Horse transport involves the movement of horses from one location to another, which can include short trips for local events or long-distance travel for international competitions and breeding purposes. This process requires careful planning and consideration of various factors to ensure the safety and well-being of the horses. Key aspects include the design and condition of transport vehicles, the duration and conditions of travel, and the handling and management of horses before, during, and after transport. Transport can induce stress and affect the health and performance of horses, necessitating strategies to mitigate potential negative impacts. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the methodologies, effects, and management practices associated with horse transport, providing insights into optimizing transport conditions and improving equine welfare.
Norton JL, Jackson K, Chen JW, Boston R, Nolen-Walston RD.Pneumonia is observed in horses after long-distance transportation in association with confinement of head position leading to reduction in tracheal mucociliary clearance rate (TMCR). Objective: Clenbuterol, a beta-2 agonist shown to increase TMCR in the horse, will ameliorate the effects of a fixed elevated head position on large airway contamination and inflammation in a model of long-distance transportation model. Methods: Six adult horses. Methods: A cross-over designed prospective study. Horses were maintained with a fixed elevated head position for 48 hours to simulate long-distance tran...
Niedźwiedź A, Kubiak K, Nicpoń J.The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 8-hour road transport on plasma total antioxidant status (PTAS) and general clinical appearance in horses. Results: The study was conducted on a group of 60 horses of different breeds aged from 4 to 10 years. Venous blood was collected and a clinical examination was performed immediately before loading horses onto trailers for an 8 hour transport (I), immediately after unloading them from the trailer (II), and after a subsequent 24 hour stall rest (III). The ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) was used to determine PTAS. The transpor...
Faubladier C, Chaucheyras-Durand F, da Veiga L, Julliand V.This study evaluated the effect of transportation on fecal bacterial communities and activities in horses with or without supplementation of live yeast and attempted to link those effects with changes in blood stress markers. Four mature horses were assigned to a crossover design and fed a basal diet (60:40 forage to concentrate; 1.45% BW on a DM basis), with or without supplementation, of 2 × 10(10) cfu/d of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077. After a 14-d adaptation to dietary treatments, the 5-d experiment started 1 d before transportation (d -1). At d 0, horses were simultaneously trans...
Peli A, Scagliarini L, Calbucci S, Diegoli G.The increasing awareness of animal welfare issues among consumers and the general public in the European Union has brought about the adoption of laws for the protection of production animals throughout the various steps of the food chain, from breeding to slaughter. Considering that horses may be kept for a variety of reasons, including as companion animals and as farm animals, protective legislation in Europe applies to this species only partially. In consistency with the areas of competence of the European Union, it is the purpose of the activity (be it economic/commercial or neither) and no...
Fazio E, Medica P, Cravana C, Aveni F, Ferlazzo A.In order to evaluate the effects of short transportation on β-endorphin, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and cortisol changes, 12 healthy stallions of Equidae (Equus asinus and Equus caballus) were studied before and after transportation of 50 km. Blood samples were collected 1 week before transportation in basal conditions, immediately before loading and after transportation and unloading, on their arrival at the breeding station. Compared to basal and before values, donkeys showed an increase in circulating ACTH (P < 0.001) and cortisol (P < 0.0005) levels after transportation and ...
Munsters CC, de Gooijer JW, van den Broek J, van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan MM.Heart rate (HR), HR variability (HRV) and behaviour score (BS) of nine horses were evaluated during an eight-hour air transport between The Netherlands and New York. HR and HRV parameters were calculated every five minutes during the air transport. Compared with transit (40±3), mean HRs were higher during loading into the jet stall (67±21, P<0.001), loading into the aircraft (47±6, P=0.011), taxiing (50±8, P=0.001), and during periods of in-flight turbulence (46±7, P=0.017). During the flight, individual horses showed differences in mean HR (P=0.005) and peak HR (P<0.001). By contra...
Tsuchiya T, Hobo S, Endo Y, Narita S, Sakamoto K.To evaluate effects of a single dose of enrofloxacin (5 mg/kg, IV) on body temperature and tracheobronchial neutrophil count in healthy Thoroughbreds premedicated with interferon-α and undergoing long-distance transportation. Methods: 32 healthy Thoroughbreds. Methods: All horses received interferon-α (0.5 U/kg, sublingually, q 24 h) as an immunologic stimulant for 2 days before transportation and on the day of transportation. Horses were randomly assigned to receive enrofloxacin (5 mg/kg, IV, once; enrofloxacin group) or saline (0.9% NaCl) solution (50 mL, IV, once; control group) ≤ 1 hou...
Söder J, Bröjer JT, Nostell KE.Systemic hypertension is a prominent feature in humans with metabolic syndrome (MS) and this is partly caused by an enhanced endothelin-1 (ET-1) mediated vasoconstriction. There are indications that systemic hypertension might be a feature in equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) but if ET-1 is involved in the development of hypertension in horses is not known. Increased levels of cortisol have also been found in humans with MS but there are no reports of this in horses. Before blood pressure, plasma ET-1 and serum cortisol can be evaluated in horses with EMS, it is necessary to investigate the inte...
Majorek KA, Porebski PJ, Dayal A, Zimmerman MD, Jablonska K, Stewart AJ, Chruszcz M, Minor W.Serum albumin (SA) is the most abundant plasma protein in mammals. SA is a multifunctional protein with extraordinary ligand binding capacity, making it a transporter molecule for a diverse range of metabolites, drugs, nutrients, metals and other molecules. Due to its ligand binding properties, albumins have wide clinical, pharmaceutical, and biochemical applications. Albumins are also allergenic, and exhibit a high degree of cross-reactivity due to significant sequence and structure similarity of SAs from different organisms. Here we present crystal structures of albumins from cattle (BSA), h...
Ralston S, Stives M.Though horses synthesize ascorbic acid in their liver in amounts that meet their needs under normal circumstances, prolonged stress results in low plasma concentrations due to enhanced utilization and renal excretion and can reduce immune function. It was hypothesized that plasma ascorbic acid could be maintained in weanling horses by oral supplementation following prolonged transportation. Weanlings were supplemented with no ascorbic acid (Tx 0: n = 4), 5 grams ascorbic acid twice daily for 5 days (Tx 1: n = 4) or for 10 days (Tx 2: n = 4) following >50 hours of transportation. Supplementa...
Ohmura H, Hobo S, Hiraga A, Jones JH.To determine the influence of transportation by road and air on heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) in horses. Animals-6 healthy horses. Methods: ECG recordings were obtained from horses before (quarantine with stall rest [Q]; 24 hours) and during a journey that included transportation by road (RT; 4.5 hours), waiting on the ground in an air stall (W; 5.5 hours), and transportation by air (AT; 11 hours); HR was determined, and HRV indices of autonomic nervous activity (low-frequency [LF; 0.01 to 0.07 Hz] and high-frequency [HF; 0.07 to 0.6 Hz] power) were calculated. Results: Mean ± SD H...
Nielsen BL, Dybkjær L, Herskin MS.Transport of farm animals gives rise to concern about their welfare. Specific attention has been given to the duration of animal transport, and maximum journey durations are used in legislation that seek to minimise any negative impact of transport on animal welfare. This paper reviews the relatively few scientific investigations into effects of transport duration on animal welfare in cattle, sheep, horses, pigs and poultry. From the available literature, we attempt to distinguish between aspects, which will impair welfare on journeys of any duration, such as those associated with loading, and...
Casella S, Fazio F, Giannetto C, Giudice E, Piccione G.The modifications of Haptoglobin (Hp), Serum Amyloid A (SAA), Fibrinogen (Fbg) and White Blood Cells (WBCs) were evaluated in 15 Saddle Italian horses. Ten horses were transported covering a distance of about 320 km within 4 h with an average speed of 80 km/h (experimental group) and five horses were not subject to transportation (control group). Blood was collected via jugular venipuncture before the transportation (T0), immediately after the transportation (T1), 12 (T12), 24 (T24) and 48 (T48)hours after the transportation in experimental group and at the same time point in control group. Fo...
Niedźwiedź A, Nicpoń J, Zawadzki M, Służewska-Niedźwiedź M, Januszewska L.Transport of horses may have significant impact on serum biochemical and hematologic analytes and resistance to infection. Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the influence of transport stress on selected enzymatic antioxidants in equine blood. Methods: The study was conducted on a group of 60 horses of different breeds and ranging in age from 4 to 10 years. Venous blood was collected immediately before loading horses onto trailers for 8 hours of transport (I), immediately after unloading them from the trailer (II), and after subsequent stall rest for 24 hours (III). Hemolysates of b...
Medica P, Giacoppo E, Fazio E, Aveni F, Pellizzotto R, Ferlazzo A.Trekking is a noncompetitive sport, involving maximal skeletal muscle effort. Exercise and transport may involve significant energy expenditure and give rise to substantial stress. Few studies have examined the combined effect of exercise and additional preliminary transport on adrenocortical and haematochemical responses in horses during trekking. Objective: To ascertain whether exercise and additional preliminary transport before trekking would affect the circulating cortisol levels and haematochemical variables of horses during a 2 day trekking event. Methods: Twenty-nine healthy horses wer...
Marlin D, Kettlewell P, Parkin T, Kennedy M, Broom D, Wood J.Anecdotal evidence collected by a variety of organisations has highlighted poor welfare in horses transported long distances to slaughter within the European Union. Objective: To investigate welfare of horses being transported long distances within the EU to slaughter. Methods: Data on transported horses were recorded at 2 assembly centres in Romania and at 4 abattoirs in Italy over an 8 month period in 2008. Results: A total of 1519 horses in 64 separate shipments were observed in Romania prior to transport of which 212 horses were deemed unfit for transport and only 3 shipments (5%) complied...
Schmidt A, Hödl S, Möstl E, Aurich J, Müller J, Aurich C.Domestic animals are often repeatedly exposed to the same anthropogenic stressors. Based on cortisol secretion and heart rate, it has been demonstrated that transport is stressful for horses, but so far, changes in this stress response with repeated road transport have not been reported. We determined salivary cortisol concentrations, fecal cortisol metabolites, cardiac beat-to-beat (RR) interval, and heart rate variability (HRV) in transport-naive horses (N = 8) transported 4 times over a standardized course of 200 km. Immunoreactive salivary cortisol concentrations always increased in respon...
Katić I, Bajt VV.Transport of animals by water is a very old way of transport because it is relatively cheap and safe, with a minimum loss of animals. Waterways have been used for the transport of living animals and various goods from ancient times, for example in Ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. Later, Vikings were so successful in their conquests because they always had trained horses aboard. It is believed that the colonization of America was possible because Spaniards were also bringing many horses with them. Danish possessions in the Caribbean owe much of their economic success in the period between 18...
Schmidt A, Biau S, Möstl E, Becker-Birck M, Morillon B, Aurich J, Faure JM, Aurich C.It is widely accepted that transport is stressful for horses, but only a few studies are available involving horses that are transported regularly and are accustomed to transport. We determined salivary cortisol immunoreactivity (IR), fecal cortisol metabolites, beat-to-beat (RR) interval, and heart rate variability (HRV) in transport-experienced horses (N=7) in response to a 2-d outbound road transport over 1370 km and 2-d return transport 8 d later. Salivary cortisol IR was low until 60 min before transport but had increased (P<0.05) 30 min before loading. Transport caused a further marked i...
Schmidt A, Möstl E, Wehnert C, Aurich J, Müller J, Aurich C.Based on plasma cortisol concentrations it is widely accepted that transport is stressful to horses. So far, cortisol release during transport has not been evaluated in depth by non-invasive techniques such as analysis of salivary cortisol and faecal cortisol metabolites. Transport also causes changes in heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). In this study, salivary cortisol, faecal cortisol metabolites, heart rate and HRV in horses transported by road for short (one and 3.5 h) and medium duration (8 h) were determined. With the onset of transport, salivary cortisol increased immediately...
Fazio E, Medica P, Cravana C, Giacoppo E, Ferlazzo A.In order to investigate the effects of short road transport stress on total and free iodothyronines, body weight (BW), rectal temperature and heart rate (HR) changes, 126 healthy stallions were studied in basal conditions, before and after transport. A total of 60 Thoroughbred and 66 crossbred stallions aged 4 to 15 years with previous travelling experience were transported by road in a commercial trailer for a period of about 3 to 4 h (distance under 300 km). Blood samples and functional variables were collected in each horse box, one week before loading and transport in basal conditions (con...
Akai M, Hobo S, Wada S.To assess the effect of human interferon-alpha (IFNα) on shipping fever of Thoroughbred racehorses subjected to long-distance transportation, an IFNα preparation was orally administered to 48 horses three times (once daily, 3 successive days) before transportation (IFNα group). In the control group (25 horses), maltose was administered in the same way. These treatments induced no abnormal findings in Thoroughbred racehorses before transportation. Immediately after transportation, significant increases in rectal temperature were observed in both treatment groups, whereas the rectal temperatu...
Oertly M, Gerber V, Anhold H, Chan DS, Pusterla N.Transportation of sporthorses increases their susceptibility to infectious diseases. Before, caretakers relied on rectal temperature together with their clinical impression to detect travel-associated infections. This study's aim was to assess and compare serum amyloid A (SAA) to rectal temperature as an indicator of early inflammation in sporthorses after air transportation. One hundred and twenty-two Warmblood horses were followed during the Longines Global Champions Tour 2016 to three destinations where the horses flew to compete. Clinical health checks and SAA measurements were performed b...
Friend TH, Martin MT, Householder DD, Bushong DM.To characterize progressive patterns of dehydration, stress responses, and water consumption in horses transported long distances in hot weather and to evaluate various measurements in detecting dehydration and stress in transported horses. Methods: Prospective study. Methods: 30 mature, healthy horses. Methods: The following 4 treatment groups were studied: horses that were penned and offered water every 5 hours (n = 5), horses that were penned and not offered water (5), horses that were transported in a truck and offered water every 5 hours (10), and horses that were transported and not offe...
Tsuchiya T, Hobo S, Endo Y, Narita S, Sakamoto K.To evaluate effects of a single dose of enrofloxacin (5 mg/kg, IV) on body temperature and tracheobronchial neutrophil count in healthy Thoroughbreds premedicated with interferon-α and undergoing long-distance transportation. Methods: 32 healthy Thoroughbreds. Methods: All horses received interferon-α (0.5 U/kg, sublingually, q 24 h) as an immunologic stimulant for 2 days before transportation and on the day of transportation. Horses were randomly assigned to receive enrofloxacin (5 mg/kg, IV, once; enrofloxacin group) or saline (0.9% NaCl) solution (50 mL, IV, once; control group) ≤ 1 hou...
Endo Y, Tsuchiya T, Omura T, Nakai K, Korosue K, Ishimaru M, Ishikawa Y, Hobo S.The present study evaluated the effects of single-dose marbofloxacin in protecting horses against fever associated with transportation using 48 healthy Thoroughbreds. All horses were premedicated with interferon-α (0.5 U/kg, sublingually, every 24 hr) for 2 days before transportation and on the day of transportation. Horses were randomly assigned to receive marbofloxacin (2 mg/kg, IV, once; MRFX group), enrofloxacin (5 mg/kg, IV, once; ERFX group) or saline (0.9% NaCl) solution (10 ml, IV, once; control group) ≤1 hr before being transportation. Each group contained 16 horses (8 males, 8 fem...
Felici M, Nanni Costa L, Zappaterra M, Bozzo G, Di Pinto P, Minero M, Padalino B.During horse transportation, the journey conditions are considered a welfare risk. This study aimed to document journeys, journey conditions, and welfare status of handled horses on arrival at two different slaughterhouses in Northern and Southern Italy, to find possible associations between journey conditions and welfare problems. The welfare status of 613 draft-breed and light-breed horses from 32 different journeys was evaluated on arrival at the slaughterhouses with a standardized protocol, using animal-based (ABMs) and environmental-based (EBMs) measures. The drivers’ skills and vehicle...
McGilloway M, Manley S, Aho A, Heeringa KN, Whitacre L, Lou Y, Squires EJ, Pearson W.Equine leaky gut syndrome is characterized by gastrointestinal hyperpermeability and may be associated with adverse health effects in horses. The purpose was to evaluate the effects of a prebiotic Aspergillus oryzae product (SUPP) on stress-induced gastrointestinal hyperpermeability. Eight horses received a diet containing SUPP (0.02 g/kg BW) or an unsupplemented diet (CO) (n = 4 per group) for 28 days. On Days 0 and 28, horses were intubated with an indigestible marker of gastrointestinal permeability (iohexol). Half the horses from each feeding group underwent 60 min of transport by trailer ...
Nivelle B, Vermeulen L, Van Beirendonck S, Van Thielen J, Driessen B.Between November 2016 and October 2017, 23 horse transports from 18 collection points to two slaughterhouses in Argentina and one in Uruguay were monitored. The goal of this study was to characterize the current practices in commercial horse transports and to detect potential threats to horse welfare. A total of 596 horses were transported over an average distance of 295 ± 250 km. Average transport duration was 294 ± 153 min. The infrastructure did not always promote smooth loading, but the amount of horses that refused to enter the trailers was limited. In each loading space, a camera was m...
Baucus KL, Ralston SL, Nockels CF, McKinnon AO, Squires EL.Incidence of early embryonic death (EED) and associated changes in serum cortisol, progesterone and plasma ascorbic acid (AA) in transported mares were investigated. Mares were transported for 472 km (9 h) during either d 16 to 22 (T-3 wk, n = 15) or d 32 to 38 (T-5 wk, n = 15) of gestation. Blood samples were drawn from control, nontransported mares (NT-3 wk, NT-5 wk, n = 24) and transported mares pre-trip, midtrip, and at 0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 h post-transport and daily for the next 2 wk. Incidence of EED between transported and nontransported mares was not different (P greater than .05). Ser...
Owen RA, Fullerton J, Barnum DA.Seventeen ponies were infected with Salmonella typhimurium and then 15 were variously stressed by transportation and/or surgery and 9 were given oxytetracycline. Indications of Salmonella reactivation occurred in all the stressed ponies. Diarrhea due to a reactivation of the Salmonella infection did not develop until greater than 3 days after stress, although maximal shedding of organisms occurred within 24 hours. A neutropenia generally occurred within 24 hours after stress and lasted about 5 days. A rectal temperature greater than 39 C usually did not occur. An increase in serologic titer wa...
Ohmura H, Hiraga A.This study aimed to investigate the effect of transportation and restraint in a van on heart rate (HR) and HR variability in Thoroughbreds. Eight healthy Thoroughbreds were exposed to four conditions, each for a duration of 30 min: stall rest (REST), restraint inside a van (VAN), restraint inside a van with the engine running (V + E), and road transportation (TRANS). Electrocardiograms were recorded to determine HR, low-frequency (LF) power, high-frequency (HF) power, and LF/HF ratio. During TRANS, HR was significantly greater than during REST and V + E. There was a significant increase during...
Marlin DJ, Schroter RC, White SL, Maykuth P, Matthesen G, Mills PC, Waran N, Harris P.The aims of the present field-based study were to investigate changes in fit horses undergoing acclimatisation to a hot humid environment and to provide data on which to base recommendations for safe transport and acclimatisation. Six horses (age 7-12 years) were flown from Europe to Atlanta and underwent a 16 day period of acclimatisation. Exercise conditions during acclimatisation (wet bulb globe temperature index 27.6+/-0.0 [mean +/- s.e.]) were more thermally stressful compared with the European climate from which the horses had come (22.0+/-1.8, P<0.001). Following the flight, weight l...
Brewer K, Shults TF, Machin J, Kudrimoti S, Eisenberg RL, Hartman P, Wang C, Fenger C, Beaumier P, Tobin T.Three low concentration methamphetamine "positive" tests were linked to use of a methamphetamine-contaminated trailer to transport the affected horses. This incident establishes methamphetamine as a human-use substance that can inadvertently enter the environment of racing horses, resulting in urinary methamphetamine "positives;" an interim regulatory cut-off of 15 ng/mL for methamphetamine in post-race urine is proposed. Trois tests «positifs» de faibles concentrations de méthamphétamine ont été associés à l’utilisation d’une remorque contaminée par les méthamphétamines qui é...
Hurley MJ, Riggs CM, Cogger N, Rosanowski SM.A 2 year prospective study was performed between February 2011 and January 2013 to determine the incidence and risk factors for shipping fever (SF) in horses transported by air to Hong Kong (HK). Using a questionnaire, data were collected from professional flying grooms regarding the journey to HK and horses in the shipment. Horses were monitored in quarantine for 2 weeks after arrival in HK, and clinical signs of SF recorded. Poisson and logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for SF at the horse and shipment levels. The study analysed data from 869 horses on 81 flights ...
Sluyter FJ.The accelerated speed of animal transport and the existence of complex and intricate movement systems have created an equine population in motion. This ease in the international movement of horses has an impact on the risk of introduction or spread of disease, specifically in relation to competition horses. Facilitating trade in Equidae, whilst simultaneously safeguarding the health status of the receiving country is a major challenge. To date, the international regulatory bodies are prepared to consider movement of registered horses as a relatively 'low risk' occurrence and thereby apply the ...
Medica P, Giacoppo E, Fazio E, Aveni F, Pellizzotto R, Ferlazzo A.Trekking is a noncompetitive sport, involving maximal skeletal muscle effort. Exercise and transport may involve significant energy expenditure and give rise to substantial stress. Few studies have examined the combined effect of exercise and additional preliminary transport on adrenocortical and haematochemical responses in horses during trekking. Objective: To ascertain whether exercise and additional preliminary transport before trekking would affect the circulating cortisol levels and haematochemical variables of horses during a 2 day trekking event. Methods: Twenty-nine healthy horses wer...
Felici M, Cogger N, Riley CB, Padalino B.There is a lack of information on the number of horses shipped globally by air annually, the purpose of air travel and the routes of their journeys. This pilot study aimed to collect retrospective data on the international movements of horses by air from 2018 to 2021, describe their routes, and identify the possible effects of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. Equine transport data was gathered from 7 of 15 international shipping companies (ISCs) and 5 of 8 airlines contacted by email. The seven ISCs performed a median of 10,401 horse movements annually, ranging from a few hundre...
Niedźwiedź A, Nicpoń J, Zawadzki M, Służewska-Niedźwiedź M, Januszewska L.Transport of horses may have significant impact on serum biochemical and hematologic analytes and resistance to infection. Objective: The aim of our study was to assess the influence of transport stress on selected enzymatic antioxidants in equine blood. Methods: The study was conducted on a group of 60 horses of different breeds and ranging in age from 4 to 10 years. Venous blood was collected immediately before loading horses onto trailers for 8 hours of transport (I), immediately after unloading them from the trailer (II), and after subsequent stall rest for 24 hours (III). Hemolysates of b...
Houpt KA.Stable vices include oral vices such as cribbing, wood chewing, and coprophagia, as well as stall walking, weaving, pawing, and stall kicking. Some of these behaviors are escape behaviors; others are forms of self-stimulation. Most can be eliminated by pasturing rather than stall confinement. Trailering problems include failure to load, scrambling in the moving trailer, struggling in the stationary trailer, and refusal to unload. Gradual habituation to entering the trailer, the presence of another horse, or a change in trailer type can be used to treat these problems.
Wilkins PA.Lower airway problems of the adult horse are commonly encountered by the practitioner. Particularly susceptible populations include horses transported for any significant distance and young horses grouped together for training and/or competition. This article presents some of the commonly encountered problems of this patient population, including bacterial pneumonia/pleuropneumonia and influenza, and some uncommon ones, including pulmonary edema, pneumothorax/hemothorax, and acuterespiratory distress syndrome. Information is presented that should allow the practitioner to diagnose these proble...
Saville WJ, Sofaly CD, Reed SM, Dubey JP, Oglesbee MJ, Lacombe VA, Keene RO, Gugisberg KM, Swensen SW, Shipley RD, Chiang YW, Chu HJ, Ng T.Previous challenge studies performed at Ohio State University involved a transport-stress model where the study animals were dosed with Sarcocystis neurona sporocysts on the day of arrival. This study was to test a second transportation of horses after oral inoculation with S. neurona sporocysts. Horses were assigned randomly to groups: group 1, transported 4 days after inoculation (DAI); group 2, at 11 DAI; group 3, at 18 DAI; and group 4, horses were not transported a second time (controls). An overall neurologic score was determined on the basis of a standard numbering system used by veteri...
Akai M, Hobo S, Wada S.To assess the effect of human interferon-alpha (IFNα) on shipping fever of Thoroughbred racehorses subjected to long-distance transportation, an IFNα preparation was orally administered to 48 horses three times (once daily, 3 successive days) before transportation (IFNα group). In the control group (25 horses), maltose was administered in the same way. These treatments induced no abnormal findings in Thoroughbred racehorses before transportation. Immediately after transportation, significant increases in rectal temperature were observed in both treatment groups, whereas the rectal temperatu...
Riley CB, Rogers CW, Thompson KR, Guiver D, Padalino B.Negative outcomes associated with the road transport of horses are a significant welfare issue. This study aimed to describe the injuries sustained by horses during road transport in New Zealand and factors associated with trauma while in transit. New Zealand horse industry participants were surveyed on their horse transport experiences and equine industry involvement. Participants were solicited through horse organisations. The data were tabulated, and a logistic regression was performed to identify significant ( < 0.05) factors associated with transport-related injury. In total, 201/1133 ...
Deichsel K, Pasing S, Erber R, Ille N, Palme R, Aurich J, Aurich C.The use of breeding stallions for equestrian competitions requires that fertility is not negatively affected by competition or transport to the competition site. In this study, effects of cortisol release induced by road transport (600 km), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) administration (3 × 0.5 mg synthetic ACTH) and placebo treatment on semen quality and testosterone release were investigated in Shetland stallions (N = 13) using a crossover design. Saliva for cortisol and blood for testosterone analysis were collected for 10 weeks after treatments. Semen was collected daily for 5 days di...
Norton JL, Jackson K, Chen JW, Boston R, Nolen-Walston RD.Pneumonia is observed in horses after long-distance transportation in association with confinement of head position leading to reduction in tracheal mucociliary clearance rate (TMCR). Objective: Clenbuterol, a beta-2 agonist shown to increase TMCR in the horse, will ameliorate the effects of a fixed elevated head position on large airway contamination and inflammation in a model of long-distance transportation model. Methods: Six adult horses. Methods: A cross-over designed prospective study. Horses were maintained with a fixed elevated head position for 48 hours to simulate long-distance tran...
Endo Y, Tsuchiya T, Akiyama K, Takebe N, Nakai K, Korosue K, Ishimaru M, Tsuzuki N, Hobo S.In order to reveal the preventive effect of marbofloxacin (MRFX) administration just before transportation, we compared the occurrence of transportation-associated fever before and after introduction of MRFX administration. After the introduction of prophylactic MRFX administration, the rectal temperatures of horses after transportation were significantly lower than before the introduction of MRFX administration (P<0.01) and the number of febrile horses was significantly lower than before the introduction of MRFX administration (P<0.01). In conclusion, these results show that prophylacti...
Riva MG, Sobrero L, Menchetti L, Minero M, Padalino B, Dalla Costa E.Horses with a low level of tameness are at higher risk for transport-related disease and injury; hence, European regulations for the protection of animals during transport (EC 1/2005) are stricter for unhandled (unbroken) horses. However, the regulation does not provide adequate tools for unhandled horse identification. The Broken/Unbroken Test (BUT) was developed and validated to easily identify whether a horse is broken (handled) or not. As a further validation step, the aim of this study was to assess whether there is any correspondence between the BUT classification and the behavioral resp...
Roy RC, Cockram MS.Concern has been expressed over the welfare of horses transported from the USA for slaughter in Canada. United States Department of Agriculture owner/shipper certificates for the year 2009 were analyzed to provide quantitative information on the patterns and durations of these journeys. In 2009, horses from 16 states in the northern USA were transported to 6 equine slaughter plants in Canada. Thirty-two percent of loads were from auction centers, 33% from feedlots, and 35% from horse collection centers. The median duration of the journey was 19 h. Thirty-six percent of horses were transported ...
