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.
Dinter Z, Klingeborn B.Six cases of paresis occurred in a Swedish stud with 48 mares and a stallion. Complement-fixation tests revealed a recent infection with EHV-1 in most horses of the stud. Serumneutralisation tests showed rapid antibody-titre increases during the course of the disease. This type of antibody response was interpreted as induced by reinfection or, possibly, recurrent infection. Two diseased mares were sacrificed. No virus could be isolated from their central nervous system (CNS), liver or spleen, but there is a presumptive evidence for the presence of an antigen specific to EHV-1 in the CNS and li...
Saiatov MKh, Beĭsembaeva RU.Profiles of distribution of non-specific gamma-inhibitors of influenza A2/Victoria/35/72 in donkey and horse sera were established by gel chromatography in Sephadex G-200. High and low molecular inhibitors were found in 19S and 4S serum fractions. Highly purified preparations of a2-macroglobulin, transferrine and albumin were isolated by a combination of methods of salt precipitation, gel chromatography on Sephadex G-100, G-200 and ion exchange on DEAE-Sephadex A-50. Heating sera resulted in a considerable increase of the antiviral activity of a2-macroglobulin and transferrine and a reduction ...
Timoney PJ, Donnelly WJ, Clements LO, Fenlon M.An outbreak of LI infection in a group of free range horses is described. Three of 4 horses displayed signs of CNS disturbance and 2 of these died after illnesses ranging from 2-12 days duration. In both cases a variable degree of viral polioencephalomyelitis was observed. A virus antigenically indistinguishable from a reference strain of LI virus was isolated from the brain and cervical cord of a 3 y.o. draft mare. Serum samples obtained from 3 of the horses contained HI, CF, precipitating and neutralising antibodies to LI virus, with a rise in antibody titre being demonstrated in 2 animals.
Whitwell KE.A rodent pathogen, Bacillus piliformis, has been recognised as causing a rapidly fatal hepatitis in 4 foals in England. The disease in foals has been recognised in America since 1973. A clinico-pathological account of the 4 cases is given and the differential diagnosis discussed. The 4 foals' ages fell within a very narrow range (24-34 days). Some of the properties of this unusual intracellular pathogen are reviewed. For the first time in the equine the bacillus was seen in association with myocardial lesions. There are marked differences in the epidemiology of the disease in the mouse and in ...
Palomba E, Martone F, Meduri A, Vaccaro A, Damiani N.A description is given of an outbreak of equine infectious anaemia (E.I.A.) in Campania [at Naples and Aversa (Caserta)]; it was diagnosed by clinical, pathological and serological examinations (Coggins test). Using the serum of 45 horses with E.I.A. and 11 healthy horses (controls), numerous investigations were carried out on: enzymes, intrinsic coagulation factors, lipids and other substances. The results obtained were very interesting and show that in this disease there are significant increases in many enzymes (LDH, LAP, gamma-GT, CPK, PK and ALD) and copper. Insignificant increases were f...
Korkeala H, Stabel-Taucher R, Pekkanen TJ.When 33 horse kidneys were tested for the presence of inhibitory substances by the Bacillus subtilis BGA method at pH 8 and the Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341 method, 24 were positive and 9 negative. The pH of the seeded M. luteus test medium changed from pH 6.6 before incubation to 8.7 after 24 hours incubation at 30 degrees C. When the same 33 kidneys were tested by the B. subtilis BGA method, medium pH 6, and 15 of them also by the M. luteus method using a medium buffered to pH 6, all were negative. The cadmium concentration of the 33 horse kidneys was found to be 70.17 +/- 81.28 mg/kg wet we...
Faur YC, Weisburd MH, Wilson ME.NYC medium supplemented with cow blood (NYC-C) and sheep blood (NYC-S) were tested for the growth of N. gonorrhoeae and urogenital mycoplasma in comparison with standard NYC medium which contains horse blood. In situations where horse blood is not available, cow blood could be substituted in NYC standard medium, whereas the use of sheep blood was found unsuitable.
Barban PS, Minaeva VM, Pantiukhina AN, Startseva MG.A comparative study was made of the serological properties and virus-neutralizing activity of antiencephalitis gamma-globulin and Fab-fragments isolated from it by gel-filtration. Horse immunoglobulins against the autumno-summer tick-borne encephalitis virus could be disintegrated with the aid of papaine to monovalent Fab-fragments which (according to the complement fixation reaction, the test of suppression of the complement fixation, and the HAIT) retained the serological activity whose level was compared with that of the serological activity of gamma-globulin. Fab-fragments possessed a mark...
Lyons ET, Drudge JH, Tolliver SC.Experimentally induced infections of Parascaris equorum in worm-free pony foals required 14 to 17 days for migration of the larvae through the liver and lungs, and 79 to 110 days to become gametogenically functional. Treatment of experimentally infected or naturally exposed foals during the parenteral phase of development, using levamisole at 8 mg/kg, a mixture of levamisole at 8 mg/kg plus piperazine at 88 mg base equivalent/kg, or dl-tetramisole at 10 mg/kg, was quite efficacious in (1) reducing the number of P. equorum larvae recovered from the small intestines of the foals at necropsy, or ...
Lyons ET, Drudge JH, Tolliver SC.Critical tests of the activity on large strongyles, ascarids, mature pinworms, and bots were carried out in 11 horses intraorally treated with a paste formulation of thiabendazole. The dose level of 44 mg/kg was administered to 3 horses, and the dose level of 88 mg/kg to 8 horses. Removals of Strongylus vulgaris and mature Oxyuris equi were 100% at the 2 dose levels, and efficacy against Strongylus edentatus varied from 95 to 99% and 89 to 100% for the 44- and the 88-mg/kg dose levels, respectively. Strongylus equinus was completely removed from the 1 infected horse treated at the dose level o...
Mackenzie RM, de Siger J, Parra D.Two strains of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus were examined for the ability to replicate in, as well as to produce death among donkeys. One, a low passage strain known as strain P676 was originally isolated from mosquitos in Venezuela. The other, strain V-38 was isolated from a horse brain in 1938 and had undergone an unknown number of laboratory passages; it is used extensively for the preparation of inactivated VEE vaccine. Both strains were found to be approximately equal in their ability to infect donkeys. However, a quantity as small as 50% hamster intraperitoneal infectious u...
Wilks CR, Studdert MJ.The immunological and virological status of 3 foals in respect of equine herpesviruses (EHV) was established and the foals were sequentially infected with EHV2, EHV3 and EHV1. Following experimental infection with EHV2, no clinical signs of disease were observed in any foal. The inoculation of EHV3 into the genital tract resulted in lesions of the mucous membrane and perineal skin that were considered typical of equine coital exanthema. Following intransal inoculation of EHV3 extensive ulceration and pustule formation on the nasal mucosa was observed by day 5 accompanied at day 7 by a profuse,...
Wilks CR, Coggins L.Twenty-two ponies were examined for serum-neutralizing (SN) antibody to equine herpesvirus type 1 and for in vitro lymphocyte transformation in the presence of viral antigen. Six ponies had undetectable levels of neutralizing antibody (titer less than 1:2) and had lymphocytes which did not respond in culture with viral antigen (stimulation index less than 2.0). Four ponies which had SN antibody to equine herpesvirus type 1 did not manifest lymphocyte transformation in vitro. The 12 remaining seropositive ponies had lymphocyte transformation with viral antigen in vitro (stimulation indexes from...
Hatch C, McCaughey WJ, O'Brien JJ.During the months October-May inclusive 90-8% of horses slaughtered at an abattoir near Dublin and 66-9% of those at an abattoir near Belfast were infected with Gasterophilus intestinalis; 28-6% of horses at the former abattoir harboured G nasalis while none of the horses examined at the latter abattoir was found to be infected with this species.
Pycock JF, Allen WE.The neutrophil is involved in the defence of the mare's uterus against micro-organisms. The ability of Streptococcus zooepidemicus and its growth products to induce shape changes or directional locomotion (chemotaxis) of equine neutrophils was investigated; no effect was found.
Eysker M, Wemmenhove R.The epidemiology and control of helminth infections in the horse were studied in four small grazing experiments between 1981 and 1984 at the University of Utrecht. At autopsy in November or December negligible Strongylus vulgaris burdens were found in the cranial mesenteric artery of four groups of ponies, which had been treated with an anthelmintic in July and subsequently transferred to a clean pasture. Considerable arterial S. vulgaris burdens were seen in three groups of ponies which were treated with an anthelmintic in July without a move to clean pasture, and in another group of ponies i...
Schmidt GM, Coley SC, Leid RW.A histopathological study of ventral midline skin from midwestern U.S. horses with and without onchocerciasis due to Onchocerca cervicalis found perivascular mononuclear dermatitis as the most consistent difference between the two groups. Seasonal variation in parasite numbers or cellular influxes was not observed. Eosinophilic dermatitis was observed in horses with onchocerciasis and dermatitides of unknown etiology.
Kawamura S, Hirayama K, Mitsuoka T.Two chromogenic Limulus amebocyte lysate systems were evaluated for the measurement of endotoxic activity in feces of normal horses. Fecal extracts had neither non-specific nor inhibitory effect on the test reaction, and the two systems with different specificity showed equivalent results. Endotoxic activities in feces of healthy horses averaged 5.7 +/- 2.8 microns/g wet weight. Correlation between the endotoxin levels and the fecal microbial flora could not be determined.