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.
Rossdale PD, Pattle RE, Mahaffey LW.A SYNDROME in newborn thoroughbred foals, characterized by irregular respiration, convulsions, and lung pathology, has been described already1, and its resemblance to the respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn human noted. This latter condition is associated with the absence of the surface active lung lining complex, or lung surfactant2; this absence can be investigated by observation of bubbles obtained from the lung3. From normal lungs bubbles of very low surface tension which show great stability in air-saturated water can be obtained4,5. The present case demonstrates the common facto...
Rogers HJ.Under a variety of conditions of concentration, Eh, and pH, horse anti- serum and normal horse serum exerted similar bacteriostatic effects against Type A. Ferric iron abolished the bacteriostatic effect when added during the first 2 hours of incubation at Eh+60 mV. Ferrous iron abolished the bacteriostatic effect when added after 3 hours. Ferric iron abolished the bacteriostatic effect at—140 mV. A mixture consisting of horse β- and γ-globulins together with human transferrin exerted a bacteriostatic effect similar to that of whole serum. This system responded in the same way as whole se...
van Nieuwstadt RA, Kalsbeek HC.In a horse with chronic unilateral nasal discharge guttural pouch mycosis caused by Aspergillus fumigatus was diagnosed. A percutaneous indwelling catheter was surgically installed in the left guttural pouch. Initial treatment with a povidone iodine solution proved to be unsatisfactory. Treatment was continued by administering enilconazole by ways of an indwelling through-the-nose-catheter. The latter treatment resulted in complete recovery.
Ekiri AB, House AM, Krueger TM, Hernandez JA.To assess awareness, perceived relevance, and acceptance of surveillance and infection control practices at a large animal referral hospital among referring veterinarians and clients who sent horses to the facility for veterinary care. Methods: Survey. Methods: 57 referring veterinarians and 594 clients. Methods: A 15-question survey targeting Salmonella enterica as an important pathogen of interest in horses was sent to clients who sent ≥ 1 horse to the University of Florida Large Animal Hospital for veterinary care during July 1, 2007, through July 1, 2011, and to veterinarians who had ref...
Brown SA, Barsanti JA.A quantitative buffy coat (QBC) analysis was evaluated for 175 canine, 125 feline, and 125 equine blood samples. The method used centrifuged whole blood and yielded rapid results expressed as respective band lengths for RBC, granulocytes, nongranulocytes, and platelets. Simple regression analysis of band lengths and reference laboratory methods yielded correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.72 to 0.99. The PCV, granulocyte count, and total WBC count, as determined by the 2 methods, correlated well (r greater than or equal to 0.93 in all cases). Platelet and nongranulocyte counts were less...
Rose RJ.The case histories of four horses with osteomyelitis involving the metacarpal and metatarsal bones are reviewed and the surgical treatments discussed. The horses recovered after curettage of all infected tissue and post operative drainage. The role of antibiotics in treatment is considered and reference is made to the acute treatment of deep wounds to avoid osteomyelitis.
Watson JL, Jackson KA, King DP, Stott JL.Expression of the low-affinity IgE receptor (CD23) on the surface of mononuclear cells is a critical event in the development of IgE-mediated immunologic responses. Using PCR and cDNA library screening, a 2.7kb cDNA encoding equine CD23 and a 627bp PCR fragment of cattle CD23 were sequenced and characterized. The equine CD23 sequence encodes a complete and continuous open reading frame of 327 amino acids, while the shorter cattle fragment encodes 209 amino acids corresponding to nucleotides 325-1098 of the equine CD23 transcript. In addition to high identities in their nucleotides and translat...
van der Velden MA, Verzijlenberg F.The surgical treatment of eighty-nine horses and ponies suffering from chronic empyema of the maxillary sinus is reported. Treatment consisted in trephination and drainage of the sinus involved in thirty-six animals; the affected teeth were removed at the same time in fifty-three animals in which sinusitis was caused by an alveolitis. The recovery rate was seventy-five per cent in group one and seventy per cent in group two. Postoperative treatment is also reported and attention is paid to complications which may occur during and after surgery.
Hawkes M, Richard A, Oldfield C, Toothaker A, Stokes M, Causey R.Postbreeding bacterial uterine infections inflict major losses on the equine industry. Microcurrents propelled by ciliated cells between the folds of the uterus and cervix have been proposed as a means by which contaminants are expelled. Previous data have shown possible ciliary microcurrents propelling carbon particles, occasionally rotating, through cervical folds. However, adherence to the epithelium may have interfered with movement of carbon in these studies. Therefore, we tested potentially nonadherent substances to reveal ciliary microcurrents on the equine cervix under high magnificati...
Bodurov N, Filipov Zh.Comparative clinical and experimental investigations were carried out on 18 clinically normal horses. It was found that the single transfusion of in vitro UV-treated autogenous blood, following a previously described method, was tolerated well by horses and did not lead to any deviations from the normal indices. Under the effect of the treated blood there was an increase in the hemoglobin content, rise in the erythrocyte and leukocyte count with slightly expressed hyperleukocytosis and weak neutrophilia (simple regeneration of the blood). The sedimentation of erythrocytes also showed higher ra...
Watson ED, Sertich PL, Zanecosky HG.Ovulation has been likened to an inflammatory process. Inflammatory cells accumulate in the ovulating follicle, presumably because of chemotactic factors. Chemotactic activity was measured in fluid aspirated from follicles of estrous mares 0, 12, 24, and 36 hours after ultrasonographic detection of a 35-mm follicle and IV treatment with 2,500 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin. Chemotaxis was assessed by measuring directional migration of equine neutrophils under agarose. Follicular fluid acted as a chemoattractant for neutrophils, but there was no significant difference in chemotactic activit...
Pinzón-Osorio CA, Cortés-Beltrán D, Sanchez-Isaza CA, Jiménez-Robayo LM, Lozano-Márquez H, Zambrano-Varón J, Jiménez-Escobar C.A 4-year-old Colombian Creole mare was presented for diagnosis because the external orifice of her cervix was not detectable when a uterine lavage as therapy for uterine fluid accumulation was attempted. Clinical and ultrasonographic evaluation of the genital tract revealed that ovaries were of normal size and showed structures suggestive of regular ovarian activity. However, granular free-floating fluid material distending the uterus was detected by ultrasound. Upon vaginal examination, the normal external cervical morphology was not evident. The vagina ended in a blind bag with a small papil...
du Toit N, McGorum BC, Pemberton AD, Brown J, Dacre KJ.Cyathostomins (Cyathostominae) are regarded as the most pathogenic equine nematode worldwide. These nematodes are difficult to control in equine populations due to emerging anthelmintic resistance and evasion of encysted larval cyathostomins to regular modern anthelmintics. Mast cells and their proteinases have been shown to play a role in the mammalian immune response to nematode infections. Involvement of mast cells and mast cell proteinases in the equine immune response to cyathostomin infection is proposed. A technique was established to perform immunohistochemical staining using polyclona...
Gulick BA, Meagher DM.A commercially available polyvinyl chloride intravenous catheter was studied in 9 horses for 3 to 10 days to evaluate the catheter's suitability for use in the horse, to develop a new insertion technique, and to establish a protocol for catheter care. Seven of the animals were clinically normal horses receiving parenteral nutrition; one was a horse with hypocalcemia receiving frequent intravenous injections of calcium gluconate, and one was a clinically normal horse receiving no infusions. The catheter dressings were changed every 48 hours, and an aspirate from the catheter and the catheter ti...
Sobiraj A, Warko G, Lehmann B, Bostedt H.This review of therapeutic results involved 115 foals with delayed viability syndrome (DVS). The foals were up to four days old. It could be shown that prognosis quoad vitam depended very much on the severity of illness, which could be determined primarily by the foals' ability to stand (SA) and secondly by the presence of the suckling reflex (SR). Those foals that were (still) able to stand--while the suckling reflex was/was not present (anymore) (SA+, SR+; SA+, SR-)--had good prospects of recovery regardless of the causal disease. The chances for survival were significantly poorer if the foa...
Bracher V, Steiger R, Huser S.In the present study the breath hydrogen (H2) excretion test was combined with the xylose absorption test in 4 normal horses and 9 clinical patients with chronic diarrhea (n = 3) or chronic weight loss without diarrhea (n = 6). All horses underwent a thorough clinical examination. Laboratory evaluations consisted of haematology and serum biochemistry as well as bacteriological and parasitological examination of feces. In addition, serum electrophoresis and abdominocentesis was performed in all the clinical patients. Gastroscopy was carried out in 6 patients and rectal biopsies were obtained fr...
Yeargan MR, Lyons ET, Kania SA, Patton S, Breathnach CC, Horohov DW, Howe DK.In the course of a vaccine experiment on horses, microfilariae were observed in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from eleven of fifteen study horses. The microfilariae were clearly viable as evidenced by their vigorous movements in the cultures, thus indicating that they had survived the Ficoll gradient purification and the cryopreservation method used for retaining the PBMCs. The microfilariae were identified as Setaria equina, which is a vector-borne filarial nematode that causes a relatively benign infection of equids in which the adult worms reside in the per...
Uhlinger C.A herd of 15 mature riding horses with a history of anorexia, weight loss, and lethargy was examined. The animals had been fed a 50/50 mixture of commercial sweet feed and corn screenings contaminated with a heavy growth of Fusarium moniliforme. Thirteen of the horses had one or more neurologic signs. The most characteristic signs were profound depression and mild ataxia. Over the 19-day course of the epizootic, the horses had increasing severe neurologic deficits, including unilateral blindness and delirium. Despite the clinical appearance of dehydration, 12 horses had low PCV (16 to 27%), he...
Villa-Mancera A, Reynoso-Palomar A.The objective of the present study was to determine the seroprevalence of Fasciola hepatica infection in horses, donkeys and mules from different climate regions in two states of Mexico. A total of 594 serum samples were analysed for immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), with excretory-secretory (E/S) products as the antigen. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of serum IgG ELISA were 100% and 97.2%, respectively. We collected data using a questionnaire. The overall prevalence of the parasite in equids between May 2018 and April 2019 was 13.1...
Wilkins PA, Vaala WE, Zivotofsky D, Twitchell ED.Equine leukoencephalomalacia (ELEM) affected 6 of 10 pleasure horses in adjacent paddocks at a boarding facility. Four of the 6 affected horses died or were euthanized. Two of 3 horses presented for treatment survived with complete resolution of clinical signs. Treatment was primarily supportive. Dimethyl sulfoxide, dexamethasone, flunixin meglumine and thiamine were administered as anti-inflammatory agents and to decrease or prevent cerebral edema. Fusarium monileforme was cultured from ear corn fed the affected horses. Fumonisin B1, B2 and B3 were isolated.
Cavasin JP, Miller AD, Duhamel GE.An 8-year-old Anglo-European gelding with progressive neurological signs was humanely destroyed and submitted for necropsy examination. The right parietal cortex was disrupted by a well-demarcated, intraparenchymal, 1.5 cm diameter, tan, homogeneous, dense mass. Microscopical examination was consistent with an astrocytoma, which was confirmed on the basis of strong immunohistochemical labelling for glial fibrillary acidic protein. The neoplastic population lacked immunolabelling for oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2. Labelling for ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 highlighted la...
da Silva TRO, Gonçalves PNC, Marcus VB, Mucellini CI, Dos Santos IR, Kommers G, Driemeier D, Flores EF, Cargnelutti JF, Flores MM.For approximately one decade, a novel papillomavirus termed Equus caballus papillomavirus-2 (EcPV-2) has been associated with equine penile/preputial papillomas and squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). It is currently believed that the virus has a carcinogenic activity, being able to induce such neoplastic lesions. After being first described, EcPV-2 has been detected in many countries from North America, Europe, and Asia; however, to date, it has not been reported in Brazil. The aim of this research was to investigate the presence of EcPV-2 in penile/preputial papillomas and SCCs of Brazilian hor...
Ishiyama T, Nishimori T, Kato M, Yamada H, Sato K, Sentsui H.Restriction endonuclease analysis of equine herpesviruses 1 (EHV-1) and 4 has been investigated using cultured cells infected with these viruses. The DNA cleavage patterns of these viruses were observed in the intracellular DNA after digestion with Eco RI and electrophoresis. This procedure was applied to the diagnosis of equine herpesvirus infection in aborted equine fetuses. The characteristic Eco RI restriction pattern of EHV-1 DNA was directly detectable in the emulsion of lungs collected from aborted equine fetuses.
Jacob RJ, Steiner MR.Equine herpesvirus 3 (EHV-3)-infected equine cells display a kinetics of infected cell polypeptide (ICP) synthesis at 34 degrees C that is typical of coordinate cascade gene regulation of herpesviruses. In contrast, when infected cell cultures are incubated at the restricted temperature of 39 degrees C, the shift from early (beta) gene expression to late (gamma) gene expression is perturbed, i.e., there is an accumulation of early (beta) gene products and a decrease in, or absence of, late (gamma) gene products. Some of the affected late (gamma) gene products may be glycoproteins since these I...
Varma KJ, Powers TE, Powers JD.A single-dose pharmacokinetic study of chloramphenicol in propylene glycol was done in 6 horses after 22 mg/kg was administered IV. Serum drug concentrations obtained at various predetermined intervals were determined by an electroncapture gas-chromatographic technique. The time-concentration data were described by a 2-compartment open model, and various pharmacokinetic variables were estimated. The median elimination rate constant was estimated to be -0.0185 minute-1 (-0.0225 to -0.0148 minute-1), and the median half-life was 37.36 minutes (30.74 to 46.90 minutes). The median apparent volume ...
Divers TJ.Regulation of renal blood flow is by both extrinsic and intrinsic systems. Intrinsic regulation occurs via the afferent and efferent arterioles and tubuloglomerular feedback mechanisms with activation of the juxtaglomerular apparatus. Mechanisms of acute kidney injury are frequently associated with changes in renal blood flow. Acute tubular necrosis and apoptosis are common in horses following ischemic or toxic insults and in sepsis-associated acute kidney injury. Sepsis-associated renal injury often has a complex mechanism of disease involving both functional and obstructive changes in intrar...
Phelps S, Chong D, McKenzie E, Kiupel M, Gorman E.Clinical disease caused by infection with Listeria monocytogenes is rare in adult horses, and there is a paucity of ante-mortem clinicopathologic changes for this species reported in the literature. Confirmatory diagnosis is difficult and often requires post-mortem sampling of the brainstem. This report details a case of meningoencephalitis caused by Listeria monocytogenes in an adult American quarter horse gelding presenting with central neurologic signs. Pre-mortem analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid revealed a mononuclear, primarily lymphocytic, pleocytosis, which is a reported finding in o...
Krüger B, Siesenop U, Böhm KH.In 1993 and 1994 a highly increased occurrence of equine dermatophilosis was observed, and a study was initiated to determine phenotypic heterogeneity among 120 clinical isolates using biochemistry, antibiotic resistance profiles, membrane protein profiles and Western blotting. The biochemical examinations contained 1% equine serum in medium. Moreover, the API ZYM-test from bioMérieux was used. The biochemical reactions were suited to identify Dermatophilus congolensis but did not allow a differentiation among the various isolates. Antibiotic resistance in one or more isolates was observed ag...
D'Anza E, Buono F, Albarella S, Castaldo E, Pugliano M, Iannuzzi A, Cascone I, Battista E, Peretti V, Ciotola F.The Pony of Esperia is an Italian autochthonous horse breed reared in the wild on the Aurunci and Ausoni Mountains. Currently, it is considered an endangered breed, as its population consists of 1623 animals. It is therefore essential to identify all aspects that can improve the management and economy of its breeding, favoring its diffusion. In this paper, the effects of intestinal strongyle infection on the chromosome stability of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) was evaluated through aneuploidy and chromosome aberration (gap, chromatid and chromosome breaks, and the number of abnormal cel...
Hofing GL, Bennett DG.Shetland ponies (n = 4) were given diethylcarbamazine orally at a dose level of 22 mg/kg/day for 1 week before they were inoculated with 800 third-stage larvae of Strongylus vulgaris. Treatment was continued for 86 (1 pony) or 200 days (3 ponies) after the inoculation. As compared with the changes seen in a similarly inoculated group of ponies (group 2) which were not treated, diethylcarbamazine did not prevent the clinical or pathologic changes due to the migrating larvae. Fewer adult parasites were recovered at necropsy from treated ponies than from nontreated (group 2) ponies, even when tre...
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...
Fenger CK, Kohn CW.A 20-month-old Quarter Horse stallion was admitted for evaluation of labored breathing, honking cough, and bilateral epistaxis that were caused by pneumonia and collapsed trachea. A transtracheal aspiration revealed highly cellular, serosanguineous fluid. Radiography revealed a patchy alveolar pattern and a narrowed tracheal lumen. Endoscopy confirmed narrowing of the tracheal lumen. Streptococcus zooepidemicus was isolated on culture of the transtracheal aspirate. The horse responded to penicillin treatment, and the tracheal collapse improved endoscopically after 4 days, with complete recover...
