Infections in horses encompass a range of diseases caused by various pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. These infections can affect different systems within the horse, such as the respiratory, gastrointestinal, and integumentary systems, leading to a variety of clinical signs depending on the pathogen and the severity of the infection. Common infectious diseases in horses include equine influenza, strangles, and equine herpesvirus. Diagnosis often involves clinical examination, laboratory testing, and sometimes imaging, to identify the causative agent and assess the extent of the disease. Treatment strategies may include antimicrobial therapy, supportive care, and preventive measures such as vaccination and biosecurity practices. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases in equine populations.
Sturgill TL, Giguère S, Franklin RP, Cohen ND, Hagen J, Kalyuzhny AE.The objectives of the present study were to determine if administration of inactivated parapoxvirus ovis (IPPVO) can decrease the cumulative incidence of pneumonia and increase the number of IFN-γ- and IL-4-secreting cells among foals. Fifty-nine foals were randomly assigned to 2 treatment groups (IPPVO or placebo) prior to birth. At 24-48 h of age, foals received 2 ml of either IPPVO or a placebo by intramuscular injection. Injections were repeated 24h and 8 days later. The number of IFN-γ- and IL-4-secreting cells was measured using a validated ELISPOT assay on blood mononuclear cells coll...
Zoonoses and public healthJanuary 5, 2011
Volume 58, Issue 6 416-423 doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2010.01382.x
Toledo RS, Tamekuni K, Filho MF, Haydu VB, Barbieri AR, Hiltel AC, Pacheco RC, Labruna MB, Dumler JS, Vidotto O.Spotted fever is a disease caused by bacteria from the genus Rickettsia of the spotted fever group (SFG). Rickettsia rickettsii is likely the main agent of Brazilian spotted fever (BSF). With the objective of gathering information on the circulation of SFG rickettsiae in Londrina, Parana state, ticks from dogs and horses and also blood from dogs, horses and humans were collected in a neighbourhood of the city which presented potential for circulation of rickettsiae between hosts and vectors. Amblyomma cajennense, Dermacentor nitens, and Rhipicephalus sanguineus ticks were subjected to Polymera...
Ledbetter EC, Irby NL, Kim SG.To describe in vivo corneal confocal microscopy of horses with fungal keratitis and correlate findings with clinical, histopathological, and microbiological evaluations of clinical cases and an ex vivo experimental equine fungal keratitis model. Methods: A total of 12 horses with naturally-acquired fungal keratitis and ex vivo equine corneas experimentally infected with clinical fungal isolates. Methods: Horses with naturally-acquired fungal keratitis were examined with a modified Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II and Rostock Cornea Module. Confocal microscopy images of clinical isolates of Asper...
Greenberg SM, Plummer CE, Brooks DE, Porter M, Farina LL, Winter MD.A 20-year-old Thoroughbred gelding presented for evaluation of a periorbital dorsal swelling of the left eye that had been intermittently present for 3 months. Upon ocular examination, a firm, non-painful swelling was identified under the upper eyelid in the region of the orbital lacrimal gland, and was noted to extend anteriorly from underneath the dorsal orbital rim. Ultrasonographic examination revealed a mixed echogenic mass along the dorsal orbital rim that followed the contour of the globe. CT scan showed a moderately contrast enhancing mass that was contiguous with the eyelid. Different...
Wobeser BK, Davies JL, Hill JE, Jackson ML, Kidney BA, Mayer MN, Townsend HG, Allen AL.Sarcoids are the most common tumor of the equine skin but only 1 study describing the epidemiology of sarcoids in Canadian horses has been published. The records of 5 veterinary diagnostic laboratories in western Canada were searched to identify submissions of sarcoids from horses. The submission records and diagnostic reports of 802 separate submissions of equine sarcoids were reviewed for age, breed, and gender of the horse and the number, location, and clinical type of sarcoid. From these records, the 307 submissions to laboratories in Saskatchewan were compared to a reference group to test...
Szczerba-Turek A, Siemionek J, Bancerz-Kisiel A, Raś A, Szweda W.The aim of the study was to analyse a part of the sequence of the E5 gene of bovine papillomaviruses (BPV) associated with equine sarcoids in Polish horses. Samples of 40 skin lesions obtained from 29 horses were collected for molecular examination. The PCR amplicons of BPV DNA were detected in 38 specimens. After phylogenetic analysis 37 specimens were recognized as BPV-1 and one as BPV-2. Phylogenetic analysis has allowed the classification of the amplicons into two phylogenetic groups (A1,) and four separate isolates (2, 10, 16, 17).
Murray KO, Mertens E, Despres P.Zoonotic West Nile virus (WNV) circulates in natural transmission cycles involving certain mosquitoes and birds, horses, humans, and a range of other vertebrates are incidental hosts. Clinical infections in humans can range in severity from uncomplicated WNV fever to fatal meningoencephalitis. Since its introduction to the Western Hemisphere in 1999, WNV had spread across North America, Central and South America and the Caribbean, although the vast majority of severe human cases have occurred in the United States of America (USA) and Canada. By 2002-2003, the WNV outbreaks have involved thousa...
Aalsburg AM, Erdman MM.Taylorella equigenitalis is the etiologic agent of contagious equine metritis (CEM), a venereal disease of horses. A total of 82 strains of T. equigenitalis isolated in the United States were analyzed by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) after digestion of genomic DNA with restriction enzyme ApaI. Twenty-eight of those strains isolated from horses in the 2009 U.S. outbreak (CEM09) were further analyzed with NotI and NaeI enzymes. When ApaI alone was used for analysis, the 82 isolates clustered into 15 different genotypes that clearly defined groups of horses with known epidemiological co...
Chang Y, Maylin GM, Matsumoto G, Neades SM, Catlin DH.Methods have been developed to screen for and confirm darbepoetin alfa, recombinant human EPO, and methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin β (PEG-epoetin β) in horse plasma. All three methods screen samples with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and confirm by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). This report focuses on PEG-epoetin β. The ELISA assay was able to detect PEG-epoetin β at 0.02 ng/mL in 50 µL of horse plasma. Many samples had high background levels of immunoreactivity; however, introducing polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG 6000) into the samples before...
Sevá Ada P, Funada MR, Souza Sde O, Nava A, Richtzenhain LJ, Soares RM.The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of Cryptosporidium in domestic animals in rural properties surrounding rain forest fragments within the municipality of Teodoro Sampaio, southeastern Brazil. Conventional sucrose flotation method followed by molecular characterization of the parasites by sequencing PCR products amplified from SSU rRNA gene were used. Stool samples were collected from domestic animals raised as pets and livestock in all rural properties surrounding three forest fragments. Samples from cattle (197), equine (63), pigs (25), sheep (11), and dogs (28) were collecte...
Tamekuni K, Toledo Rdos S, Silva Filho Mde F, Haydu VB, Pacheco RC, Cavicchioli JH, Labruna MB, Dumler JS, Vidotto O.Brazilian spotted fever (BSF) is an emerging disease most likely caused by Rickettsia rickettsii. The objective of the present study was to estimate the seroprevalence of BSF rickettsia infections in equines from six horse farms located in Londrina County, Paraná, Southern Brazil. Six owners of horse farms situated in Cambé, Santa Fé, Guaraci and Londrina municipalities participated in the study. All farms were located in areas where BSF has not been reported. A total of 273 horses were sampled and their sera were tested by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA) using R. rickettsii and R. ...
Horsington JJ, Gilkerson JR, Hartley CA.Equine rhinitis B virus (ERBV) is the single species in the genus Erbovirus, family Picornaviridae. Equine rhinitis B viruses exist in three serotypes and are associated with respiratory disease in horses. Members of the species vary in stability at acid pH. To date there has been discordance in genotype, serotype and acid stability phenotype groupings. To identify capsid regions associated with acid stability, two viruses were serially treated at pH 3.3 to isolate acid-stable mutants. An acid-stable mutant of the prototype acid-labile serotype 1 virus contained a single amino acid change in t...
Brandt S, Tober R, Corteggio A, Burger S, Sabitzer S, Walter I, Kainzbauer C, Steinborn R, Nasir L, Borzacchiello G.In equids, bovine papillomaviruses of type 1 (BPV-1) and less frequently type 2 induce common, locally aggressive skin tumours termed sarcoids. Whereas BPV infection in cattle usually involves the epidermis and is productive in this skin layer, infection in equids is currently thought to be abortive, with virus solely residing as multiple episomes in dermal fibroblasts. Based on recent observations that do not agree with this assumption, we hypothesised that BPV also infects equid epidermis and is active in this skin layer. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a proof-of-principle study on ei...
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...
Dicken M, Munday JS, Archer RM, Mayhew IG, Pandey SK.Equine cutaneous fungal granulomas have been previously referred to in New Zealand (Fairley 1998), and are described in the veterinary literature from around the world, including North America and Australia (Pascoe and Summers 1981; Genovese et al. 2001; Valentine et al. 2006), but no peer-reviewed reports appear published in the literature in New Zealand. Described here is a case of multiple cutaneous fungal granulomas caused by Alternaria spp. in a horse in New Zealand.
Hart SK, Sullins KE.Results of surgical treatment of sinonasal disease in horses have been reported previously; however, this paper describes the outcome of horses in which a specific post operative treatment protocol was used. Objective: The objectives of the study were to determine: 1) short- and long-term outcome; 2) complications; and 3) recurrence rates of different disease processes, when horses were treated with a specific treatment protocol. Methods: Medical records of horses presented for surgical treatment of sinonasal disease from 1996-2007 were reviewed. Results and duration of surgical exploration we...
Go YY, Snijder EJ, Timoney PJ, Balasuriya UB.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) replicase consists of two polyproteins (pp1a and pp1ab) that are encoded by open reading frames (ORFs) 1a and 1b of the viral genome. These two replicase polyproteins are posttranslationally processed by three ORF 1a-encoded proteinases to yield at least 13 nonstructural proteins (nsp1 to nsp12, including nsp7α and 7β). These nsps are expressed in EAV-infected cells, but the equine immune response they induce has not been studied. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the humoral immune response of horses to each of the nsps following EAV i...
Rehbein S, Lindner T, Visser M, Winter R.Faecal samples of 250 horses from farms with a known history of tapeworm infection were examined comparatively for cestode eggs using a double centrifugation/combined sedimentation-floatation technique. From each faecal sample, three 5 g and three 15 g subsamples were processed, each using either saturated NaCl solution, specific gravity (sp. g.) 1.2 [NaCl]; concentrated sugar solution, sp. g. 1.26 [sugar]; or concentrated ZnSO4 solution, sp. g. 1.3 [ZnSO4] for floatation. In total, faeces from 187 horses ( = 74.8%) tested 'positive' for Anoplocephala eggs. Percentages of samples testing '...
Winther L, Baptiste KE, Friis C.Ampicillin concentrations in pulmonary epithelial lining fluid (PELF) and plasma was studied after single intravenous ampicillin administration (15mg/kg) or single intragastric administration of its prodrug, pivampicillin (19.9mg/kg) to horses and discussed in relation to minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of common equine respiratory pathogens. After intravenous administration, elimination of ampicillin was fast and not detectable in plasma after 12h in three out of six horses. Pivampicillin was absorbed well in non-fasted horses with an oral bioavailability of 36%. The degree of penetra...
Weese JS.Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a critically important human pathogen that is also an emerging concern in veterinary medicine and animal agriculture. It is present in a wide range of animal species, including dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, cattle, pigs, poultry, and exotic species, both as a cause of infection and in healthy carriers. Identification of MRSA in various species and in food has led to concerns about the roles of animals, both pets and livestock, in the epidemiology of MRSA infection and colonization in humans. There is evidence of the role of food animals in h...
Bannai H, Tsujimura K, Kondo T, Nemoto M, Yamanaka T, Sugiura T, Maeda K, Matsumura T.An immunoglobulin G (IgG) subclass response against equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) infection was investigated in horses that were naïve to EHV-1/4 and those that had previously been exposed to EHV-4. The IgG subclass response was determined by an ELISA using EHV-1-specific recombinant gG protein as an antigen. In most horses naïve to EHV-1/4, IgGa, IgGb, and IgG(T) were induced after experimental infection with EHV-1. In contrast, a subclass response dominated by IgGa and IgGb, with no apparent increase in IgG(T), was observed after EHV-1 infection in horses previously infected with EHV-4...
Kidd TJ, Gibson JS, Moss S, Greer RM, Cobbold RN, Wright JD, Ramsay KA, Grimwood K, Bell SC.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is associated with infectious endometritis in horses. Although infectious endometritis is often considered a venereal infection, there is relatively limited genotypic-based evidence to support this mode of transmission. The study sought to determine the relatedness between genital P. aeruginosa isolates collected from a limited geographical region using molecular strain typing. Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR typing was performed on 93 isolates collected between 2005 and 2009 from 2058 thoroughbred horses (including 18 stallions) at 66 studs. While P....
Wohlsein P, Lehmbecker A, Spitzbarth I, Algermissen D, Baumgärtner W, Böer M, Kummrow M, Haas L, Grummer B.In a zoological collection, four black bears (Ursus americanus) died from neurological disease within six months. Independently in a geographically different zoo, two Thomson's gazelles (Eudorcas thomsoni) and 18 guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus f. dom.) suffered from neurological disorders. In addition, guinea pigs showed abortions and stillbirths. All affected animals displayed a non suppurative meningoencephalitis with intranuclear inclusion bodies. Immunohistology demonstrated equine herpes virus antigen and ultrastructurally herpes viral particles were detected. Virus isolation and molecular ...
Kuzmina TA, Tolliver SC, Lyons ET.Three species of cyathostomes--Cylicocyclus ashworthi, Cylicostephanus bidentatus, and Cylicostephanus hybridus were identified recently in horses in Kentucky. General characteristics and distinguishing description of these species are presented. Distribution of these species and their role in the horse strongylid community are discussed. The importance of examining the entire contents of the large intestine or alternatively a high number of specimens in order to recover and identify species residing in low numbers is stressed.
Haenni M, Targant H, Forest K, Sévin C, Tapprest J, Laugier C, Madec JY.Coagulase-positive staphylococci (CoPS) are potential causative agents of equine infections, but they are rarely responsible for the death of the animal. In the current study, staphylococci implicated in the death or euthanasia of horses were retrospectively studied in 3,457 necropsies performed over a decade (1995-2006). Morbidity associated with CoPS was 1.7%, representing 60 isolates of CoPS, which were identified as Staphylococcus aureus (59) and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (1). Coagulase-positive staphylococci (alone or in association with another bacterial species) were associated wi...
Knowles S, Blas-Machado U, Butler AM, Gomez-Ibañez SE, Lowder MQ, Fayrer-Hosken RA.An 11-year-old Oldenburg mare presented with a 3-month history of weight loss and swelling of the posterior right mandible. Physical examination and radiographs showed a soft-tissue mass in the right mandible with foci of mineralization, periosteal proliferation, and a retained molar. The tumor increased in size over several weeks, and the mare was euthanized. On necropsy, a 24 cm × 15 cm × 15 cm firm, white mass had obliterated the posterior right mandible. The mass was multinodular with discrete clusters of blood-filled cystic spaces. Histologically, the mass was composed of neoplastic ...
Ma J, Shi N, Jiang CG, Lin YZ, Wang XF, Wang S, Lv XL, Zhao LP, Shao YM, Kong XG, Zhou JH, Shen RX.To investigate essential factors that determine the efficacy of vaccines against lentiviruses, an effective attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine strain and a proviral derivative of the vaccine were compared with respect to differences in inducing protective immunity. Although these two strains replicated equally well in vitro and in vivo, the proviral strain induced significantly less protection from disease and infection caused by viral challenge and significantly lower specific neutralizing capability. These findings indicated that the proviral strain had lost the ability...
Easter JL, Schumacher J, Watkins JP.Surgical arthrodesis of the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint by transfixation casting was used to salvage a three-year-old filly and a yearling filly that were chronically lame because of infection of the DIP joint for breeding. Unlike previously described techniques for arthrodesis of the DIP joint, the technique used did not require insertion of implants across the joint, which may have contributed to the successful outcome.
Dutta SK, Campbell DL.Equine macrophages from the mammary glands of a yearling filly and an 18-year-old barren nonlactatind mare formed cell monolayers in continuous cultures. There was absence of viral cytopathic effect (CPE) in early cell culture passages. The cells from the early cell culture passages having no CPE failed to show evidence of virus or viral antigen by electron microscopic and immunofluorescence studies. Foci of CPE first appeared in the monolayer cell cultures from the filly and the mare in the 3rd and the 4th serial passages respectively, and the CPE increased on subsequent serial passages. Equi...
Salas Y, Márquez A, Canelón J, Perazzo Y, Colmenárez V, López JA.Pythium insidiosum is a pathogenic oomycete known since 1890 that causes pythiosis in mammals. In this report, seven P. insidiosum isolates were recovered from Venezuelan horses and were characterized. The strains were recovered from biopsied tissues and kunkers collected from granulomatous masses located on the hind limb and from a nodular lesion in the left upper eyelid, which decrease the ability of the horses to be used for working purposes. The methods used to identify P. insidiosum isolates were based on the production of sporangia and zoospores, histopathology and PCR assay. To further ...
Chambers TM, Reedy SE.Serologic tests for equine influenza virus (EIV) antibodies are used for many purposes, including retrospective diagnosis, subtyping of virus isolates, antigenic comparison of different virus strains, and measurement of immune responses to EIV vaccines. The hemagglutination-inhibition (HI), single radial hemolysis (SRH), and serum micro-neutralization tests are the most widely used for these purposes and are described here. The presence of inhibitors of hemagglutination in equine serum complicates interpretation of HI assay results, and there are alternative protocols (receptor-destroying enzy...
Daels PF, Stabenfeldt GH, Hughes JP, Odensvik K, Kindahl H.The role of prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha) in embryonic loss following induced endotoxemia was studied in mares that were 21 to 44 days pregnant. Thirteen pregnant mares were treated with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, flunixin meglumine, to inhibit the synthesis of PGF2 alpha caused by Salmonella typhimurium endotoxin given IV. Flunixin meglumine was administered either before injection of the endotoxin (group 1, -10 min; n = 7), or after endotoxin injection into the mares (group 2, 1 hour, n = 3; group 3, 2 hours, n = 3); 12 pregnant mares (group 4) were given only S typhimurium...
Karimi A, Mosavari N.Burkholderia mallei, the etiologic agent of the disease known as glanders. Clinical and bacteriological diagnosis of glanders is difficult in the early stages of the disease. Currently, mallein (allergic hypersensitivity test) is used for the diagnosis of glanders. The mallein test requires an experienced laboratory person and lasts 48 h. Therefore, in order to quickly diagnose the disease, especially in areas (such as the borders of the country) that cannot be kept animals, new methods should be used to identify the disease. The Rose Bengal is a serological diagnostic test and has been recom...
Herd RP, Donham JC.Forty horses having microfilariae of Onchocerca cervicalis in association with dermatitis, alopecia, and pruritus on the ventral midline were given a single IM injection of 0.2 mg of ivermectin/kg of body weight (June to August 1981). Microfilarial counts in the 40 horses ranged from 18 to 42,446 microfilariae/skin snip on the day of treatment, and histopathologic examination of these skin sections indicated a chronic eosinophilic dermatitis. Numerous microfilariae were in the dermis, but there was no consistent relationship between the presence of microfilariae and the severity of the inflamm...
Schuster RK, Sivakumar S, Kinne J, Babiker H, Traversa D, Buzzell GR.Nematode larvae found in histological cuts of lung tissue of a horse from a farm in Al Dhaid (UAE) were determined to belong to the Habronematidae family. The clinical examination of the other 18 horses present in the farm revealed summer sores (cutaneous habronemosis) in two stallions. Nematode larvae were found in 147 (=26.2%) out of 561 male but only in 64 (=8.7%) out of 739 female Musca domestica caught at the farm in November and December 2008. Conversely, all 15 Stomoxys calcitrans specimens caught in the farm resulted negative for nematode larvae. The housefly population caught in the b...
Collins MT, Cho SN, Reif JS.We examined more than 2,800 human and animal sera for antibodies to four serogroups of Legionella pneumophila by using the microagglutination test. Antibody titers of greater than or equal to 1:64 were considered positive. The occurrence of positive equine sera (31.4%) was significantly higher than the occurrence of positive sera in cattle (5.1%), swine (2.9%), sheep (1.9%), dogs (1.9%), goats (0.5%), wildlife (0%), and humans (0.4%). The highest titer measured in horses was 1:512. The occurrence of positive sera in horses was related directly to age. In horses less than or equal to 1, 2 to 3,...
Fukunaga Y, Wada R, Matsumura T, Sugiura T, Imagawa H.Thirty-nine horses included 3 pregnant mares were examined by inoculating with formalin inactivated-virus vaccine for EVA. Antibody response of horses after one dose vaccination was somewhat poor and 50% effective inoculum dose of the vaccine should be included 10(8.4) pfu of virus before inactivation. After 2 doses given at an interval of 4 weeks, the horses developed such high titer of SN antibody as up to 1:5,120. The SN titer declined rather rapidly, but supplemental administration of the vaccine at an interval of more than 2 months elicited a prompt antibody response and SN titers persist...
Di Azevedo MIN, Lilenbaum W.Leptospirosis may be associated with important syndromes in equines, including reproductive ones. Recently, our group demonstrated a reproductive syndrome of leptospirosis in ruminants (Bovine Genital Leptospirosis - BGL), that presents its own agent, particular diagnostic methods, and specific treatment and prevention, requiring special attention. We realized that the genital syndrome of leptospirosis may not be exclusive to ruminants and may also affect horses. The aim of the present study is to gather the available data on leptospirosis in equine reproduction and propose a new genital lepto...
Yamanaka T, Tsujimura K, Kondo T, Matsumura T.In this study, we evaluated whether five rapid antigen detection kits for human influenza could be used for the diagnosis of equine influenza (EI). Limiting dilution analyses showed that Directigen Flu A+B and ESPLINE INFLUENZA A&B-N had the highest sensitivities to equine-2 influenza viruses (EIVs) among the kits investigated. From the results of virus detection in nasal swabs taken from horses infected with EIV, these two kits could produce positive results in reasonable agreement with those obtained by virus isolation or RT-PCR, suggesting that these kits could be useful for rapid diagn...
Marshall K, Marsella R.Previous studies documented antibiotic resistance in horses but did not focus on skin specifically. We investigated antibiotic resistance and correlations between resistance patterns in skin infections. Records from 2009 to 2019 were searched for Staphylococcal infection and susceptibility results. Seventy-seven cases were included. Organisms identified were S. aureus (48/77), S. pseudintermedius (7/77), non-hemolytic Staphylococcus (8/77), beta-hemolytic Staphylococcus (6/77), and other species (8/77). Samples included pyoderma (36/77), wounds (10/77), abscesses (15/77), incision sites (5/77)...
Evermann JF.Retroviral infections of livestock have become of increasing importance due to their usefulness as comparative models for human retroviral infections and their effects upon animal health and marketability of animals and animal products nationally and internationally. This paper presents a perspective on the retroviruses of economic concern in veterinary medicine with emphasis on the importance of understanding the modes of virus transmission and the species specificity of the viruses. The retroviruses reviewed include the oncovirus, bovine leukosis virus, and the lentiviruses, equine infectiou...
Lopez BS, Hurley DJ, Giancola S, Giguère S, Felippe MJB, Hart KA.Neonatal foals are uniquely susceptible to certain infections early in life. Dendritic cells (DC) are vital in the transition between the innate and adaptive immune response to infection, but DC biology in foals is not fully characterized. Monocyte-derived DC represent a suitable in vitro model similar to DC that differentiate from monocytes recruited from circulation. We hypothesized that foal monocyte-derived DC (MoDC) would exhibit age-dependent phenotypic and functional differences compared to adult horse MoDC. MoDC generated from 9 horses (collected once) and from 8 foals (collected at 1,...
Velez IC, Arnold C, Jacobson CC, Norris JD, Choi YH, Edwards JF, Hayden SS, Hinrichs K.Transvaginal ultrasound-guided follicle aspiration (TVA) is performed clinically but there is little information available on complications associated with this procedure. Objective: It is possible that TVA is associated with damage to the ovary and may induce peritonitis or peritoneal adhesions. This study was conducted to determine the effect of repeated TVA on mare health and ovarian status. Methods: Thirty-two mares were used for oocyte recovery via repeated TVA over a 3 year period; different mares were used each year. In Year 1, ovarian status was monitored in 11 mares by transrectal pal...
El-Kady EM, Ibrahim NM, Wahby AF.The horse antibodies to Naja haje (Nh) elicited in a low dose multi-site immunization protocol were investigated from binding perspective in the context of antivenom maturation. We found that, this protocol evoked the production of lethality neutralizing avid antibodies in the first round of immunization which increases over the successive immunization rounds. The changes and the relative changes in the antibody parameters of each horse were taken as a measure for the efficacy of its immune system to respond by gaining and magnifying the antivenom parameters. While the avidity increases over t...
Vendrig JC, Coffeng LE, Fink-Gremmels J.Deficient innate and adaptive immune responses cause newborn mammals to be more susceptible to bacterial infections than adult individuals. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are known to play a pivotal role in bacterial recognition and subsequent immune responses. Several studies have indicated that activation of certain TLRs, in particular TLR-2, can result in suppression of inflammatory pathology. In this study, we isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from adult and newborn horses to investigate the influence of TLR-2 activation on the inflammatory response mediated by TLR-4. Data we...
Seltzer KL, Byars TD.To determine the percentage of Thoroughbred racehorses that would be capable of racing performance after recovery from infectious pleuropneumonia. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: 70 Thoroughbred horses that had recovered from pleuropneumonia. Only horses 5 years old known to be in race training at the time of illness were included in the study. Results: Forty-three of the 70 (61%) horses raced after recovery, and 24 of the 43 (56%) won at least 1 race. Horses that required placement of an indwelling thoracic drain apparently did not have a worse prognosis than did horses that did...
Goodman-Davis R, Figurska M, Cywinska A.Diarrhea in foals is a problem of significant clinical and economic consequence, and there are good reasons to believe microbiota manipulation can play an important role in its management. However, given the dynamic development of the foal microbiota and its importance in health and disease, any prophylactic or therapeutic efforts to alter its composition should be evidence based. The few clinical trials of probiotic preparations conducted in foals to date show underwhelming evidence of efficacy and a demonstrated potential to aggravate rather than mitigate diarrhea. Furthermore, recent studie...
Owens JG, Kamerling SG, Barker SA.The pharmacokinetic properties of a single intravenous dose of ketoprofen (2.2 mg/kg) in plasma and synovial fluid were compared in four healthy animals and four horses with experimentally induced acute synovitis. Synovitis was induced by the injection of a 1% solution of sterile carrageenan into the left intercarpal joint. Ketoprofen was administered at the same time as carrageenan infection. The plasma disposition followed a biexponential equation or a two-compartment model in most horses. The plasma harmonic mean half-life in healthy horses (0.88 h) was longer than in horses with synovitis ...
Judy CE, Chaffin MK, Cohen ND.To identify features of guttural pouch (auditory tube diverticulum) empyema in horses and compare findings of uncomplicated guttural pouch empyema with guttural pouch empyema complicated by chondroids. Methods: Retrospective study. Methods: 91 horses with guttural pouch empyema. Methods: Medical records of horses with guttural pouch empyema were reviewed. Results: The most common owner complaint and abnormal finding was persistent nasal discharge. Chondroids were detected in 21% (19/91) of affected horses. Streptococcus equi was isolated from the guttural pouch in 14 of 44 horses; for Streptoc...
Tschetter JR, Byrne KM, Perryman LE, McGuire TC.Horses infected with equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) have recurrent episodes of viremia which are eventually controlled, but the immune mechanisms have not been identified. Antibodies were detected to the surface of EIAV-infected cells within 1 month postinfection and remained for at least 3.5 years postinfection. These antibodies recognized cell surface-exposed envelope (Env) glycoproteins, but could not mediate antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) using EIAV-WSU5-infected equine kidney (EK) cells as targets and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or polymorphonuclear c...
Ji Y, Guo W, Zhao L, Li H, Lu G, Wang Z, Wang G, Liu C, Xiang W.An antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA) was developed for the detection of the equine influenza virus (EIV), employing monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies against the A/equine/Xingjiang/2007 (H3N8) nucleoprotein (NP). Immunoglobulin G antibodies were purified and used as capture or detector antibodies. The specificity of the optimized AC-ELISA was evaluated using EIV, equine herpesvirus 1 (EHV-1), equine herpesvirus 4 (EHV-4), equine arteritis virus (EAV) and Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), resulting in only EIV specimens yielding a strong signal. A minimal concentr...
Anyanwu MU, Jaja IF, Nwobi OC, Mgbeahuruike AC, Ikpendu CN, Okafor NA, Oguttu JW.Mobile colistin resistance () genes (-1 to -10) threaten the efficacy of colistin (COL), a polymyxin antibiotic that is used as a last-line agent for the treatment of deadly infections caused by multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant bacteria in humans and animals. COL has been used for more than 60 years for the prophylactic control and treatment of infections in livestock husbandry but not in horses. Polymyxin B is used for the prophylactic control and empirical treatment of infections in horses without conducting sensitivity tests. The lack of sensitivity testing exerts selectio...
Wang H, Li X, Liu BT.Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) have been rapidly increasing among animals in many countries and have been a great threat to public health. Horse riding is becoming increasingly popular worldwide; however, reports of CRE producing NDM or KPC-2, two prevalent types of carbapenemases, from horses of equestrian club are extremely scarce and KPC-2-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae in animals is still rarely characterized. In this study, we identified four NDM-5-producing Escherichia coli isolates from horses in equestrian club in Qingdao, China, and one horse possessing NDM-5-producin...
Piyasena TBH, Setoh YX, Hobson-Peters J, Prow NA, Bielefeldt-Ohmann H, Khromykh AA, Perera D, Cardosa MJ, Kirkland PD, Hall RA.In Australia, infection of horses with the West Nile virus (WNV) or Murray Valley encephalitis virus (MVEV) occasionally results in severe neurological disease that cannot be clinically differentiated. Confirmatory serological tests to detect antibody specific for MVEV or WNV in horses are often hampered by cross-reactive antibodies induced to conserved epitopes on the envelope (E) protein. This study utilized bacterially expressed recombinant antigens derived from domain III of the E protein (rE-DIII) of MVEV and WNV, respectively, to determine whether these subunit antigens provided specific...
Mankoc S, Hostnik P, Grom J, Toplak I, Klobucar I, Kosec M, Barlic-Maganja D.In the present study, a new one-step real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) strategy with minor-groove-binder (MGB) technology for the detection of EAV from 40 semen samples of Slovenian carrier stallions was tested. A novel MGB probe (EAVMGBpr) and a reverse primer (EAV-R) based on the multiple sequence alignment of 49 different EAV strain sequences of the highly conserved ORF7 (nucleocapsid gene) were designed. The performance of the assay was compared with different molecular detection methods. Three different primer pairs targeting the ORF1b and ORF7 were used, ...
Woldemeskel M, Gebreab F.A survey of Sarcocystis was conducted in cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys and chickens. A total of 671 haematoxylin-eosin (H-E) stained muscle tissue samples, including diaphragm, masseter, cardiac and oesophageal musculatures were examined. Additionally, cardiac muscle samples from 40 fetuses were included. An infestation rate of 93% in sheep, 82% in cattle, 81% in goats, 16.6% in donkeys and 6.6% in chickens was noted. The infestation rate of diaphragm, masseter, cardiac and oesophageal musculatures seems to be similar. None of the 40 fetal heart muscle samples from bovine, ovine, caprine and d...
Mancuso LA, Lassaline M, Scherrer NM.To describe the clinical course, outcomes, and complications associated with use of commercially available porcine urinary bladder extracellular matrix (ECM) grafts (ACell Vet(®) Corneal Discs) in equid patients with keratomalacia, and to evaluate the efficacy of ECM grafts as a viable alternative to other biomaterials for corneal grafting in equid patients. Methods: Sixteen horses and one donkey (17 eyes) with unilateral keratomalacia severe enough to warrant surgical repair between August 2012 and September 2013. Methods: Retrospective medical record review to identify equid patients meetin...
