The equine immune system is a complex network of cells, tissues, and organs that work collaboratively to defend against pathogens and maintain homeostasis. It consists of innate and adaptive components, each with distinct functions and mechanisms. The innate immune system provides the first line of defense through physical barriers, phagocytic cells, and the complement system. The adaptive immune system involves lymphocytes, such as B cells and T cells, which generate specific responses to antigens and provide immunological memory. Research in equine immunology explores the interactions between these components, the impact of genetic and environmental factors on immune function, and the development of vaccines and therapeutics. This page gathers peer-reviewed studies and scholarly articles focusing on the mechanisms, regulation, and clinical applications of the equine immune system in health and disease.
Fingerhut L, Ohnesorge B, von Borstel M, Schumski A, Strutzberg-Minder K, Mörgelin M, Deeg CA, Haagsman HP, Beineke A, von Köckritz-Blickwede M....Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is considered one of the most important eye diseases in horses and typically appears with relapsing inflammatory episodes without systemic effects. Various disorders have been described as an initial trigger, including infections. Independent of the initiating cause, there are numerous indications that ERU is an immune-mediated disease. We investigated whether neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) are part of the ERU pathogenesis. Therefore, vitreous body fluids (VBF), sera, and histological sections of the eye from ERU-diseased horses were analyzed for the prese...
Cvitas I, Galichet A, Ling SC, Müller EJ, Marti E.Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) plays a key role in the development of allergic inflammation. Little is known about possible triggers of equine TSLP expression. Objective: To investigate TSLP expression in equine insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) skin lesions. The capacity of TLR 1-8 ligands (L) and of atopic cytokine milieu as potential triggers of TSLP and of interleukin (IL)-6 as a downstream effector molecule of TLR signalling, were examined in primary equine keratinocyte cultures. Methods: Lesional skin from IBH-affected and healthy skin from control-horses (n = 9 each group) was s...
Kamm JL, Parlane NA, Riley CB, Gee EK, Dittmer KE, McIlwraith CW.As the search for an immune privileged allogeneic donor mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) line continues in equine medicine, the characterization of the cells between different sources becomes important. Our research seeks to more clearly define the MSC marker expression of different equine MSC donors. The bone marrow-derived MSCs from two equine breeds and different blood donor-types were compared over successive culture passages to determine the differential expression of important antigens. Eighteen Thoroughbreds and 18 Standardbreds, including 8 blood donor (erythrocyte Aa, Ca, and Qa antigen ne...
Siemsen DW, Kirpotina LN, Malachowa N, Schepetkin IA, Porter AR, Lei B, DeLeo FR, Quinn MT.The development of new advances in understanding the role of neutrophils in inflammation requires effective procedures for isolating and purifying neutrophils. Methods for isolating human neutrophils are fairly standard, and some are covered in other chapters of this volume and previous editions. However, procedures for isolating neutrophils from nonhuman species used to model human diseases vary from those used in isolating human neutrophils and are not as well developed. Since neutrophils are highly reactive and sensitive to small perturbations, the methods of isolation are important to avo...
Oladunni FS, Sarkar S, Reedy S, Balasuriya UBR, Horohov DW, Chambers TM.Equid herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) is a viral pathogen of horse populations worldwide spread by the respiratory route and is known for causing outbreaks of neurologic syndromes and abortion storms. Previously, we demonstrated that an EHV-1 strain of the neuropathogenic genotype, T953, downregulates the beta interferon (IFN-β) response in equine endothelial cells (EECs) at 12 h postinfection (hpi). In the present study, we explored the molecular correlates of this inhibition as clues toward an understanding of the mechanism. Data from our study revealed that EHV-1 infection of EECs significantly red...
Lancheros-Buitrago J, Rodriguez-Villamil P, Gregory J, Bastos H, Camacho CA, Caballeros JE, Cazales N, Barros E, José de Jesus Silva M, Pimentel A....Characterization of the uterine proteome before the entry of the conceptus to the uterus is essential to know the factors involved in the physiological events of gestation. The objective of the study was to compare proteomic profile of uterine fluid collected on day 5 post ovulation of cyclic and inseminated mares. Samples of endometrial secretion were recovered over 2 cycles during the fifth day post ovulation. The first cycle constituted the Cyclic group and in the following cycle, the same mares were inseminated and considered as the Inseminated group. All the samples were subjected to two-...
Kumar R, Yadav SC, Kumar S, Dilbaghi N.A rapid flow-through immunoassay using protein A labeled gold nanoparticles (GNPs) for the qualitative detection of trypanosomosis in equine serum samples was developed. The flow-through device consisted of antigen-coated nitrocellulose membrane fixed on absorbent pads. The GNPs based detection probe was used as the colored marker. The assay can be employed for the detection of specific antibodies at 14 days post-infection in the infected pooled serum samples of equines. The assay can be conducted in < 5 min. The results of the flow-through assay were comparable with the methods like E...
Bond SL, Hundt J, Léguillette R.Mild equine asthma is a common inflammatory airway disease of the horse. The primary treatment of mild equine asthma is corticosteroids. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of injected dexamethasone on relative IL-1β, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12p35, IL-17, IL-23, IFN-γ, Eotaxin-2 and TNF-α mRNA expression in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid in healthy Thoroughbred horses (n = 6), and those with mild equine asthma (n = 7). Results: Horses with mild equine asthma had a significantly greater bronchoalveolar lavage mast cell percentage than healthy horses...
Barbosa Costa G, Marinho PES, Vilela APP, Saraiva-Silva AT, Crispim APC, Borges IA, Dutra AGS, Lobato ZIP, Dos Reis JKP, de Oliveira DB, Drumond BP....Saint Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that occurs throughout the Americas, and is considered a public health threat. In Brazil, SLEV has been detected from human cases associated with dengue-like disease, but no neurological symptoms were reported. Furthermore, the epidemiology of SLEV in human populations is still poorly explored in the country. We reported serological and molecular detection of SLEV in a healthy population of equids and humans from rural areas in Southeast Brazil. A plaque reduction neutralization test was applied, and neutralizing antibodies w...
Oladunni FS, Reedy S, Balasuriya UBR, Horohov DW, Chambers TM.Equine herpesvirus type 4 (EHV-4) is mildly pathogenic but is a common cause of respiratory disease in horses worldwide. We previously demonstrated that unlike EHV-1, EHV-4 is not a potent inducer of type-I IFN and does not suppress that IFN response, especially during late infection, when compared to EHV-1 infection in equine endothelial cells (EECs). Here, we investigated the impact of EHV-4 infection in EECs on type-I IFN signaling molecules at 3, 6, and 12 hpi. Findings from our study revealed that EHV-4 did not induce nor suppress TLR3 and TLR4 expression in EECs at all the studied time...
Fedorka CE, Loux SL, Scoggin KE, Adams AA, Troedsson MHT, Ball BA.The tolerance of pregnancy by the maternal immune system is balanced between recognition and protection. In the human this is controlled by balancing helper T cell populations (Th1, Th2) in addition to immune suppression from the regulatory arm (Tregs), but this has not been evaluated in the horse. RNA sequencing was performed on chorioallantois and endometrium of mares at 120, 180, 300 and 330 days of gestation (n = 4/stage), as well as 45-day chorioallantois (n = 4) and diestrus endometrium (n = 3). Transcripts were selected for relativity to Th1, Th2, or Treg-associated. qPCR an...
Schnabel CL, Babasyan S, Rollins A, Freer H, Wimer CL, Perkins GA, Raza F, Osterrieder N, Wagner B.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) outbreaks continue to occur despite widely used vaccination. Therefore, development of EHV-1 vaccines providing improved immunity and protection is ongoing. Here, an open reading frame 2 deletion mutant of the neuropathogenic EHV-1 strain Ab4 (Ab4ΔORF2) was tested as a vaccine candidate. Three groups of horses ( = 8 each) were infected intranasally with Ab4ΔORF2 or the parent Ab4 virus or were kept as noninfected controls. Horses infected with Ab4ΔORF2 had reduced fever and nasal virus shedding compared to those infected with Ab4 but mounted similar ada...
Dern K, Burns TA, Watts MR, van Eps AW, Belknap JK.Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is consistently increased in the digital lamellae in different studies of sepsis-related laminitis (SRL). IL-6 signalling through the gp130 receptor activates similar signalling (i.e. mTORC1-related signalling) previously reported to be activated in models of endocrinopathic laminitis. Objective: To assess the activation state of signalling proteins downstream of IL-6/gp130 receptor complex activation in an experimental model of SRL. Methods: Randomised experimental study. Methods: Lamellar phospho-(P) protein concentrations downstream of the IL-6/gp130 receptors were asse...
White SJ, Moore-Colyer M, Marti E, Hannant D, Gerber V, Coüetil L, Richard EA, Alcocer M.Severe equine asthma (sEA), which closely resembles human asthma, is a debilitating and performance-limiting allergic respiratory disorder which affects 14% of horses in the Northern Hemisphere and is associated with increased allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) against a range of environmental proteins. A comprehensive microarray platform was developed to enable the simultaneous detection of allergen-specific equine IgE in serum against a wide range of putative allergenic proteins. The microarray revealed a plethora of novel pollen, bacteria, mould and arthropod proteins significant in t...
Dahmani M, Davoust B, Sambou M, Bassene H, Scandola P, Ameur T, Raoult D, Fenollar F, Mediannikov O.Our study aimed to assess the diversity of the species of Anaplasmataceae in Senegal that infect animals and ticks in three areas: near Keur Momar Sarr (northern region), Dielmo and Diop (Sine Saloum, central region of Senegal), and in Casamance (southern region of Senegal). Methods: A total of 204 ticks and 433 blood samples were collected from ruminants, horses, donkeys and dogs. Ticks were identified morphologically and by molecular characterization targeting the 12S rRNA gene. Molecular characterization of species of Anaplasmataceae infecting Senegalese ticks and animals was conducted usin...
Sievert M, Krohn J, Wehrend A.Due to the special structure of the equine placenta, foals depend on an adequate intake of high-quality colostrum post natum in order to ensure the development of passive immunity. The quality of the colostrum is determined, among other things, by the IgG content. This may be evaluated in the colostrum by direct and indirect methods (density and refractive index). The density of the colostrum is measured by a colostrometer and should amount to at least 1060 g/l. Refractometry is suitable for assessing the relative density or refractive index. Good equine colostrum has a Brix value of at leas...
Gonzales-Viera O, Fritz H, Mete A.A 7-month-old female mixed breed foal with a 2-day history of recumbency and inability to open its mouth convulsed acutely and died and was submitted for necropsy examination. The foal was thin and large patches of haemorrhage were present throughout the peritoneal wall, the diaphragmatic surfaces and the retroperitoneum. Numerous nematode larvae were visible on the serosal surfaces and penetrated and embedded into the subserosa associated with the haemorrhages. The dorsal portion of the abdominal diaphragm had a partial tear and large numbers of nematodes were within the muscle fibres. Histol...
Kydd JH, Hannant D, Robinson RS, Bryant N, Osterrieder N.Equid herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) causes respiratory and neurological disease and late gestation abortion in pregnant mares. Current vaccines contain either inactivated or live EHV-1, but fail to provide complete clinical or virological protection, namely prevention of nasopharyngeal shedding and cell-associated viraemia. Thus, the development of novel products, such as modified live virus (MLV) vaccines which stimulate virus-specific, humoral and cell mediated immune responses more effectively remains a priority. Two groups of weaned foals (n = 6 each group) were used in a longitudinal, prospec...
Blanco-Lobo P, Rodriguez L, Reedy S, Oladunni FS, Nogales A, Murcia PR, Chambers TM, Martinez-Sobrido L.Vaccination remains the most effective approach for preventing and controlling equine influenza virus (EIV) in horses. However, the ongoing evolution of EIV has increased the genetic and antigenic differences between currently available vaccines and circulating strains, resulting in suboptimal vaccine efficacy. As recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the inclusion of representative strains from clade 1 and clade 2 Florida sublineages of EIV in vaccines may maximize the protection against presently circulating viral strains. In this study, we used reverse genetics tech...
Sheats MK, Davis KU, Poole JA.Farmers are routinely exposed to organic dusts and aeroallergens that can have adverse respiratory health effects including asthma. Horses are farm-reared large animals with similar exposures and can develop equine asthma syndrome (EAS). This review aims to compare the etiology, pathophysiology, and immunology of asthma in horses compared to farmers and highlights the horse as a potential translational animal model for organic dust-induced asthma in humans. Severe EAS shares many clinical and pathological features with various phenotypes of human asthma including allergic, non-allergic, late o...
Lindenberg F, Krych L, Kot W, Fielden J, Frøkiær H, van Galen G, Nielsen DS, Hansen AK.Shortly after birth the mammalian gut is colonized, by a transient microbiota, highly susceptible to environment and diet, that eventually stabilizes and becomes the resident gut microbiota. In a window of opportunity during the colonization, oral tolerance is established towards resident bacteria. In this study, the development of the equine gut microbiota was investigated in ten foals from parturition until post weaning. We found great differences in the core species of the gut microbiota composition between time-matched samples on Day 7 and 20 post-partum. Between day 20 and Day 50 post-par...
Yaneselli K, Barrachina L, Remacha AR, Algorta A, Vitoria A, Cequier A, Romero A, Vázquez FJ, Maisonnave J, Rodellar C.Propagation ex vivo of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) requires culture medium supplementation. Fetal bovine serum (FBS) has long been the gold standard supplement, but its use is being questioned mainly due to ethical and safety issues. The use of platelet lysate (PL) as substitute of FBS has been proposed but little is known about its effects on equine MSCs characteristics including their immune profile. The aim of this work was to investigate for the first time the effect of allogenic PL on the immunogenic and immunomodulatory gene expression profile of equine bone marrow derived MSCs (eBM-MS...
Dennis SJ, Meyers AE, Hitzeroth II, Rybicki EP.African horse sickness is a devastating disease that causes great suffering and many fatalities amongst horses in sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by nine different serotypes of the orbivirus African horse sickness virus (AHSV) and it is spread by Culicoid midges. The disease has significant economic consequences for the equine industry both in southern Africa and increasingly further afield as the geographic distribution of the midge vector broadens with global warming and climate change. Live attenuated vaccines (LAV) have been used with relative success for many decades but carry the risk o...
Chung MJ, Park S, Son JY, Lee JY, Yun HH, Lee EJ, Lee EM, Cho GJ, Lee S, Park HS, Jeong KS.In previous work, we established an equine induced pluripotent stem cell line (E-iPSCs) from equine adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) using a lentiviral vector encoding four transcription factors: Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc. In the current study, we attempted to differentiate these established E-iPSCs into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) by serial passaging using MSC-defined media for stem cell expansion. Differentiation of the MSCs was confirmed by analyzing expression levels of the MSC surface markers CD44 and CD29, and the pluripotency markers Nanog and Oct4. Results indicated that the E-iPS...
Di Rubbo A, McNabb L, Klein R, White JR, Colling A, Dimitrov DS, Broder CC, Middleton D, Lunt RA.Maintenance of Hendra virus (HeV) in pteropid bat populations has been associated with spillover events in horses, humans and dogs. Experimental studies have demonstrated infections for several other species including guinea pigs, cats and ferrets. The criteria of a sensitive and specific serological test that is effective for a range of species, but which does not require use of live virus, has not been satisfactorily addressed by currently available tests. We have evaluated the use of two HeV neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in a blocking format enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (bE...
Poelaert KCK, Van Cleemput J, Laval K, Xie J, Favoreel HW, Nauwynck HJ.The ancestral equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV1), closely related to human herpes viruses, exploits leukocytes to reach its target organs, accordingly evading the immune surveillance system. Circulating EHV1 strains can be divided into abortigenic/neurovirulent, causing reproductive/neurological disorders. Neurovirulent EHV1 more efficiently recruits monocytic CD172a cells to the upper respiratory tract (URT), while abortigenic EHV1 tempers monocyte migration. Whether similar results could be expected for T lymphocytes is not known. Therefore, we questioned whether differences in T cell recruitment c...
Placci M, Marliani G, Sabioni S, Gabai G, Mondo E, Borghetti P, De Angelis E, Accorsi PA.In the equestrian world, two different types of management can be distinguished: traditional management and natural boarding. The aim of this research was to compare hormonal, hematological and immunological parameters of 47 horses kept in these two different managements. Blood and horsehair of the horses were sampled to determine DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) and cortisol concentration through RIA. Moreover, blood count was conducted, and flow cytometry was employed to phenotype lymphocyte subpopulations. Results showed that, in horsehair, DHEA concentration was significantly higher in natura...
León B, Jiménez C, González R, Ramirez-Carvajal L.The first complete coding sequence of the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus IE, isolated from a Costa Rican mare with severe encephalitis, was confirmed by histological and viral whole-genome analyses. The isolated virus grouped in the Pacific cluster.
Lindenberg F, Krych L, Fielden J, Kot W, Frøkiær H, van Galen G, Nielsen DS, Hansen AK.Billions of bacteria inhabit the gastrointestinal tract. Immune-microbial cross talk is responsible for immunological homeostasis, and symbiotic microbial species induce regulatory immunity, which helps to control the inflammation levels. In this study we aimed to identify species within the equine intestinal microbiota with the potential to induce regulatory immunity. These could be future targets for preventing or treating low-grade chronic inflammation occurring as a result of intestinal microbial changes and disruption of the homeostasis. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was performed on ...
Fedorka CE, Ball BA, Scoggin KE, Loux SC, Troedsson MHT, Adams AA.Ascending placentitis is one of the leading causes of abortion in the horse. Minimal work has focused on its effect on fetal fluids or the antenatal immune response of the fetus. Placentitis was induced via transcervical inoculation of Streptococcus equi ssp Zooepidemicus, and fluids/serum/tissues were collected 4-6 days later following euthanasia. Cytokine concentrations were detected using a multiplex immunoassay within fetal fluids (amniotic and allantoic) and serum (maternal and fetal) in inoculated and control mares. In addition, tissues from fetal (spleen, liver, lung, umbilicus, amnioa...
Hemphill DD, McIlwraith CW, Samulski RJ, Goodrich LR.Adeno-associated virus (AAV) receptors range from heparan sulfate proteoglycan to sialic acid moieties present on cell surfaces. Abundance of the glycan profiles is greatly influenced by animal species, cell type, and culture conditions. The objective of this study was to determine whether AAV serotypes' transduction efficiencies specifically in the equine monolayer culture model are an accurate representation of transduction efficiencies in tissue explants, a model more closely related to in vivo transduction. It was found that AAV 2 and 2.5 transduced cells more efficiently in explants than ...
Wise LN, Kappmeyer LS, Silva MG, White SN, Grause JF, Knowles DP.Certain countries including the United States remain non-endemic for particular infectious diseases such as equine piroplasmosis through import restrictions and surveillance. Endemic regions often employ premunition as the primary method to control disease, however in non-endemic countries, chemosterilization combined with methods to confirm parasite elimination are required to maintain disease-free status. The ability of imidocarb diproprionate (ID) to clear persistent Theileria equi infection from infected horses has been shown through the inability of treated horses to transmit via blood tr...
Tomlinson JE, Taberner E, Boston RC, Owens SD, Nolen-Walston RD.There is a markedly reduced half-life of transfused RBCs when donor and recipient cats or humans are cross-match incompatible. Only 10-20% of horses have naturally occurring alloantibodies. Therefore, cross-match testing before blood transfusion is not always performed. Objective: Cross-match incompatibility predicts shortened RBC survival time as compared to that of compatible or autologous blood. Methods: Twenty healthy adult horses. Methods: Prospective trial. Blood type, anti-RBC antibody screen (before and 1 month after transfusion) and major and minor cross-match determined 10 donor-reci...
Fine DL, Jenkins E, Martin SS, Glass P, Parker MD, Grimm B.A multisystem approach was used to assess the efficiency of several methods for inactivation of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) vaccine candidates. A combination of diverse assays (plaque, in vitro cytopathology and mouse neurovirulence) was used to verify virus inactivation, along with the use of a specific ELISA to measure retention of VEEV envelope glycoprotein epitopes in the development of several inactivated VEEV candidate vaccines derived from an attenuated strain of VEEV (V3526). Incubation of V3526 aliquots at temperatures in excess of 64 degrees C for periods >30 min i...
Nakajima H, Ushimi C.Antigenicity of purified equine infectious anemia (EIA) virus was examined by immunodiffusion against sera obtained from horses experimentally infected with EIA virus. The purified virus reacted with the infected horse serum, and virus-specific precipitating antibody was demonstrated. Furthermore, it was found that purified EIA virus reacted against the serum of horses infected with all strains of EIA virus which were antigenically different from one another. From the result, group-specific components of the virus rather than strain-specific ones were considered to be involved in the reaction....
Silver IA, Brown PN, Goodship AE, Lanyon LE, McCullagh KG, Perry GC, Williams IF.This project was carried out over a five year period (1977 to 1981 inclusive) at the University of Bristol following discussion between the British Veterinary Association and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons about the efficacy of, and ethical justification for, the practice of 'firing' (cautery). These discussions had been promoted by parliamentary questions but led to no firm conclusions because previously reported clinical investigations on specific treatments lacked adequate comparisons and controls and thus did not provide scientifically acceptable, statistically valid data. The pr...
Cybinski DH, St George TD, Paull NI.Neutralising antibody to Akabane virus was shown to develop in cattle in northern Australia throughout the year and also on the east coast of New South Wales in the summer during 1975/1976. Other species found to have antibody to Akabane virus were buffaloes, horses, camels and sheep, but no antibody was found in domestic chickens, ducks, wallabies or man. The biting midge Culicoides brevitarsis has been detected in all the major areas where antibody was demonstrated in this study.
Wilkie BN.Effective resistance to respiratory tract infection depends principally on specific immunity on mucosal surfaces of the upper or lower respiratory tract. Respiratory tract immune response comprises antibody and cell-mediated systems and may be induced most readily by surface presentation of replicating agents but can result from parenteral or local presentation of highly immunogenic antigens. Upper and lower respiratory tract systems differ in immunologic competence, with the lungs having a greater inventory of protective mechanisms than the trachea or nose. Several effective vaccines have bee...
McCollum WH, Little TV, Timoney PJ, Swerczek TW.Twelve geldings all became infected when inoculated intranasally with the KY-84 strain of equine arteritis virus (EAV), a strain previously shown to be capable of establishing the carrier state in the stallion. With the exception of one animal that showed no effects other than pyrexia, all of the geldings developed clinical signs characteristic of equine viral arteritis (EVA). The geldings were febrile for varying periods within the range of 2-10 days after inoculation. Viraemia occurred from day 2 onwards, for periods varying from 9 to at least 19 days. Nasal shedding of virus began 2-4 days ...
Schnabel CL, Wemette M, Babasyan S, Freer H, Baldwin C, Wagner B.Chemokines are soluble molecules directing immune cell trafficking and homing, mediating inflammation, and initiating immune responses to infection. In horses, the analysis of chemokines has been limited by the lack of specific antibodies. We generated mAbs specific for the equine C-C motif chemokine ligands (CCL) CCL2 (MCP-1), CCL3 (MIP-1α), CCL5 (RANTES) and CCL11 (eotaxin) using hybridoma technology. Antibody specificity was confirmed by intracellular staining of Chinese Hamster Ovary cells transfected with expression vectors encoding for CCL2, CCL3, CCL5, or CCL11. Transfectants were stai...
Scharrenberg A, Gerber V, Swinburne JE, Wilson AD, Klukowska-Rötzler J, Laumen E, Marti E.Equine recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) is a chronic lower airway disease of the horse caused by hypersensitivity reactions to inhaled stable dust, including mould spores such as Aspergillus fumigatus. The goals of this study were to investigate whether total serum IgE levels and allergen-specific IgE and IgG subclasses are influenced by genetic factors and/or RAO and whether quantitative trait loci (QTL) could be identified for these parameters. The offspring of two RAO-affected sires (S1: n=56 and S2: n=65) were grouped by stallion and disease status, and total serum IgE levels and specifi...
Gershwin LJ.Allergic responses occur in humans, rodents, non-human primates, avian species, and all of the domestic animals. These responses are mediated by immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies that bind to mast cells and cause release/synthesis of potent mediators. Clinical syndromes include naturally occurring asthma in humans and cats; atopic dermatitis in humans, dogs, horses, and several other species; food allergies; and anaphylactic shock. Experimental induction of asthma in mice, rats, monkeys, sheep, and cats has helped to reveal mechanisms of pathogenesis of asthma in humans. All of these species s...
Magnarelli LA, Flavell RA, Padula SJ, Anderson JF, Fikrig E.Serum samples from dogs and equids suspected of having canine or equine borreliosis, respectively, were analyzed in polyvalent enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) with whole-cell or recombinant antigens of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto. Purified preparations of recombinant antigens included outer surface protein A (OspA), OspB, OspC, OspE, OspF, and p41-G (a fragment of flagellin). Of the 36 dog sera that reacted positively to whole-cell antigen, 32 (88.9%) contained antibodies to one or more recombinant antigens. Reactivities to OspF (88.9% positive) and p41-G (75% positive) were...
Cvitas I, Oberhänsli S, Leeb T, Dettwiler M, Müller E, Bruggman R, Marti EI.Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is a Th-2, IgE-mediated dermatitis of horses caused by bites of insects of the genus Culicoides that has common features with human atopic dermatitis. Together with Th-2 cells, the epithelial barrier plays an important role in development of type I hypersensitivities. In order to elucidate the role of the epithelial barrier and of the skin immune response in IBH we studied the transcriptome of lesional whole skin of IBH-horses (IBH-LE; n = 9) in comparison to non-lesional skin (IBH-NL; n = 8) as well as to skin of healthy control horses (H; n = 9). To study t...
Rüegg SR, Heinzmann D, Barbour AD, Torgerson PR.For the evaluation of the epidemiology of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi in a herd of 510 horses in SW Mongolia, several mathematical models of the transmission dynamics were constructed. Because the field data contain information on the presence of the parasite (determined by PCR) and the presence of antibodies (determined by IFAT), the models cater for maternal protection with antibodies, susceptible animals, infected animals and animals which have eliminated the parasite and also allow for age-dependent infection in susceptible animals. Maximum likelihood estimation procedures were used...
Ye C, Yan W, Xiang H, He H, Yang M, Ijaz M, Useh N, Hsieh CL, McDonough PL, McDonough SP, Mohamed H, Yang Z, Chang YF.Animal leptospirosis is one of the most common zoonotic diseases in the United States and around the world. In a previous study, we applied four recombinant antigens, rLipL21, rLoa22, rLipL32 and rLigACon4-8 of Leptospira interrogans (L. interrogans) for the serological diagnosis of equine leptospirosis (Ye et al, Serodiagnosis of equine leptospirosis by ELISA using four recombinant protein markers, Clin. Vaccine. Immunol. 21:478-483). In this study, the same four recombinant antigens were evaluated for their potential to diagnose canine leptospirosis by ELISA. A total of 305 canine sera that ...
Claes F, Ilgekbayeva GD, Verloo D, Saidouldin TS, Geerts S, Buscher P, Goddeeris BM.In this study, we compared the complement fixation test (CFT), the horse complement fixation test (HCFT) and a card agglutination test for trypanosomosis (CATT/T. evansi) for the diagnosis of equine trypanosomosis in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Cohen's kappa test was used to evaluate the concordance between the three tests. Kappa scores for CFT versus HCFT and CATT are both 0.6165 (95% Confidence Interval CI 0.414--0.819) indicating a "substantial" agreement between CFT and HCFT or CATT, respectively. Kappa for HCFT versus CATT is 0.395 (CI 0.142--0.648) indicating a "fair" agreement between t...
Höglund J, Ljungström BL, Nilsson O, Uggla A.A scolex antigen of the horse tapeworm Anoplocephala perfoliata containing at least 14 different proteins was employed in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of antibodies to A. perfoliata in equine sera. The assay was applied to sera from 426 slaughtered horses with different numbers of worms and with varying degrees of intestinal lesions. As measured by the ELISA, there was a very strong effect on the antibody levels both from the number of tapeworms present and from the intestinal lesion score. However, considerable individual variation was observed between horses wit...
Marchetti B, Gault EA, Cortese MS, Yuan Z, Ellis SA, Nasir L, Campo MS.Bovine papillomavirus type 1 is one of the aetiological agents of equine sarcoids. The viral major oncoprotein E5 is expressed in virtually all sarcoids, sarcoid cell lines and in vitro-transformed equine fibroblasts. To ascertain whether E5 behaves in equine cells as it does in bovine cells, we introduced the E5 open reading frame into fetal equine fibroblasts (EqPalF). As observed in primary bovine fibroblasts (BoPalF), E5 by itself could not immortalize EqPalF and an immortalizing gene, such as human telomerase (hTERT/hT), was required for the cells to survive selection. The EqPalF-hT-1E5 c...
Zucca E, Corsini E, Galbiati V, Lange-Consiglio A, Ferrucci F.Data obtained in both animal models and clinical trials suggest that cell-based therapies represent a potential therapeutic strategy for lung repair and remodeling. Recently, new therapeutic approaches based on the use of stem cell derivatives (e.g., conditioned medium (CM) and microvesicles (MVs)) to regenerate tissues and improve their functions were proposed. The aim of this study was to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of equine amniotic mesenchymal cell derivatives on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced cytokine production in equine alveolar macrophages, which may be beneficial in lu...
Chung C, Leib SR, Fraser DG, Ellis SA, McGuire TC.Improved typing of horse classical MHC class I is required to more accurately define these molecules and to extend the number identified further than current serological assays. Defining classical MHC class I alleleic polymorphism is important in evaluating cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses in horses. In this study, horse classical MHC class I genes were analyzed based on reverse transcription (RT)-PCR amplification of sequences encoding the polymorphic peptide binding region and the more conserved alpha 3, transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions followed by cloning and sequencing. Primer s...
Hoane JS, Yeargan MR, Stamper S, Saville WJ, Morrow JK, Lindsay DS, Howe DK.Neospora hughesi is a recently identified cause of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis. However, the significance of this parasite is poorly understood. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a recombinant form of the N. hughesi 29-kDa surface antigen (rNhSAG1) was developed for serodiagnosis of equine N. hughesi infections. Parallel ELISA analysis showed that animals immunized or infected with N. hughesi exhibited greater antibody reactivity with rNhSAG1 than with the Neospora caninum homolog, rNcSAG1. The rNhSAG1 ELISA showed 94.4% sensitivity and 95.0% specificity when compared wi...
Bacon SJ, Ellis SA, Antczak DF.In most mammals, the fetus limits its presentation of paternal antigens to the mother by suppressing the cell-surface expression of proteins of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) on trophoblast. In the horse, however, functional, polymorphic MHC class I antigens are expressed at high levels on the invasive trophoblast cells of the chorionic girdle between Days 32 and 36 of pregnancy, although not on the adjacent noninvasive trophoblast of the chorion and allantochorion membranes. In this study, the control of MHC class I gene expression was investigated in invasive and noninvasive hors...
Pusterla N, Chae JS, Kimsey RB, Berger Pusterla J, DeRock E, Dumler JS, Madigan JE.Most human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) studies carried out in horses use needle inoculation of infected leucocytes or cell cultures. This route of inoculation does not accurately reflect natural infection of the tick-borne agent. To investigate whether tick transmission influences the course of granulocytic ehrlichiosis in the horse model, experimental transmission through infected laboratory-reared Ixodes scapularis ticks was attempted into two healthy horses. One additional horse served as negative control and was exposed to uninfected ticks. Eleven days after exposure to nymphal or adul...
Schmidt NJ, Melnick JL, Wenner HA, Ho HH, Burkhardt MA.Immune horse sera to 42 enterovirus immunotypes were pooled according to the Lim Benyesh-Melnick and the "intersecting serum" schemes. Each serum was diluted in the pools to contain 50 antibody units. After it was established that the pools correctly neutralized prototype virus strains, they were evaluated in tests against 273 enterovirus field strains representing most of the viral types included in the pools. With test virus doses of 10-100 TCD(50), most of the poliovirus and coxsackievirus field strains were correctly identified in both schemes, but a number of the echoviruses were neutrali...
Waghmare A, Deopurkar RL, Salvi N, Khadilkar M, Kalolikar M, Gade SK.The use of adjuvant is of fundamental importance in vaccines formulations and antisera production. Currently selection and use of adjuvant systems in snake antivenom preparation has become a major issue in terms of animal welfare as well as economics. In order to minimize disadvantages associated with traditionally used Freund's adjuvant (FA) in equines and to produce potent polyvalent antivenom against four Indian snake venoms in minimum possible period, a comparison was made between various commercially available non-emulsion/emulsion based adjuvants like IMS 3012, ISA 206 and ISA 35 with In...
Moore BD, Balasuriya UB, Watson JL, Bosio CM, MacKay RJ, MacLachlan NJ.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) infects endothelial cells (ECs) and macrophages in horses, and many of the clinical manifestations of equine viral arteritis (EVA) reflect vascular injury. To further evaluate the potential role of EAV-induced, macrophage-derived cytokines in the pathogenesis of EVA, we infected cultured equine alveolar macrophages (AMphi), blood monocyte-derived macrophages (BMphi), and pulmonary artery ECs with either a virulent (KY84) or an avirulent (CA95) strain of EAV. EAV infection of equine AMphi, BMphi, and ECs resulted in their activation with increased transcription of g...
Bosler EM, Cohen DP, Schulze TL, Olsen C, Bernard W, Lissman B.By using paired sera the IgM and IgG host responses were analyzed in dogs with ELISA and Western blot techniques. Antibodies in clinical seropositive dogs bound to 4-25 IgM and up to 40 or more IgG antigenic determinants. Early IgM response to the 41-kDa flagellin persisted for at least 9 months and involved as many as seven other peptides. IgG response expanded later in the disease and involved more immunogens than are currently recognized in late human disease. A percentage of asymptomatic dogs that later developed clinical symptoms were seropositive. Immunoblot studies suggested that B. bur...
