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Topic:Horses
"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.
Inhomogeneity of the density of Parascaris spp. eggs in faeces of individual foals and the use of hypothesis testing for treatment decision making. Faecal egg counts (FEC) are used widely for monitoring of parasite infection in animals, treatment decision-making and estimation of anthelmintic efficacy. When a single count or sample mean is used as a point estimate of the expectation of the egg distribution over some time interval, the variability in the egg density is not accounted for. Although variability, including quantifying sources, of egg count data has been described, the spatiotemporal distribution of nematode eggs in faeces is not well understood. We believe that statistical inference about the mean egg count for treatment decis...
Relationships between body dimensions, body weight, age, gender, breed and echocardiographic dimensions in young endurance horses. The heart's physiological adaptation to aerobic training leads to an increase in heart chamber size, and is referred to as the Athlete's heart. However, heart dimensions are also related to body weight (BWT), body size, growth and (in some species) breed. There are few published data on the relationships between heart dimensions and growth or aerobic training in Arabian and Arabian-related endurance horses. Therefore the objective of the present study was to describe the influence of body dimensions (body length (BL), thoracic circumference (TC), withers height (WH)), BWT, age, gender, breed (...
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, Embryo Culture, and Transfer of In Vitro-Produced Blastocysts. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is becoming a common clinical procedure in the horse, but little information is available on techniques for its performance. Each laboratory uses different procedures and different media for the steps involved with in vitro embryo production. This article outlines the procedures used in the Clinical Equine Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection Program at Texas A&M University for in vitro blastocyst production during the past 3 years.
Development of a peripheral nerve stimulator-guided technique for equine pudendal nerve blockade. The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a procedure for equine pudendal nerve block using a peripheral nerve locator. In the first experiment, six ponies were used to determine the relationship between elicited muscle contractions (anal, perineal or both) and nerves serving the perineal region (pudendal, caudorectal and perineal nerves) when methylene blue dye was injected using the electrolocation technique. This experiment showed that the pudendal nerve was approached effectively when both anal and perineal twitch were elicited during electrolocation. In a second experiment, seven ...
Is Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis infection (pigeon fever) in horses an emerging disease in western Canada? This report describes 5 horses in the southern Alberta region with typical and atypical external abscessation due to Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis (pigeon fever). "Pigeon fever" has recently been diagnosed in new geographic regions in North America and should be kept as a differential diagnosis by practitioners when an external or internal abscess is identified in a horse. L’infection parCorynebacterium pseudotuberculosis(fièvre du pigeon) chez les chevaux est-elle une maladie émergente dans l’Ouest canadien? Ce rapport décrit cinq chevaux dans la région sud de l’Alberta atteint...
Electrochemotherapy as a single or adjuvant treatment to surgery of cutaneous sarcoid tumours in horses: a 31-case retrospective study. The aim of our study was to evaluate the efficacy of electrochemotherapy (ECT) with cisplatin as a single or adjuvant treatment for sarcoids in equids. Different treatment options with different success rates were proposed. Thirty-one horses and one donkey with different clinical type, size and location of tumours were treated with ECT as a single treatment (18 animals with 52 tumour nodules) or as adjuvant treatment with marginal surgical excision (14 animals with 18 tumour nodules). In animals treated only with ECT with cisplatin, complete response was obtained in 48/52 (92.3 per cent) nodul...
[Heart disease in sports horses: Current recommendations of the 2014 ACVIM / ECEIM consensus statement]. Heart murmurs and arrhythmias are common in horses. Assessment of their clinical relevance concerning health, performance, safety and longevity of sports horses is of highest importance. A comprehensive cardiovascular examination is crucial for diagnosis and assessment of the severity of disease. Recently, an expert panel of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) and the European College of Equine Internal Medicine (ECEIM) developed a consensus statement containing recommendations for sports horses with heart disease. This article summarizes the most relevant recommendati...
Defining Trends in Global Gene Expression in Arabian Horses with Cerebellar Abiotrophy. Equine cerebellar abiotrophy (CA) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disease that affects the Purkinje neurons of the cerebellum and causes ataxia in Arabian foals. Signs of CA are typically first recognized either at birth to any time up to 6 months of age. CA is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait and is associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on equine chromosome 2 (13074277G>A), located in the fourth exon of TOE1 and in proximity to MUTYH on the antisense strand. We hypothesize that unraveling the functional consequences of the CA SNP using RNA-seq will elucidate the m...
Acute myeloid leukemia with basophilic differentiation in a 3-year-old Standardbred gelding. A 3-year-old Standardbred gelding with a history of pyrexia, persistent hemorrhage from the oral cavity, and a large, soft swelling at the junction of the caudal aspect of the mandibular rami and proximal neck was evaluated. The horse had neutropenia and anemia, with atypical granulated cells in a blood smear. Additional tests confirmed acute myeloid leukemia with basophilic differentiation, which has been reported in humans, cats, dogs, and cattle but not horses. Nous avons évalué un hongre Standardbred âgé de 3 ans avec une anamnèse de pyrexie, d’hémorragie persistante de la cavité...
More Than Just a Break from Treatment: How Substance Use Disorder Patients Experience the Stable Environment in Horse-Assisted Therapy. Inclusion of horse-assisted therapy (HAT) in substance use disorder (SUD) treatment is rarely reported. Our previous studies show improved treatment retention and the importance of the patient-horse relationship. This qualitative study used thematic analysis, within a social constructionist framework, to explore how eight patients experienced contextual aspects of HAT's contribution to their SUD treatment. Participants described HAT as a "break from usual treatment". However, four interrelated aspects of this experience, namely "change of focus", "activity", "identity", and "motivation," sugge...
Evaluation of an oral direct factor Xa inhibitor anticoagulant in healthy adult horses. To assess whether an oral direct factor Xa inhibitor (DiXaI) anticoagulant drug used at the low end of the recommended dose in people achieves presumed prophylactic plasma concentrations and does not induce bleeding in horses. Methods: Experimental study. Methods: Field study. Methods: Ten healthy adult horses. Methods: A DiXaI was administered at a dose of 0.125 mg/kg every 24 h orally for 4 days. Following a wash-out period of 2 weeks, 8 of 10 horses received daily subcutaneous doses of a low molecular weight heparin (dalteparin) for 4 consecutive days at 50 IU/kg. In both trials, antifactor...
Experimental induction of mycotic plaques in the guttural pouches of horses. Guttural pouch mycosis (GPM) is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition in horses. GPM is caused by a fungal invasion into the mucosal lining of the guttural pouches and, frequently, the associated neurovascular structures. Although several species of fungi have been associated with this disease, Aspergillus spp. appear to be the most common isolated from the guttural pouches. However, it remains unclear which are the predisposing factors leading to the development of the infection. The objectives of the present study were to experimentally reproduce an infection by Aspergillus fumig...
Objective assessment of the compensatory effect of clinical hind limb lameness in horses: 37 cases (2011-2014). OBJECTIVE To characterize and describe the compensatory load redistribution that results from unilateral hind limb lameness in horses. DESIGN Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 37 client-owned horses. PROCEDURES Medical records were reviewed to identify horses with unilateral hind limb lameness that responded positively (by objective assessment) to diagnostic local anesthesia during lameness evaluation and that were evaluated before and after diagnostic local anesthesia with an inertial sensor-based lameness diagnosis system. Horses were grouped as having hind limb lameness only, hind limb and...
Genetic diversity and population structure of Kazakh horses (Equus caballus) inferred from mtDNA sequences. The Kazakh horse is an important old horse breed in Xinjiang. They have contributed greatly to the breeding and improvement of other local horse breeds, yet their genetic diversity and population structure are not well understood. In the present study, we evaluated the genetic diversity of Kazakh horses and their relationship with other horse breeds using the mtDNA D-loop region, Cyt b gene, and a DNA fragment (nps 7974-9963, containing COX3, tRNA-Gly, ND3, and tRNA-Arg). A total of 130 Kazakh horses from 8 populations in China and Kazakhstan were analyzed. A total of 88 haplotypes (haplotype ...
A survey of UK prescribers’ experience of, and opinions on, anthelmintic prescribing practices for livestock and equines. The aim of this study was to determine practices, attitudes and experiences of UK prescribers of anthelmintics for horses and livestock. A questionnaire was sent by direct email to groups licenced to prescribe these medicines. These were veterinarians, Suitably Qualified Persons (SQPs, registered with the Animal Medicines Training Regulatory Authority) and veterinary pharmacists. The survey was also advertised through social media. It comprised questions relating to demographics, training experiences, current prescribing practices, as well as personal opinions on anthelmintic selection, diagno...
Use of large-scale veterinary data for the investigation of antimicrobial prescribing practices in equine medicine. As antimicrobial resistant bacterial strains continue to emerge and spread in human and animal populations, understanding prescription practices is key in benchmarking current performance and setting goals. Antimicrobial prescription (AP) in companion veterinary species is widespread, but is neither monitored nor restricted in the USA and Canada. The veterinary use of certain antimicrobial classes is discouraged in some countries, in the hope of preserving efficacy for serious human infections. Objective: The aim of this study was to ascertain the rate of prescription of a number of 'reserved'...
Confirmatory analysis of etanercept in equine plasma by LC-MS for doping control. Etanercept is a protein-based medication for the treatment of human patients with rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune-based diseases; its pharmacological action is to inhibit and antagonize tumour necrosis factor alpha. Etanercept was rumoured to be used in horse racing in North America. To detect such use, the aim of this study was to develop a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method for confirmation of etanercept in equine plasma. Etanercept was extracted from plasma by anti-human IgG antibody linked to magnetic beads. The analyte was reduced and alkylated, and then dige...
Photoacoustic calorimetry studies of CO photo-dissociation from chloramine-T modified horse heart cytochrome-c. Treatment of horse heart Cytochrome-c (Cc) with N-chloro-4-toluosulfonamide (Chloramine-t, CT) results in the oxidation of methionine (Met) residues to the corresponding sulfoxide including the distal heme ligand, Met80. The resulting Fe-sulfoxide coordination is sufficiently labile in the ferrous form to be displaced by gaseous ligands, including CO. Photolysis of the CO-CT-Cc complex provides an opportunity to examine ligand binding dynamics that are associated with a relatively rigid distal heme pocket. In this work, photoacoustic calorimetry (PAC) was utilized to obtain the kinetics as wel...
Influence of oral glucosamine supplementation in young horses challenged with intra-articular lipopolysaccharide. Fourteen yearling Quarter horses (351 to 470 kg) were utilized in a randomized complete block design to evaluate potential of glucosamine hydrochloride (HCl) to mitigate intra-articular inflammation following a single inflammatory insult. Horses were blocked by BW, age, and sex, and randomly assigned to treatments for a 98-d experiment. Treatments consisted of a control diet (CON; = 7) fed 1% BW per d (as-fed) of concentrate only or a treatment diet ( = 7) of concentrate top dressed with 30 mg/kg BW glucosamine HCl (99.6% purity; GLU30) offered at 12 h intervals. Horses were maintained in indi...
Time required by different anthelmintics to reach expected efficacy levels in horses infected by strongyles. The aim of this study was to determine the time required by different anthelmintic agents to reduce strongyle egg shedding in horses. Fifty horses were divided into five homogenous groups based on faecal egg counts (FECs). Treatment groups received either ivermectin; moxidectin; fenbendazole; piperazine; or no treatment (control group). Faecal examinations were performed 4, 8, 12, 18, 24, 36 and 48h after the anthelmintic treatment. After this period, faecal samples were taken every 24h over the next 12days and finally on alternate days (48-h intervals) for another 14days until the end of the ...
POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY OF THE EQUINE DISTAL LIMB: EXPLORATORY STUDY. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a highly sensitive, noninvasive imaging technique for quantifying biological functions of tissues. However, at the time of this study, PET imaging applications had not been reported in the horse. The aim of this exploratory study was to determine whether a portable high-resolution PET scanner could be used to image the equine distal limb. Images of the front feet and fetlocks of three research horses, with known lesions localized to the distal front limbs, were acquired under general anesthesia after administration of 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F-FDG), wi...
Brazilian borreliosis with special emphasis on humans and horses. Borreliosis caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato is a cosmopolitan zoonosis studied worldwide; it is called Lyme disease in many countries of the Northern Hemisphere and Lyme-like or Baggio-Yoshinari Syndrome in Brazil. However, despite the increasing number of suspect cases, this disease is still neglected in Brazil by the medical and veterinary communities. Brazilian Lyme-like borreliosis likely involves capybaras as reservoirs and Amblyomma and Rhipicephalus ticks as vectors. Thus, domestic animals can serve as key carriers in pathogen dissemination. This zoonosis has been little studi...
The effects of dose and diet on the pharmacodynamics of omeprazole in the horse. Conflicting data are presented in the current literature regarding the efficacy of omeprazole for suppressing gastric acidity in the horse. Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the duration of intraday acid suppression achieved with two doses of omeprazole under two different dietary conditions. Methods: A four-way crossover design. Methods: Six adult Thoroughbred horses instrumented with percutaneous gastrotomy tubes were used. Intragastric pH was measured for continuous 23 h periods (08.00-07.00 h) for six consecutive days (Days 0-5). Baseline data was recorded on Day 0 ...
Genetic characterization of equine herpesvirus 1 isolates from abortion outbreaks in India. Equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1) is a common pathogen of horses that causes upper respiratory tract disease, abortion, neonatal death and neurological disease. The neurological form of disease is called equine herpesvirus myeloencephalopathy (EHM). During the past decade, the incidence of EHM has been on the rise in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. Some EHV1 isolates causing EHM exhibit a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the DNA polymerase gene (ORF30) at position 2254 (A to G). Further, based on polymorphism in the ORF68, EHV1 isolates have been classified into different groups. T...
Neurodegeneration in equine grass sickness is not attributable to niacin deficiency. The aetiology of equine grass sickness (EGS) is currently unknown. We hypothesised that an acute deficiency of niacin (vitamin B3), which plays a key role in neural homeostasis, may contribute to neurodegeneration in EGS. Niacin deficiency can potentially result from ingestion of niacin antagonists produced by pasture mycotoxigenic fungi. Objective: To compare the niacin status of EGS and control grazing horses. A secondary objective was to compare blood concentrations of vitamins B1, B2 and B6 in EGS and control grazing horses to determine if the status of these vitamins was altered in EGS. M...
Neoplasia in 125 donkeys (Equus asinus): literature review and a survey of five veterinary schools in the United States and Canada. A diagnosis of neoplasia was noted in 125 of 357 donkeys (35%) in our review of medical records from 5 veterinary schools in the United States and Canada. Equine sarcoid was the most common tumor in our study, accounting for 72% of all tumors and 82% of cutaneous tumors. Soft-tissue sarcomas were the second most common skin tumors. All other types of neoplasia were rare. Important differences in the occurrence of neoplasia in donkeys compared to horses included the rarity or absence of squamous cell carcinoma in any organ system and gray horse melanoma. Lymphosarcoma, the most common malignant...
Characterisation of equine satellite cell transcriptomic profile response to β-hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB). β-Hydroxy-β-methylbutyrate (HMB) is a popular ergogenic aid used by human athletes and as a supplement to sport horses, because of its ability to aid muscle recovery, improve performance and body composition. Recent findings suggest that HMB may stimulate satellite cells and affect expressions of genes regulating skeletal muscle cell growth. Despite the scientific data showing benefits of HMB supplementation in horses, no previous study has explained the mechanism of action of HMB in this species. The aim of this study was to reveal the molecular background of HMB action on equine skeletal m...
Heritability and factors associated with number of harness race starts in the Spanish Trotter horse population. Longevity/durability is a relevant trait in racehorses. Genetic analysis and knowledge of factors that influence number of harness race starts would be advantageous for both horse welfare and the equine industry. Objective: To perform a genetic analysis on harness racing using number of races as a measure of longevity/durability and to identify factors associated with career length in Spanish Trotter Horses (STH). Methods: Longitudinal study. Methods: Performance data (n = 331,970) on the STH population for harness racing at national level between 1990 and 2014 were used. A grouped data model ...
Pharmacokinetics of dextromethorphan and its metabolites in horses following a single oral administration. Dextromethorphan is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) non-competitive antagonist commonly used in human medicine as an antitussive. Dextromethorphan is metabolized in humans by cytochrome P450 2D6 into dextrorphan, which is reported to be more potent than the parent compound. The goal of this study is to describe the metabolism of and determine the pharmacokinetics of dextromethorphan and its major metabolites following oral administration to horses. A total of 23 horses received a single oral dose of 2 mg/kg. Blood samples were collected at time 0 and at various times up to 96 h post drug ad...
Methods and Variables Associated with the Risk of Septic Arthritis Following Intra-Articular Injections in Horses: A Survey of Veterinarians. To determine common methods for intra-articular injections and variables associated with the risk of septic arthritis following intra-articular injection in the horse. Methods: Cross-sectional survey. Methods: Equine veterinarians. Methods: A link to an online survey was distributed to equine practitioners in 2014. Responses for descriptive data were tabulated. Data on infection rates obtained from medical records were analyzed. Variables associated with the risk of septic arthritis were determined using χ or Fisher's exact tests and logistic regression. Results: Common current methods for in...
