds. All noncartilagi...
Lee W, Park KD, Taye M, Lee C, Kim H, Lee HK, Shin D.This study was intended to identify genes positively selected in Thoroughbred horses (THBs) that potentially contribute to their running performances. Methods: The genomes of THB and Jeju horses (JH, Korean native horse) were compared to identify genes positively selected in THB. We performed cross-population extended haplotype homozygosity (XP-EHH) and cross-population composite likelihood ratio test (XP-CLR) statistical methods for our analysis using whole genome resequencing data of 14 THB and 6 JH. Results: We identified 98 (XP-EHH) and 200 (XP-CLR) genes that are under positive selection ...
Hussein H, Boyaka P, Dulin J, Russell D, Smanik L, Azab M, Bertone AL.Selective inhibition of Cathepsin K (CatK) has a promising therapeutic potential for diseases associated with bone loss and osseous inflammation, such as osteoarthritis, periodontitis, and osteoporosis. In horses, stress-related bone injuries are common and accompanied by bone pain and inflammation resulting in excessive bone resorption and periostitis. VEL-0230 is a highly selective inhibitor of CatK that significantly decreased bone resorption and increased bone formation biomarkers. The goal of this study was to demonstrate the presence of CatK in equine bone and a simultaneous influence on...
Tesena P, Korchunjit W, Taylor J, Wongtawan T.Gastric tissue biopsy and gene expression analysis are important tools for disease diagnosis and study of the physiology of the equine stomach. However, RNA extraction from gastric biopsy samples is a complex procedure because the samples contain low quantities of RNA and are contaminated with mucous protein and bacterial flora. The objectives of these studies were to compare the performance of RNA extraction methods and to investigate the sensitivity of commercial qPCR master mixes for gene expression analysis of gastric biopsy samples. Three commercial RNA extraction methods (TRIzol, GENEzol...
Ishikawa S, Horinouchi C, Mizoguchi R, Senokuchi A, Kamikakimoto R, Murata D, Hatazoe T, Tozaki T, Misumi K, Hobo S.The sizes of Japanese native horses have drastically decreased, and protection of these populations is important for Japanese horse culture. Social trials as well as scientific attempts are necessary for maintaining the breed. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have potential as a cell source for various cell therapies. However, there have been no reports on MSCs of Japanese native horses. We aimed to isolate and characterize MSCs from a Japanese native horse, the Noma horse. Plastic-adherent and self-replicating cells were isolated from a Noma horse's peripheral blood (PB). The isolated cells had ...
Tozaki T, Kikuchi M, Kakoi H, Hirota KI, Nagata SI.Body weight is an important trait to confirm growth and development in humans and animals. In Thoroughbred racehorses, it is measured in the postnatal, training, and racing periods to evaluate growth and training degrees. The body weight of mature Thoroughbred racehorses generally ranges from 400 to 600 kg, and this broad range is likely influenced by environmental and genetic factors. Therefore, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using the Equine SNP70 BeadChip was performed to identify the genomic regions associated with body weight in Japanese Thoroughbred racehorses using 851 individua...
Caldwell M, Hathcock T, Brock KV.In this study, equine source polyclonal anti-Bacillus anthracis immunoglobulins were generated and utilized to demonstrate passive protection of mice in a lethal challenge assay. Four horses were hyper-immunized with B. anthracis Sterne strain for approximately one year. The geometric mean anti-PA titer in the horses at maximal response following immunization was 1:77,936 (Log2 mean titer 16.25, SEM ± 0.25 95% CI [15.5 -17.0]). The geometric mean neutralizing titer at maximal response was 1:128 (Log2 mean titer 7, SEM ± 0.0, 95% CI 7). Treatment with hyper-immune plasma or purified immun...
Gershwin LJ.There are many autoimmune diseases that are recognized in domestic animals. The descriptions of diseases provide examples of the magnitude of immune targets and the variable nature of autoimmune diseases. Other autoimmune diseases that are recognized in dogs, cats, and horses include immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, VKH (Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada) ocular disease (dogs), and Evans syndrome (which includes both immune-mediated anemia and immune-mediated thrombocytopenia).
Pacholewska A, Kraft MF, Gerber V, Jagannathan V.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate post-transcriptional gene expression and may be exported from cells via exosomes or in partnership with RNA-binding proteins. MiRNAs in body fluids can act in a hormone-like manner and play important roles in disease initiation and progression. Hence, miRNAs are promising candidates as biomarkers. To identify serum miRNA biomarkers in the equine model of asthma we investigated small RNA derived from the serum of 34 control and 37 asthmatic horses. These samples were used for next generation sequencing, novel miRNA identification and differential miRNA expression ana...
Farries G, McGettigan PA, Gough KF, McGivney BA, MacHugh DE, Katz LM, Hill EW.Adaptation to early training and racing (i.e. precocity), which is highly variable in racing Thoroughbreds, has implications for the selection and training of horses. We hypothesised that precocity in Thoroughbred racehorses is heritable. Age at first sprint training session (work day), age at first race and age at best race were used as phenotypes to quantify precocity. Using high-density SNP array data, additive SNP heritability (hSNP2) was estimated to be 0.17, 0.14 and 0.17 for the three traits respectively. In genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for age at first race and age at best ra...
Burger D, Thomas S, Aepli H, Dreyer M, Fabre G, Marti E, Sieme H, Robinson MR, Wedekind C.Genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have been shown to influence social signalling and mate preferences in many species, including humans. First observations suggest that MHC signalling may also affect female fertility. To test this hypothesis, we exposed 191 female horses () to either an MHC-similar or an MHC-dissimilar stimulus male around the time of ovulation and conception. A within-subject experimental design controlled for non-MHC-linked male characteristics, and instrumental insemination with semen of other males ( = 106) controlled for potential confounding effects of ...
Conley AJ, Scholtz EL, Dujovne G, Cotterman RF, Legacki EL, Uliani RC, Alvarenga MA, Ball BA, Kalra B, Savjani GV, Kumar A.Studies in mares have examined serum inhibin concentrations using immuno-assays unable to distinguish dimeric inhibin-A from inhibin-B isoforms. Inhibin-A and inhibin-B immuno-assays were used to investigate concentrations in cyclic mares, young and old (6 vs 19 years old, respectively) mares following hemi-ovariectomy, mares during pregnancy and in mares with confirmed granulosa cell tumors (GCTs). Mares with inter-ovulatory intervals of 26 days had ovulatory peaks of inhibin-A averaging 80 pg/mL with a mid-cycle nadir of 5 pg/mL. Inhibin-A and inhibin-B concentrations were highly correlate...
Nixon AJ, Sparks HD, Begum L, McDonough S, Scimeca MS, Moran N, Matthews GL.Autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) using a collagen scaffold (matrix-induced ACI; MACI) is a next-generation approach to traditional ACI that provides the benefit of autologous cells and guided tissue regeneration using a biocompatible collagen scaffold. The MACI implant also has inherent advantages including surgical implantation via arthroscopy or miniarthrotomy, the elimination of periosteal harvest, and the use of tissue adhesive in lieu of sutures. This study evaluated the efficacy of the MACI implant in an equine full-thickness cartilage defect model at 1 year. Methods: Autologous...
Ruggeri E, DeLuca KF, Galli C, Lazzari G, DeLuca JG, Stokes JE, Carnevale EM.Confocal microscopy was used to image stages of equine zygote development, at timed intervals, after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) of oocytes that were matured in vivo or in vitro. After fixation for 4, 6, 8, 12, or 16 h after ICSI, zygotes were incubated with α/β tubulin antibodies and human anticentromere antibody (CREST/ACA), washed, incubated in secondary antibodies, conjugated to either Alexa 488 or Alexa 647, and incubated with 561-Phalloidin and Hoechst 33258. An Olympus IX81 spinning disk confocal microscope was used for imaging. Data were analyzed using χ 2 and Fisher's e...
Dini P, Loux SC, Scoggin KE, Esteller-Vico A, Squires EL, Troedsson MHT, Daels P, Ball BA.MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have important posttranscriptional regulatory abilities, and there is considerable interest in evaluating their expression patterns in different pathophysiological states. The most common method of quantifying miRNA expression is quantitative reverse transcription PCR; however, the identification of tissue-specific and species-specific reference miRNA is a prerequisite for miRNA expression analysis. Currently, no reference genes have been described for evaluating miRNA expression in equine serum and chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) during pregnancy. The aim of the present stud...
Li C, White SH, Warren LK, Wohlgemuth SE.Aging is associated with decreased mitochondrial content and function in skeletal muscle, possibly due to compromised biogenesis and autophagic removal of dysfunctional mitochondria. The aim of this study was to compare markers of mitochondrial content and biogenesis and of autophagy between skeletal muscle from young and aged American Quarter Horses. Citrate synthase protein and mtDNA copy number were decreased in triceps brachii (TB) muscle (P<0.05) from aged horses, suggesting an age-related decline in mitochondrial content. Concomitantly, mRNA expression of PGC-1α and TFAM, regulators ...
Maciel LFS, Silva ESM, Oliveira-Filho JP, Fritsch SC, Rossi RS, Lourenção JAC, Meira C.Administration of progesterone (P4) after estradiol is usually performed to prepare non-cyclic mares as embryo recipients. However, there are successful pregnancy reports after embryo transfer in non-cyclic mares treated only with progestins. The objective of this study was to evaluate endometrial gene expression and immunostaining for estrogen receptor alpha (ERα), beta (ERβ) and progesterone receptor (PR) in seasonal anestrous mares treated with long acting P4 (LA P4). Endometrial tissue from eight seasonal anestrous mares was collected immediately before administration of 1.5 g of LA P4 ...
Salamone DF, Canel NG, Rodríguez MB.Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has become a useful technique for clinical applications in the horse-breeding industry. However, both ICSI blastocyst and offspring production continues to be limited for most farm and wild species. This article reviews technical differences of ICSI performance among species, possible biological and methodological reasons for the variable efficiency and potential strategies to improve the outcomes. One of the major applications of ICSI in animal production is the reproduction of high-value specimens. Unfortunately, some domestic species like the bovine s...
Ketchum CC, Larsen CD, McNeil A, Meyer-Ficca ML, Meyer RG.Chromatin remodeling during spermatogenesis culminates in the exchange of nucleosomes for transition proteins and protamines as an important part of spermatid development to give rise to healthy sperm. Comparative immunofluorescence analyses of equine and murine testis histological sections were used to characterize nucleoprotein exchange in the stallion. Histone H4 hyperacetylation is considered a key event of histone removal during the nucleoprotein transition to a protamine-based sperm chromatin structure. In the stallion, but not the mouse, H4 was already highly acetylated in lysine residu...
Rooney MF, Porter RK, Katz LM, Hill EW.Variation in the myostatin (MSTN) gene has been reported to be associated with race distance, body composition and skeletal muscle fibre composition in the horse. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that MSTN variation influences mitochondrial phenotypes in equine skeletal muscle. Mitochondrial abundance and skeletal muscle fibre types were measured in whole muscle biopsies from the gluteus medius of n = 82 untrained (21 ± 3 months) Thoroughbred horses. Skeletal muscle fibre type proportions were significantly (p < 0.01) different among the three MSTN genotypes and mito...
Gershwin LJ.Vaccines are important for providing protection from infectious diseases. Vaccination initiates a process that stimulates development of a robust and long-lived immune response to the disease agents in the vaccine. Side effects are sometimes associated with vaccination. These vary from development of acute hypersensitivity responses to vaccine components to local tissue reactions that are annoying but not significantly detrimental to the patient. The pathogenesis of these responses and the consequent clinical outcomes are discussed. Overstimulation of the immune response and the potential rela...
Declining populations of the three native breeds of heavy horse in the UK has prompted a charity appeal for support to preserve valuable genetic material. Kathryn Clark reports.
Heintzman PD, Zazula GD, MacPhee R, Scott E, Cahill JA, McHorse BK, Kapp JD, Stiller M, Wooller MJ, Orlando L, Southon J, Froese DG, Shapiro B.The extinct 'New World stilt-legged', or NWSL, equids constitute a perplexing group of Pleistocene horses endemic to North America. Their slender distal limb bones resemble those of Asiatic asses, such as the Persian onager. Previous palaeogenetic studies, however, have suggested a closer relationship to caballine horses than to Asiatic asses. Here, we report complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomes from NWSL equids from across their geographic range. Although multiple NWSL equid species have been named, our palaeogenomic and morphometric analyses support the idea that there was only...
Peckle M, Pires MS, Silva CBD, Costa RLD, Vitari GLV, Senra MVX, Dias RJP, Santos HA, Massard CL.Theileria equi is one of the etiologic agents of the equine piroplasmosis. This infectious disease is transmitted by ticks and is a worldwide problem in the international horse movement. The 18S rRNA gene of T. equi is often used for genotyping and phylogenetic purpose. This study aimed to analyze the degree of the heterogeneity of the 18S rRNA gene of T. equi in horses from the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The complete T. equi 18S rRNA sequences were obtained from twenty naturally infected horses. The PCR amplicons were cloned and sequenced. The phylogenetic analyses were performed using ...
Yang H, Xiao Y, Meng F, Sun F, Chen M, Cheng Z, Chen Y, Liu S, Chen H.Equine influenza virus is a major respiratory pathogen in horses. Although both horses and donkeys belong to the genus Equus, donkey infection with influenza viruses is rare. In March 2017, an influenza outbreak occurred in donkeys in Shandong province, China. The causative virus, A/donkey/Shandong/1/2017(H3N8), was isolated from a dead donkey. Genetic analysis indicated that the virus originated from influenza A (H3N8) clade 2 of the Florida sub-lineage that has been circulating in Asian equine populations. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of the HA gene of this causative virus w...
Aleman M, Finno CJ, Weich K, Penedo MCT.The carrier status of lavender foal syndrome (LFS), cerebellar abiotrophy (CA), severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), and occipitoatlantoaxial malformation (OAAM1) in foals with juvenile idiopathic epilepsy (JIE) is unknown. Objective: To determine the carrier status of LFS, CA, SCID, and OAAM1 in foals with JIE. Methods: Ten foals with JIE. Methods: Archived DNA samples were tested for known genetic mutations causing LFS, CA, SCID, and OAAM1. The inclusion criteria consisted of having been diagnosed with JIE by ruling out other causes of seizures in foals and supported by electroencephalog...
Covaleda L, Fuller FJ, Payne SL.Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) infection is distinctive in that it causes a rapid onset of clinical disease relative to other retroviruses. In order to understand the interaction dynamics between EIAV and the host immune response, we explored the effects of EIAV and its S2 protein in the regulation of the cytokine and chemokine response in macrophages. EIAV infection markedly altered the expression pattern of a variety of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines monitored in the study. Comparative studies in the cytokine response between EIAV(17) and EIAV(17DeltaS2) infection revealed ...
Zheng YH, Sentsui H, Kono Y, Ikuta K.An attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), named V26, was previously obtained after 50 passages of the Japanese virulent strain V70 in primary macrophage culture. To clarify the differences between both viruses, their full-length sequences were determined. There were higher mutations in S2 (6.15% amino acid difference) and LTR (10.7% nucleotide difference). The presumed initiation codon of the S2 gene was absent from the sequence of V26. There was a large insertion within the long-terminal repeat (LTR) U3 hypervariable region of V26. In addition, there were minor mutations in gag (1....
Radcliffe PA, Sion CJ, Wilkes FJ, Custard EJ, Beard GL, Kingsman SM, Mitrophanous KA.Effective gene therapy for haemophilia A necessitates a vector system that is not subject to a pre-existing immune response, has adequate coding capacity, gives long-term expression and preferably can target non-dividing cells. Vector systems based on lentiviruses such as equine infectious anaemia virus (EIAV) fulfil these criteria for the delivery of factor VIII (FVIII). We have found that B domain-deleted (BDD) FVIII protein inhibits functional viral particle production when co-expressed with the EIAV vector system. Although particle numbers (as measured by reverse transcriptase activity) ar...
McManus DP, Smyth JD.Extracts of the horse and sheep strains of Echinococcus granulosus and E. multilocularis were compared on the basis of their isoenzyme patterns for 10 enzymes by means of isoelectric focusing in polyacrylamide gels. The enzymes examined were: acid phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase, malic enzyme, phosphoglucoseisomerase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, adenylate kinase, aldolase and alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase. Interspecific and intraspecific differences are apparent in the isoenzyme profiles of all the enzymes except adenylate kinase; the pattern and activity of adeny...
Tözsér J, Friedman D, Weber IT, Bláha I, Oroszlan S.The proteinase of the equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV), a lentivirus closely related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), was purified from concentrated virus. The specificity of the enzyme was characterized using oligopeptides representing naturally occurring cleavage sites in the Gag and Gag-Pol polyproteins. The length of the substrate binding pocket was found to be 1-2 residues longer than that of HIV proteinases. Although the EIAV and HIV proteinases cleaved most of the peptides at the same bond, some were hydrolyzed by only the EIAV enzyme. Oligopeptides representing cleavage site...
Hisey E, Ross PJ, Meyers SA.OCT4 is a core transcription factor involved in pluripotency maintenance in the early mammalian embryo. The POU5F1 gene that encodes the OCT4 protein is highly conserved across species, suggesting conserved function. However, studies in several species including mice, cattle, and pigs, suggest that there are differences in where and when OCT4 is expressed. Specifically, in the horse, several studies have shown that exposure to the uterine environment may be necessary to induce OCT4 expression restriction to the inner cell mass (ICM) of the developing embryo, suggesting that there may be equine...
Pusterla N, Gebhart C.Equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) is a disease of foals caused by the obligate intracellular organism Lawsonia intracellularis. This organism is unique in that it causes proliferation of infected enterocytes, resulting in thickening of the intestinal epithelium, most often the small intestine. This disease affects mainly weanling foals and causes fever, lethargy, peripheral edema, diarrhea, colic and weight loss. The diagnosis of EPE may be challenging and relies on the presence of hypoproteinemia, thickening of segments of the small intestinal wall observed on abdominal ultrasonography, ...
Johnson ACB, Biddle AS.Cyathostomins are a multispecies parasite ubiquitous in Equids. Cyathostomins have developed resistance to all but one class of anthelmintics, but species-level sensitivity to anthelmintics has not been shown. This study measured reinfection rates of cyathostomin species following the administration of three commercial dewormers. Nine treated horses were compared with 90 untreated controls during June-September 2017-2019. Ivermectin (IVM) (n = 6), Moxidectin (MOX) (n = 8) or Pyrantel (PYR) (n = 8) were orally administered. Fecal samples were collected every 14 d for 98 d. Fecal egg count reduc...
Ball BA, Little TV, Weber JA, Woods GL.The estimated embryonic loss rate between Days 4 and 14 after ovulation for young, normal mares (9%) was significantly lower (P less than 0.01) than the estimated embryonic loss rate for aged subfertile mares (62%). Fertilization rates, which were based on the recovery of embryos at Day 4 after ovulation, were 96% and 81% (P less than 0.1) for normal and subfertile mares, respectively. Day-4 embryos were collected from the oviducts of normal and subfertile donors mares. These embryos were transferred to the uteri of synchronized, normal recipient mares to test the hypothesis that the high inci...
Tozaki T, Ohnuma A, Takasu M, Nakamura K, Kikuchi M, Ishige T, Kakoi H, Hirora KI, Tamura N, Kusano K, Nagata SI.Gene doping has raised concerns in human and equestrian sports and the horseracing industry. There are two possible types of gene doping in the sports and racing industry: (1) administration of a gene-doping substance to postnatal animals and (2) generation of genetically engineered animals by modifying eggs. In this study, we aimed to identify genetically engineered animals by whole-genome resequencing (WGR) for gene-doping control. Transgenic cell lines, in which the erythropoietin gene (EPO) cDNA form was inserted into the genome of horse fibroblasts, were constructed as a model of genetica...
Richard F, Messaoudi C, Lombard M, Dutrillaux B.Using human chromosome painting probes, we looked for homologies between human and mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae, Equidae, Perissodactyla) karyotypes. Except for two very short segments, all euchromatic regions were found to have a human homologous chromosome segment. Conserved syntenies previously described in various mammalian orders were detected. Each synteny corresponded to a chromosomal region homologous to two parts of human chromosomes: HSA3 and HSA21, HSA7 and HSA16, HSA12 and HSA22, and HSA16 and HSA19. Chromosomal segments homologous to a part of HSA11 and HSA19p are found ...
Godard S, Schibler L, Oustry A, Cribiu EP, Guérin G.A horse BAC library was constructed with about 40,000 clones and mean insert size of 110 kb representing a 1.5 genome equivalent coverage and a probability of finding a single sequence of 0.75. It was characterized by PCR screening of about 130 sequences of horse microsatellites and exonic gene sequences retrieved from databases. BACs containing 8 microsatellites and 12 genes were subsequently localized by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) on chromosomes. Two linkage groups were newly assigned to chromosomes: LG2 to ECA3 and LG5 to ECA24, and five linkage groups were also oriented--LG3,...
Westermann CM, de Sain-van der Velden MG, van der Kolk JH, Berger R, Wijnberg ID, Koeman JP, Wanders RJ, Lenstra JA, Testerink N, Vaandrager AB....Two horses (a 7-year-old Groninger warmblood gelding and a six-month-old Trakehner mare) with pathologically confirmed rhabdomyolysis were diagnosed as suffering from multiple acyl-CoA dehydrogenase deficiency (MADD). This disorder has not been recognised in animals before. Clinical signs of both horses were a stiff, insecure gait, myoglobinuria, and finally recumbency. Urine, plasma, and muscle tissues were investigated. Analysis of plasma showed hyperglycemia, lactic acidemia, increased activity of muscle enzymes (ASAT, LDH, CK), and impaired kidney function (increased urea and creatinine). ...
Gray WL, Yalamanchili R, Raengsakulrach B, Baumann RP, Staczek J, O'Callaghan DJ.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) preparations enriched in defective interfering particles (DIPs) have previously been demonstrated to mediate the coestablishment of persistent infection and oncogenic transformation in primary hamster embryo fibroblasts. In this study, it was demonstrated that infection of a rabbit kidney (RK) cell line with EHV-1 DIP-enriched preparations also results in the establishment of persistent infection. Viral transcription was characterized in RK cells infected with DIP-enriched stocks and compared to viral transcription in RK cells infected with standard (STD) EHV-...
Żychska M, Witkowski L, Klementowska A, Rzewuska M, Kwiecień E, Stefańska I, Czopowicz M, Szaluś-Jordanow O, Mickiewicz M, Moroz A, Bonecka J.... infection is commonly known in equine medicine to cause frequently fatal rhodococcosis. Infections in other species and people are also reported. Clinical manifestation in goats is relatively similar to horses and humans, but data regarding bacterium prevalence are scarce. Thus, the study aimed to estimate the occurrence of in goats. Methods: During post mortem examination, submandibular, mediastinal, and mesenteric lymph nodes were collected. Standard methods were used for bacteria isolation and identification. Results: A total of 134 goats were examined, and 272 lymph node samples were col...
Southgate CD, Green MR.Lentivirus Tat proteins comprise a novel class of RNA-binding transcriptional activators that are essential for viral replication. In this study, we performed a series of protein fusion experiments to delineate the minimal protein domains and promoter elements required for Tat action. We show that a 15-amino-acid region of equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) Tat protein, when fused to the GAL4 or LexA DNA binding domain, can activate transcription in appropriate promoter contexts. In the natural human immunodeficiency virus type 1 long terminal repeat, activation by Tat is dependent on multi...
van der Kuyl AC.Information on endogenous retroviruses fixed in the horse (Equus caballus) genome is scarce. The recent availability of a draft sequence of the horse genome enables the detection of such integrated viruses by similarity search. Using translated nucleotide fragments from gamma-, beta-, and delta-retroviral genera for initial searches, a full-length beta-retrovirus genome was retrieved from a horse chromosome 5 contig. The provirus, tentatively named EqERV-beta1 (for the first equine endogenous beta-retrovirus), was 10434 nucleotide (nt) in length with the usual retroviral genome structure of 5'...
Raudsepp T, Lear TL, Chowdhary BP.The X chromosomes of the extant equids, in general, share morphology and banding pattern similarities. However, the donkey X is, in part, an exception because of significantly different centromeric index and variant banding patterns in the pericentromeric region. To verify the underlying molecular basis of this difference, twelve equine BAC clones were FISH mapped to donkey (EAS) and Hartmann's mountain zebra (EZH) metaphase spreads. Loci from the terminal region of Xp and distal to terminal regions of the Xq showed the same order and relative position in all three species, implying cross-spec...
Jin S, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.We recently reported a highly protective attenuated live virus vaccine for equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) based on a proviral construct (EIAVUKDeltaS2) with a genetically engineered mutation in the viral S2 gene that eliminates expression of this accessory protein. While the EIAVUKDeltaS2 vaccine provides protection from detectable infection by experimental challenge with highly virulent virus, the potential for commercial application of this vaccine is complicated by the fact that horses inoculated with the EIAVUKDeltaS2 vaccine strain become seropositive in various reference diagnosti...
Handing KB, Shabalin IG, Szlachta K, Majorek KA, Minor W.Serum albumin (SA) is the main transporter of drugs in mammalian blood plasma. Here, we report the first crystal structure of equine serum albumin (ESA) in complex with antihistamine drug cetirizine at a resolution of 2.1Å. Cetirizine is bound in two sites--a novel drug binding site (CBS1) and the fatty acid binding site 6 (CBS2). Both sites differ from those that have been proposed in multiple reports based on equilibrium dialysis and fluorescence studies for mammalian albumins as cetirizine binding sites. We show that the residues forming the binding pockets in ESA are highly conserved in h...
Taylor MA, Hunt KR.The term 'anthelmintic drug resistance' describes the heritable ability of some nematode parasites to survive treatment with anthelmintic drugs at the recommended therapeutic dose levels. Genes for resistance appear to be present in many of the important pathogenic nematodes of ruminants and horses. Under intensive management systems, where heavy reliance is placed on anthelmintic drugs for worm control, the selection of resistant genotypes may result in increased reports of the drugs failing to control the nematode populations against which they are aimed. Anthelmintic resistance has been rep...
Binns MM, Boehler DA, Bailey E, Lear TL, Cardwell JM, Lambert DH.Changes in the inbreeding coefficient, F, in the Thoroughbred horse over the past 45 years have been investigated by genotyping 467 Thoroughbred horses (born between 1961 and 2006) using the Illumina Equine SNP50 bead chip, which comprises 54,602 SNPs uniformly distributed across the equine genome. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient, r, between the year of birth and F was estimated. The results indicate that inbreeding in Thoroughbreds has increased over the past 40 years, with r = 0.24, P < 0.001 demonstrating that there is a highly significant, though relatively weak correlation be...
Bromfield JJ.Artificial insemination has been a landmark procedure in improving animal agriculture over the past 150 years. The utility of artificial insemination has facilitated a rapid improvement in animal genetics across agricultural species, leading to improvements of growth, health and productivity in poultry, swine, equine and cattle species. The utility of artificial insemination, as with all assisted reproductive technologies side-steps thousands of years of evolution that has led to the development of physiological systems to ensure the transmission of genetics from generation to generation. The ...
Jin C, Cherian RM, Liu J, Playà-Albinyana H, Galli C, Karlsson NG, Breimer ME, Holgersson J.Animal bioprosthetic heart valves (BHV) are used to replace defective valves in patients with valvular heart disease. Especially young BHV recipients may experience a structural valve deterioration caused by an immune reaction in which α-Gal and Neu5Gc are potential target antigens. The expression of these and other carbohydrate antigens in animal tissues used for production of BHV was explored. Protein lysates of porcine aortic and pulmonary valves, and porcine, bovine and equine pericardia were analyzed by Western blotting using anti-carbohydrate antibodies and lectins. N-glycans were relea...
Kim H, Lee YK, Kang SC, Han BK, Choi KM.Various new technologies have been applied for developing vaccines against various animal diseases. Virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine technology was used for manufacturing the porcine circovirus type 2 and RNA particle vaccines based on an alphavirus vector for porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED). Although VLP is classified as a killed-virus vaccine, because its structure is similar to the original virus, it can induce long-term and cell-mediated immunity. The RNA particle vaccine used a Venezuela equine encephalitis (VEE) virus gene as a vector. The VEE virus partial gene can be substituted with ...
Thorpe CT, McDermott BT, Goodship AE, Clegg PD, Birch HL.Advancing age is a well-known risk factor for tendon disease. Energy-storing tendons [e.g., human Achilles, equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT)] are particularly vulnerable and it is thought that injury occurs following an accumulation of micro-damage in the extracellular matrix (ECM). Several authors suggest that age-related micro-damage accumulates due to a failure of the aging cell population to maintain the ECM or an imbalance between anabolic and catabolic pathways. We hypothesized that ageing results in a decreased ability of tendon cells to synthesize matrix components and m...
Priester WA, Glass AG, Waggoner NS.A mass survey of the distribution of congenital defects in various types of livestock was made possible by the processing by the Veterinary Medical Data Program (VMPD) of standard observations collected on 137, 717 patients seen at veterinary college clinics between Mar. 1964 and Jan. 1969. A total of 6455 animals with 1 or more congenital defects was found. The data were analysed according to species, institution and organ system. Pigs had the highest proportion of congenital defects, cats the lowest. Over all, the systems most frequently involved were the musculo-skeletal and urogenital. The...
Aleman M, Nieto JE, Magdesian KG.Anesthetic-induced malignant hyperthermia (MH) has been documented in Quarter Horses with a single point mutation in the ryanodine receptor 1 gene (RyR1) at nucleotide C7360G, generating a R2454G amino acid substitution. However, there have been no reports of nonanesthetic manifestations of MH in horses with the C7360G mutation. Objective: To describe clinical manifestations of Quarter Horses with the C7360G mutation. Methods: Eleven Quarter Horses with the RyR1 C7360G mutation. Methods: This prospective study included horses with suspected MH, undetermined etiology of sudden death, death with...
Yang YH, Kim KI, Cothran EG, Flannery AR.We used sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop (968 bp excluding the tandem repeat region) to determine genetic diversity of horses inhabiting Cheju (a southern island of Korea). Seventeen haplotypes with frequencies from 1.5 to 21.5% were found among 65 Cheju horse samples. Genetic diversity (h) of the 17 haplotypes was calculated to be 0.91, indicating that the extant Cheju horse population consists of diverse genetic groups in their maternal lineage. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 17 types of Cheju (D-loop sequences determined), 5 Mongolian, 6 Arabian, 3 Belgian, 2 Tsushim...
Aguilera-Sepúlveda P, Cano-Gómez C, Villalba R, Borges V, Agüero M, Bravo-Barriga D, Frontera E, Jiménez-Clavero MÁ, Fernández-Pinero J.West Nile Virus (WNV) is a zoonotic arbovirus worldwide spread. Seasonal WNV outbreaks occur in the Mediterranean basin since the late 1990's with ever-increasing incidence. In Southern Spain WNV is endemic, as disease foci - caused by WNV lineage 1 (WNV-L1) strains - occur every year. On the contrary, WNV-L2 is the dominant lineage in Europe, so most European WNV sequences available belong to this lineage, WNV-L1 sequences being still scarce. Unassigned: To fill this gap, this study reports the genetic characterisation of 27 newly described WNV-L1 strains, involved in outbreaks affecting wild...
