"Horses" is a broad topic that encompasses various aspects of equine biology, behavior, and management. This category includes studies on the anatomy, physiology, and genetics of horses, as well as their behavior, nutrition, and care. Research in this area may also cover the historical and cultural significance of horses, their roles in agriculture, sport, and therapy, and the challenges associated with their conservation and welfare. The page aggregates peer-reviewed research articles and scholarly studies that explore the multifaceted relationships between humans and horses, examining both scientific and socio-economic perspectives.
Bagy MM, Abdel-Mallek AY.Hair samples from different animals collected from different sites in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were examined for the presence of saprophytic and keratinolytic fungi. Fifty-one specimens were examined of which 19 were from rabbits, 13 from sheeps, 12 from camels and 7 from horses. Forty-eight species and one variety which belong to 24 genera were collected during this investigation. The most common genera were Aspergillus and Chrysosporium. In low frequency, members of the genera Thermoascus, Scopulariopsis, Alternaria, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Botryotrichum, Fusarium, Ulocladium and keratinophilic f...
Bowling AT, Williams MJ.Two additional specificities (Dq and Dr) were assigned to the D system of horse red cell alloantigens following discussion of the 1989 ISAG Horse Comparison Test (HCT) results. Family and population data support 25 phenogroups defined by the enhanced battery of 17 D system factors.
Ross MW, Orsini JA, Richardson DW, Martin BB.Infectious arthritis of the tarsocrural joint was treated in 13 horses with closed suction drainage through a flat, fenestrated, latex (Jackson-Pratt) drain, broad-spectrum antimicrobial agents, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and bandage immobilization. In 11 horses, arthroscopic lavage and debridement were also performed. Ingress drains were placed for lavage in six horses. Ten horses returned to their previous level of competition or were sound. One horse raced but had lameness of the affected tarsocrural joint and dropped in racing class; one horse was euthanatized because of laminit...
Baxter GM, Adams JE, Johnson JJ.Severe hypercarbia was documented by arterial blood gas analysis in 2 adult horses anesthetized for exploratory laparotomy. Both horses appeared to be adequately anesthetized, but continued to breathe against the ventilator. In both cases, the inspiratory valve on the anesthesia machine was found to be stuck open, permitting expired CO2 to return to the inspiratory limb of the anesthetic circuit and to be inhaled with the next breath. Correction of the malfunctioning valve alleviated the hypercarbia. Problems with the flow valves of the anesthesia machine should be suspected when anesthetized ...
Flisińska-Bojanowska A, Komosa M, Gill J.1. The diurnal changes in the glucose level and in activity of FDPA, A1AT and AspAT in four pregnant standard-bred mares were studied. 2. As a control four barren mares, were kept and examined in the same conditions. 3. Blood samples were taken every 4 hr for one day, each month, throughout pregnancy, or one year. 4. A diurnal rhythm in activity of A1AT and AspAT in barren mares was found. The pregnancy masked diurnal rhythm in activities of both transaminases. 5. No diurnal rhythm in glucose level and FDPA activity in both groups of mares was observed. 6. Seasonal cyclicity was found in all i...
Orsini JA, Dreyfuss DJ, Vecchione J, Spencer PA, Uhlman R.The effects of a potent new histamine-2 (H2) receptor antagonist, BMY-25368, were studied on gastric acid secretion in 5 foals from which food was withheld. Doses of 0.02, 0.11, 0.22, and 1.10 mg/kg of body weight were administered IM in a randomly assigned treatment sequence. Following BMY-25368 administration, hydrogen ion concentration was decreased and mean pH was higher than baseline values in a dose-response pattern. At the 0.22 and 1.10 mg/kg doses, the high pH was sustained for greater than 4 hours. The BMY-25368 thus may be useful for treating gastric ulcer disease in horses.
Hermanson JW, Hegemann-Monachelli MT, Daaod MJ, LaFramboise WA.The biceps brachii of horses is subdivided into a lateral and medial head. Electrophoresis of samples from the lateral head revealed three slow-migrating native myosin isoforms, including one that does not correspond to slow myosin isoforms described for other mammalian muscles. In contrast, the medial head contained a single slow isoform. Both the lateral and medial heads contained three fast-migrating isoforms corresponding with the FM-2, FM-3 and FM-4 isoforms reported for other mammalian fast-twitch muscle fibers. Electrophoresis of myosin heavy chains (MHCs) revealed only two MHC bands, o...
Pellegrini A, Waiblinger S, Von Fellenberg R.Lysozyme from equine neutrophil granulocytes was isolated in a pure form by fast performance liquid chromatography, i.e. ion-exchange chromatography and reversed-phase chromatography. The lysozyme lysed Micrococcus luteus, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus lentus and was also bactericidal against the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bordetella bronchiseptica, and Serratia marcescens. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were not lysed. The lysozyme was only very slightly bactericidal for S. epidermidis and S. aureus. Equine neutrophil lysozyme ...
Cleve H, Schmid DO.An apparent incompatibility in the GC/DBP system in a mare and her colt was found after classification by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Because of this observation an analysis of the equine GC/DBP system by isoelectric focusing and subsequent immunoprinting was initiated. Further GC subtypes, however, were not encountered: the three phenotypes GC F, FS and S were also delineated by this method. The GC types in the case of disputed descent were dissolved: GC S was found in the mare and GC FS in her colt as well as in another of her male offspring. It is proposed that a rare GC mutant is r...
Hunt RJ, Allen D, Baxter GM, Jackman BR, Parks AH.Deep digital flexor tendon transection at the mid-metacarpus was performed in 20 horses with severe acute or chronic laminitis that was not responsive to conventional treatment. Sixteen horses improved within 72 hours, one horse worsened, and two horses were unaffected by the surgery. Eleven horses survived less than 1 month after surgery and six horses survived longer than 6 months. Three horses surviving longer than 6 months have remained lame and no horse has returned to athletic performance. Transection of the deep digital flexor tendon at the mid-metacarpus may decrease the pain associate...
Eysker M, Boersema JH, Kooyman FN.Two groups of three ponies were used to study the effect of three ivermectin or pyrantel treatments given at intervals of 5 weeks at the beginning of the grazing season. Although each pyrantel treatment resulted in a greater than 95% reduction in faecal egg counts during the first 3 weeks, high pasture larval counts were seen from the beginning of August onwards and substantial cyathostomine burdens were found at necropsy in December. The ivermectin treatments resulted in an even more pronounced reduction in faecal egg output, and the pasture larval counts and cyathostomine burdens at necropsy...
Angelos JA, Marti E, Lazary S, Carmichael LE.The DNA from equine sarcoid samples from New York State and Switzerland was isolated and probed with bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1) to determine if BPV genomes were present. Twelve of 13 sarcoids from New York State and 17/20 sarcoids from Switzerland contained DNA that hybridized to the BPV-1 probe. Restriction enzyme analysis of the positive samples demonstrated restriction fragment profiles characteristic of BPV-1 in 22 sarcoids and restriction fragment profiles characteristic of bovine papillomavirus type 2 (BPV-2) in 7 sarcoids. In addition, three tissues histologically diagnosed as...
Brooks M, Leith GS, Allen AK, Woods PR, Benson RE, Dodds WJ.Bleeding diathesis in a Quarter Horse filly was caused by von Willebrand disease. Hemorrhage occurred mainly from mucosal surfaces and after trauma. Quantitative and qualitative measurements of plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) documented a specific deficiency of vWF high molecular weight multimers, and concurrently greater than expected deficiency of vWF activity relative to vWF concentration. These findings are characteristic of type-II von Willebrand disease in human beings. Application of vWF assays used in human and small animal medicine now permits evaluation of vWF and diagnosis of von...
Clark ES, Gantley B, Moore JN.The effects of intravenous (iv) infusion of endotoxin for 60 mins at a cumulative dosage of 0.03 micrograms/kg bodyweight on systemic arterial, right atrial and pulmonary arterial pressures, heart rate, cardiac output, and derived pulmonary vascular resistance and total peripheral vascular resistance were compared to the effects of iv infusion of saline solution in four healthy horses. Heart rate was increased significantly after endotoxin infusion, although diastolic arterial pressure, systolic arterial pressure, electronically averaged arterial pressure, cardiac output, total peripheral resi...
Broadstone RV, LeBlanc PH, Derksen FJ, Robinson NE.The in vitro contractile and relaxant responses of tracheal smooth muscle strips (TSM) and third-generation bronchi (3B) of control horses and horses with recurrent obstructive disease (heaves) were compared. Acetylcholine (ACH) sensitivity of the diseased tissues was less than that of tissues from control horses, especially at the level of the third generation (EC50 controls 15 +/- 11 microM vs 81 +/- 17 microM for heaveys). Despite tracheal and bronchial hyporesponsiveness to ACH, these tissues from heavey horses were hyperresponsive to EFS. The inhibitory effect of isoproterenol and electri...
Riley CB, Yovich JV.Fractures of the patella in the horse are infrequently reported
in the literature. Most of these have been associated with trauma
or sudden forceful contraction of the quadriceps resulting in an
avulsion fracture of the patella (Parks and Wyn-Jones 1988).
There have been few reports of fractures associated with des-
motomy of the medial patellar ligament to correct upward
fixation of the patella (Wright and Rose 1989; Gibson ef ul1989).
This paper describes one such case including the radiographic
findings before the desmotomy, after fracture of the patella and
after arthroscopic trea...
Weitkamp LR, Kenney RM, Bailey E, MacCluer JW, Brown JS, Blanchard TL, Sertich PL, Love CC, Hunt PR.Histological features of the endometrium, as assessed in biopsy samples, were related to Standardbred mare genotypes for transferrin, esterase (as a control) and equine leucocyte antigens (ELA). Pathological changes were found more frequently in each successively older age group of mares. Among mares aged 6-19 years, there were significant pathologic changes on first examination following an infertile breeding season for 46 of 90 (51%) of transferrin homozygotes and 50 of 146 (34%) of transferrin heterozygotes. The difference between the two groups was significant for the total data (chi 1(2) ...
Trotter GW, McIlwraith CW, Yovich JV, Norrdin RW, Wrigley RH, Lamar CH.The effects of the corticosteroid 6-alpha-methylprednisolone acetate on normal equine articular cartilage were evaluated, using the middle carpal joint in 4 clinically normal young horses. One middle carpal joint of each horse was injected 3 times with 100 mg of 6-alpha-methylprednisolone acetate, at 14-day intervals. The opposite middle carpal joint (control) was injected with 2.5 ml of lactated Ringer solution at the same intervals. Effects were studied until 8 weeks after the first injection. Evaluation included clinical and radiographic examination, and gross, microscopic, and biochemical ...
Trout DR, Hornof WJ, O'Brien TR.Radiography and soft tissue- and bone-phase scintigraphy were performed on 14 clinically normal horses and 35 horses in which definite, probable, or possible navicular disease had been diagnosed. The specificity of radiography and scintigraphy in revealing signs of navicular disease were nearly equal; however, the sensitivity of scintigraphy appeared to be greater than that of radiography. The greatest sensitivity and specificity were achieved when the results of radiography and scintigraphy were evaluated together. Differences in sensitivity were greatest when scintigraphy revealed lesions no...
Bjørn H, Sommer C, Schougård H, Henriksen SA, Nansen P.This study was undertaken to establish whether anthelmintic resistance was present in nematode parasites of horses in Denmark. Sixteen horse farms were selected for faecal egg count reduction (FECR) tests to measure the efficacy of the anthelmintic used. Resistance to benzimidazole anthelmintics was found on 13 of the 16 farms, with FECR values ranging from 80.0% to -101.3%. On the remaining 3 farms FECR was 100.0%, 99.3% and 97.2%. Results of a questionnaire study on anthelmintic usage, parasite control measures and management practices showed that horses in this study were treated on average...
Uhlinger C.A herd of 15 mature riding horses with a history of anorexia, weight loss, and lethargy was examined. The animals had been fed a 50/50 mixture of commercial sweet feed and corn screenings contaminated with a heavy growth of Fusarium moniliforme. Thirteen of the horses had one or more neurologic signs. The most characteristic signs were profound depression and mild ataxia. Over the 19-day course of the epizootic, the horses had increasing severe neurologic deficits, including unilateral blindness and delirium. Despite the clinical appearance of dehydration, 12 horses had low PCV (16 to 27%), he...
Rossdale PD, Ousey JC, Cottrill CM, Chavatte P, Allen WR, McGladdery AJ.Between 1985 and 1990, 25 Thoroughbred mares were classified as having an abnormal pregnancy on the basis of precocious signs of impending parturition. Throughout the remainder of their pregnancies, plasma progestagen and mammary secretion calcium concentrations were monitored. After parturition, evidence of placental pathology was recorded and their foals were assessed with regard to adrenocortical function and behaviour. Seven pony mares were used to establish a model of placental pathology and, following induced placental separation, were subjected to the same protocol. Control animals cons...
Cottrill CM, Jeffers-Lo J, Ousey JC, McGladdery AJ, Ricketts SW, Silver M, Rossdale PD.One hundred twenty-four horse placentas were evaluated according to gross appearance, weight and surface area. Grossly abnormal placentas were photographed, and histological sections were taken from abnormal appearing areas, and from representative areas (pregnant horn, non-pregnant horn, body and cervical pole) in both normal and abnormal placentas. Information about the resulting foals was obtained and correlations examined. Histological sections were reviewed and related to the resulting foals. Four normal fresh placentas were infused with dyes to ascertain the blood supply to various areas...
Martin BB, Nunamaker DM, Evans LH, Orsini JA, Palmer SE.Circumferential wiring was used to repair 12 mid-body fractures and four large basilar fractures of proximal sesamoid bones in 15 horses. Eighteen-gauge stainless steel wire was placed around both fragments in five horses, and through the proximal fragment and around the distal fragment in 10 horses. The horses were returned to work when they were clinically sound and fracture healing was evident radiographically. Eleven horses resumed athletic performance, three horses were used as breeding animals, and one horse was retired. Five horses performed at an athletic level equal to or better than ...
Dyson S.Clinical, ultrasonographic and radiographic features of proximal suspensory desmitis in the forelimb and the hindlimb are described. Acute cases may present with slight, localised, oedematous swelling, heat, distension of the medial palmar (plantar) vein and/or pain, whereas chronic cases or those rested immediately after onset of lameness usually have no detectable clinical signs suggestive of the source of pain. In these cases local analgesia is required to identify pain in the proximal metacarpal (metatarsal) region. Transverse ultrasonographic images of the suspensory ligament usually yiel...
Shoemaker RS, Martin GS, Hillmann DJ, Haynes PF, McClure JR, Schneiter HL.Two horses became acutely lame following a fall during strenuous exercise and were diagnosed as having disruption of the caudal component of the reciprocal apparatus. Clinical signs consisted of lameness of the right pelvic limb, characterized by flexion of the hock and simultaneous extension of the stifle. Radiography revealed an avulsion fracture from the supracondylar tuberosity and fossa of the distal portion of the femur in one horse. Clinical and radiographic findings indicated avulsion of the lateral origin of the gastrocnemius and superficial digital flexor muscles. Treatment consisted...
Ahn B, Zhang Y, Osterrieder N, O'Callaghan DJ.The 150 kbp genome of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) is composed of a unique long (UL) region and a unique short (Us) segment, which is flanked by identical internal and terminal repeat (IR and TR) sequences of 12.7 kbp. We constructed an EHV-1 lacking the entire IR (vL11ΔIR) and showed that the IR is dispensable for EHV-1 replication but that the vL11ΔIR exhibits a smaller plaque size and delayed growth kinetics. Western blot analyses of cells infected with vL11ΔIR showed that the synthesis of viral proteins encoded by the immediate-early, early, and late genes was reduced at immediate-early...
Bowker RM, Sonea IM, Vex KB, Caron JP.Substance P (SP) immunocytochemistry and receptor autoradiography were used to define the innervation of the equine synovial membrane of joints equivalent to the wrist and knuckle of man. SP-immunoreactive fibers were mainly concentrated around blood vessels in the subsynovial layer, although not exclusively, while in the more distal joint, SP fibers were more frequently seen in the synovial surface layer. Iodinated SP receptor autoradiography studies revealed silver grain concentrations in the advential layer of blood vessels associated with the vasa vasorum, on the vascular endothelium and i...
Flores M, Wajnberg E, Bemski G.Electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy has been used to study protons in nitrosyl horse heart myoglobin (MbNO). (1)H ENDOR spectra were recorded for different settings of the magnetic field. Detailed analysis of the ENDOR powder spectra, using computer simulation, based on the "orientation-selection" principle, leads to the identification of the available protons in the heme pocket. We observe hyperfine interactions of the N(HisF8)-Fe(2+)-N(NO) complex with five protons in axial and with eight protons in the rhombic symmetry along different orientations, including those of the ...
Taylor D, Hood DM, Wagner IP.To evaluate the short-term effects of 4 therapeutic shoeing systems on lameness and voluntary limb-load distribution in horses with chronic laminitis. Methods: 10 horses with chronic laminitis. Methods: A clinical trial was conducted that used a concurrent control, crossover design to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a standard flat shoe, fullered egg-bar shoe, heart-bar shoe, and modified equine digital support system to alleviate chronic lameness in horses. Therapeutic success was assessed during a 7-day period by use of subjective (Obel grade and clinical score) and objective (force-p...
Arosio P, Gatti G, Bolognesi M.Various precipitating agents were examined in order to crystallize horse heart and spleen ferritins. Cadmium sulfate induced the crystallization of the spleen ferritin, while 2-methyl-2,4-pentanediol and poly(ethylene glycol) only induced that of the heart ferritin. Isoelectric focusing analysis showed that the crystals grown from cadmium sulfate contained only the more acidic isoferritins, and those grown from methyl pentanediol only the less acidic isoferritins. Heart ferritin crystallizes in a cubic space group, as previously reported for spleen ferritin crystals grown from cadmium sulfate....
Warme PK, Scheraga HA.The reported X-ray structure of horse-heart ferricytochrome c has been refined by conformational energy calculations, using a three-stage computational procedure. In stage I, the atomic positions are adjusted to conform to idealized bond lengths and bond angles characteristic of small amino acid derivatives, while yet remaining as close as possible to the X-ray coordinates. In stage II, atomic overlaps are eliminated by adjusting the backbone and side-chain dihedral angles to minimize the nonbonded energy, hydrogen-bonded energy, and rotational energy contributions. In the final stage of refin...
Csik-Salmon J, Blais D, Vaillancourt D, Garon O, Bisaillon A.Loss of rear motor control is the main limiting factor in the use of caudal epidural anesthesia in the horse. In man and laboratory animals, a small dose of an opiate combined with a local anesthetic enhances analgesia without impairing motor function. Thus, the amount of local anesthetic administered may be reduced. Butorphanol is an opiate widely used in horses. It has a good margin of safety and few cardiorespiratory effects. The effects of lidocaine (0.25 mg/kg) and lidocaine-butorphanol (0.25 mg/kg, and 0.04 mg/kg, respectively) were compared in 2 groups of 5 healthy unsedated mares. Hors...
McQuillan S, Kearney C, Hoey S, Connolly S, Rowan C.Computed tomographic arthrography (CTA) has been described as a method for detecting articular cartilage defects in equine carpal joints; however, published studies on the effects of contrast volume for lesion detection are currently lacking. The purpose of this prospective, experimental, pilot study was to determine a threshold volume of iodinated contrast for CTA of the antebrachiocarpal (ABC) and middle carpal (MC) joints for detection of articular cartilage surface defects. Articular cartilage defects were iatrogenically created in the surfaces of the ABC and MC joints of 20 equine cadaver...
Gurusinghe S, Hilbert B, Trope G, Wang L, Bandara N, Strappe P.Immortalization of chondrocytes enables long term in vitro culture; however, the chondrogenic capacity of transformed cells varies, thus highlighting the need to develop a proliferative and tuneable chondrocyte cell line where hypertrophic differentiation can be controlled. In this study the SV40 large T antigen and human telomerase reverse transcriptase were employed to immortalize pooled equine chondrocytes through lentiviral vector mediated transduction either singly or on combination. Transformed chondrocytes proliferated stably over multiple passages, but resulted in significantly lower e...
Vázquez FJ, Vitoria A, Gómez-Arrue J, Fuente S, Barrachina L, de Blas I, Romero A.First cannulation is a critical manoeuvre in equine laparoscopy. This retrospective study aimed at the comparison of the frequency and type of complications detected when using different human laparoscopy devices for laparoscopic access in standing horses, and the influence of body condition in such complications. Forty-four procedures were included, and retrieved data comprised cannula insertion technique, body condition, and type and frequency of complications. Laparoscopic access techniques were classified into five groups: P: pneumoperitoneum created using Veress needle prior to cannulatio...
Mason JB, Gurda BL, Van Wettere A, Engiles JB, Wilson JM, Richardson DW.Our long-term aim is to develop a gene therapy approach for the prevention of laminitis in the contralateral foot of horses with major musculoskeletal injuries and non-weightbearing lameness. Objective: The goal of this study was to develop a practical method to efficiently deliver therapeutic proteins deep within the equine foot. Methods: Randomised in vivo experiment. Methods: We used recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors (rAAVs) to deliver marker genes using regional limb perfusion through the palmar digital artery of the horse. Results: Vector serotypes rAAV2/1, 2/8 and 2/9 all succes...
Rukavian D, Hasanbasic D, Ramic J, Zahirovic A, Ajanovic A, Beganovic K, Durmic-Pasic A, Kalamujic B, Pojskic N.The focus of this study was on genetic diversity of TB horse population raised in B&H. Genomic DNA was genotyped by using 17 microsatellite markers. A total of 103 alleles were detected. The average number of alleles per locus was 6.059 and effective number of alleles was 3.293. Means of observed and expected heterozygosity were calculated 0.645 and 0.696, respectively. The average PIC values was 0.649 and inbreeding coefficient was 0.090. Based on all observed parameters, ASB2 locus showed the highest genetic diversity while locus HMS2 was the least diverse. These results suggest that the pop...
Boyd EH, Allen WE.Plasma drug concentrations were measured after two commercially available potentiated sulphonamides, trimethoprim and sulfadoxine and trimethoprim and sulphadiazine, were infused daily for 2 and 3 days, respectively, into the uteri of pony mares which had been mated before ovulation. Intravenous administration of trimethoprim and sulfadoxine allowed uterine absorption of trimethoprim (23-43%) and sulfadoxine (29-34%) to be calculated. After intra-uterine administration trimethoprim and sulphadiazine were detected in the milk of a lactating mare. In order to maintain plasma concentrations likel...
Tantawichien T, Benjavongkulchai M, Wilde H, Jaijaroensup W, Siakasem A, Chareonwai S, Yountong C, Sitprija V.The high cost of postexposure prophylaxis for rabies is one reason that treatment is inadequate in developing countries. This problem has kindled interest in the use of equine rabies immune globulin, which is a less expensive, yet effective, substitute for human rabies immune globulin. Fatal anaphylaxis is a feared complication of the administration of heterologous serum; therefore, authoritative sources recommend prior skin testing. However, recommendations for methods of administering such a skin test and for its interpretation vary greatly. We embarked on a long-term study to develop guidel...
Hebenbrock M, Düe M, Holzhausen H, Sass A, Stadler P, Ellendorff F.Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are considered suitable to monitor the position and velocity of horses during cross-country competition or in training. Furthermore, simultaneous recording of life data such as heart rate could be useful to assess the horse's condition during exercise. To test the suitability and reliability of a commercially available GPS system with integrated heart rate recording system and with built in GSM for data transmission, the Fidelak Equipilot Type EP-2003-15/G-2.11 (EP-15/G) was evaluated first for reliability of pulse recording from a pulse generator within the ph...
García-Rubio I, Fittipaldi M, Trandafir F, Van Doorslaer S.In this work, we show the extreme power of multifrequency HYSCORE (hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy) techniques to unravel the hyperfine interactions of the electron spin with the remote nuclei in the heme site of high-spin ferric heme proteins. Horse heart aquo-metmyoglobin was used as a model system to demonstrate the power of these techniques. Experimental evidence was collected and assigned to protons of the proximal histidine ligand, to the mesoprotons of the heme ligand, and to two different protons of the distal water ligand. The latter difference relates to the stabilization...
Mariella J, Castagnetti C, Prosperi A, Scagliarini A, Peli A.The purpose of this study is to investigate the presence of IL-4, IL-8, IL-13 and IFN-γ in equine colostrum and in foals' serum. Samples were obtained from 14 mares and their healthy foals. Soon after parturition, 10ml of colostrum was collected, filtered, centrifuged and frozen until assayed. Blood samples were obtained from each foal at birth (TO) and again after 24h (T24), after which they were frozen until assayed. Serum IgG was measured at 24h of age with an immunoturbidimetric quantitative method. Cytokine concentration was determined using commercially available ELISA tests. Statistica...
Dash RF, Minshall GJ, Wright IM.Slab fractures of the third carpal bone (C3) are a common cause of lameness in Thoroughbred racehorses. Information on fracture morphology is commonly obtained from radiographs or CT. This retrospective, methods comparison aimed to explore the agreement between radiography and CT for imaging C3 slab fractures and discuss the contribution of the latter to clinical case management. Thoroughbred racehorses with a slab or incomplete slab fracture of C3 identified on radiographs that subsequently underwent CT examination were included. Fracture characteristics (location, plane, classification, disp...
Rojas G, Vargas M, Robles A, Gutiérrez JM.Twenty batches of polyvalent antivenom produced at the Instituto Clodomiro Picado were analyzed for turbidity, both before and after freezing-thawing and lyophilization. Eight batches became turbid upon freezing-thawing, and this change correlated with high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins, especially beta-lipoprotein. Since normal horse serum does not become turbid after freezing-thawing, despite the fact that it has high lipoprotein levels, the possibility was raised that phenol, used as a preservative during serum fractionation, might affect lipoproteins, inducing the a...
Faria R, Vicente A, Silva J.The aim of this study was to evaluate the sprint racing performance of Quarter Horses in Brazil. Estimating genetic parameters, trends and correlations were obtained by single- and two-trait analyses using Bayesian inference (earnings to 2 years of equestrian age, best time and time class at distances of 301 m and 402 m). The data comprised a period of 38 equestrian years (1978 to 2015) with 23,482 sprint race records from 5861 animals. The heritability estimates were of low to moderate magnitude, ranging from 0.10 to 0.37 (single-trait) and from 0.15 to 0.41 (two-traits), and the repeatabilit...
Bergfelt DR, Meira C, Fleury JJ, Fleury PD, Dell'Aqua JA, Adams GP.A regimen of progesterone plus estradiol (P&E) was used as a standard for ovarian synchronization to test the efficacy and evaluate the commercial application of ultrasound-guided follicle ablation as a non-steroidal alternative for ovulation synchronization in mares. Recipient mares at a private embryo transfer facility were at unknown stages of the estrous cycle at the start of the experiment on Day 1 when they were randomly assigned to an ablation group (n=18-21 mares) or to a P&E group (n=20-21 mares). In the ablation group, mares were lightly sedated and all follicles > or = 10...
Baxter GM, Tackett RL, Moore JN.Palmar digital arteries and veins removed surgically from healthy horses under general anesthesia were cut into 4 mm vascular rings, suspended in tissue baths, and attached to force displacement transducers for continuous measurement of vascular tension. In vitro vascular responses were determined for acetylcholine, acepromazine, isoxsuprine hydrochloride (isoxsuprine), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and prostaglandin I2 (prostacyclin). After preconstriction with norepinephrine hydrochloride (norepinephrine), or prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha), the concentrations needed to produce 50% maximum re...
Tobin T, Tai CY, Arnett S.A published method for the recovery of procaine from human plasma using 5M NaOH gave very poor recoveries. Investigation showed that under the recommended extraction conditions procaine was rapidly hydrolysed. Extraction into benzene of samples buffered to pH 9.0 with borate buffer allowed essentially 100% recovery of procaine from equine plasma and urine.