Infectious diseases in horses encompass a range of illnesses caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. These diseases can affect various systems within the equine body, leading to symptoms that range from mild discomfort to severe systemic illness. Common infectious diseases in horses include equine influenza, strangles, equine herpesvirus, and West Nile virus. These diseases can be transmitted through direct contact with infected animals, contaminated surfaces, or vectors such as insects. Understanding the mechanisms of transmission, pathogenesis, and immune response is essential for effective prevention and control. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and management of infectious diseases in horses.
Tulsiani SM, Graham GC, Moore PR, Jansen CC, Van Den Hurk AF, Moore FA, Simmons RJ, Craig SB.Hendra virus (HeV) was first isolated in 1994, from a disease outbreak involving at least 21 horses and two humans in the Brisbane suburb of Hendra, Australia. The affected horses and humans all developed a severe but unidentified respiratory disease that resulted in the deaths of one of the human cases and the deaths or putting down of 14 of the horses. The virus, isolated by culture from a horse and the kidney of the fatal human case, was initially characterised as a new member of the genus Morbillivirus in the family Paramyxoviridae. Comparative sequence analysis of part of the matrix prote...
Kokotovic B, Angen Ø, Bisgaard M.Genetic diversity detected by analysis of amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) of 54 Actinobacillus lignieresii isolates from different hosts and geographic localities is described. On the basis of variances in AFLP profiles, the strains were grouped in two major clusters; one comprising strains isolated from horses and infected wounds of humans bitten by horses and another consisting of strains isolated from bovine and ovine hosts. The present data indicate a comparatively higher degree of genetic diversity among strains isolated from equine hosts and confirm the existence of a sep...
Yamamoto H, Yamamoto F, Tanaka F, Nishikawa Y.We describe the influence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia on histopathological alteration of a glutaraldehyde-fixed equine pericardial roll (EPR) graft in a 77-year-old male who underwent in-situ EPR replacement of a ruptured infected abdominal aorta with concomitant repair of the perforated duodenum. The patient died of circulatory failure after septic shock due to MRSA infection and gastrointestinal bleeding on postoperative day (POD) 23. The autopsy revealed no perforation of the EPR graft or anastomotic disruption between the native abdominal aorta and EPR ...
Singh BR, Gulati BR, Virmani N, Chauhan M.At a thoroughbred equine breeding farm near Hissar (Haryana), three mares aborted in their seventh month of pregnancy. The vaginal swabs of all aborted mares, and stomach contents, heart blood, liver, spleen and placenta of aborted fetuses yielded pure culture of Aeromonas hydrophila. In addition, A. hydrophila was also isolated from the vaginal swabs of three repeat breeding mares and faecal sample of a diarrheic foal. The source of infection was possibly water supply as all the water samples collected from taps, mother tank and storage tank were found to be positive for A. hydrophila. The an...
Berzina I, Trumble NS, Novicki T, Sharkey LC.An 11-year-old American Saddlebred gelding was presented for evaluation of a nonpainful subconjunctival mass involving the lateral canthus of the left eye. Other findings included a central corneal scar and a small central cataract of the lens in the left eye. Fine-needle aspiration of the mass was performed and cytologic examination revealed marked pyogranulomatous inflammation with intralesional fungal hyphae, consistent with mycetoma. The fungal structures were elongated and characterized by nonstaining walls; several bulbous yeast-like structures were also observed. The mycetoma was surgic...
Zoonoses and public healthFebruary 1, 2011
Volume 58, Issue 7 514-518 doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2011.01394.x
Adaszek Ł, Winiarczyk S.This study was aimed at determining the cause of the diseases in five horses exhibiting symptoms of fever, joint oedema and ataxia and thrombocytopenia. The PCR technique revealed the presence in the blood of 16S RNA Anaplasma/Ehrlichia spp. genetic material. DNA amplification with primers EHR 521 and EHR 747 gave a product with a size of 247 bp. The sequence of the PCR product obtained showed a 97.6-99.6% similarity with a sequence of a fragment of 16S RNA Anaplasma phagocytophilum, gene number EU 090186 from GenBank. Intravenous administration of oxytetracycline at a dose of 8 mg/kg of body ...
Imai DM, Barr BC, Daft B, Bertone JJ, Feng S, Hodzic E, Johnston JM, Olsen KJ, Barthold SW.Lyme neuroborreliosis--characterized as chronic, necrosuppurative to nonsuppurative, perivascular to diffuse meningoradiculoneuritis--was diagnosed in 2 horses with progressive neurologic disease. In 1 horse, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto was identified by polymerase chain reaction amplification of B burgdorferi sensu stricto-specific gene targets (ospA, ospC, flaB, dbpA, arp). Highest spirochetal burdens were in tissues with inflammation, including spinal cord, muscle, and joint capsule. Sequence analysis of ospA, ospC, and flaB revealed 99.9% sequence identity to the respective genes in...
Fernandes F, Chen K, Ehrlich LS, Jin J, Chen MH, Medina GN, Symons M, Montelaro R, Donaldson J, Tjandra N, Carter CA.Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-biphosphate [PI(4,5)P(2) ], the predominant phosphoinositide (PI) on the plasma membrane, binds the matrix (MA) protein of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) with similar affinities in vitro. Interaction with PI(4,5)P(2) is critical for HIV-1 assembly on the plasma membrane. EIAV has been shown to localize in internal compartments; hence, the significance of its interaction with PI(4,5)P(2) is unclear. We therefore investigated the binding in vitro of other PIs to EIAV MA and whether intracellular association with comp...
Knight CG, Munday JS, Peters J, Dunowska M.Forty cases of equine penile disease were screened with polymerase chain reaction for the presence of papillomaviral DNA. Cases consisted of 20 squamous cell carcinomas (average age of horse, 23.9 years) and 20 non-squamous cell carcinoma diseases (average age of horse, 13.3 years). All horses but one originated from the Northeastern United States. Breeds were not recorded. As based on MY09/MY11 consensus primers, DNA sequences from equine papillomavirus type 2 were amplified from 9 of 20 horses (45%) with penile squamous cell carcinoma and only 1 of 20 horses (5%) with non-squamous cell carci...
Hébert L, Moumen B, Duquesne F, Breuil MF, Laugier C, Batto JM, Renault P, Petry S.Taylorella equigenitalis is the causative agent of contagious equine metritis (CEM), a sexually transmitted infection of horses. We herein report the genome sequence of T. equigenitalis strain MCE9, isolated in 2005 from the urethral fossa of a 4-year-old stallion in France.
Meyer A, Messer L, De Briel D, Moreau P.The field of zoonoses changes constantly. Streptococcus equi subsp. ruminatorum is a group C Streptococcus subspecies first identified in 2004. The first case of human infection with this agent was reported in 2007. Here, we report a second case. A 70-year-old man had acute spondylodiscitis and endocarditis involving the anterior mitral valve leaflet. S. equi subsp. ruminatorum was identified in the blood cultures. Antibiotic therapy was successful in eradicating the infection. The workup showed hypogammaglobulinemia with stage I myeloma. He reported frequent contacts with horses including tw...
Recent outbreaks of equine infectious anaemia and equine viral arteritis in the UK. Update on the equine infectious anaemia situation in Europe. West Nile virus reported in several Mediterranean countries. Current and future approaches to equine viral arteritis control in the UK. These are among matters discussed in the quarterly equine disease surveillance report for April to June 2010, prepared by Defra, the Animal Health Trust and the British Equine Veterinary Association.
Castleman WL, Toplon DE, Clark CK, Heskett TW, Farina LL, Lynch TM, Bryant UK, Del Piero F, Murphy B, Edwards JF.This multi-institutional report describes 8 cases of rhabdomyosarcoma in horses. Four neoplasms were in the tongue and other areas of the mouth or head, 2 were in the abdominal wall, and 1 each was in right shoulder muscles and heart. Four rhabdomyosarcomas that were less than 10 cm in diameter were treated by surgical excision or radiation with no recurrence. Two neoplasms greater than 10 cm in diameter in the abdominal wall and the right shoulder were considered inoperable and led to decisions to euthanize the horses. Two neoplasms were incidental findings at necropsy. All the neoplasms were...
Grandi G, Molinari G, Tittarelli M, Sassera D, Kramer LH.Babesia caballi and Theileria equi are the causative agents of equine piroplasmosis. In this epidemiological study, 294 horses reared in a rural area of northern Italy were studied. During January 2008-January 2009, blood samples were taken for serology (indirect fluorescent antibody test) and for polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Data on the geographical area, sex, and age were collected for statistical analysis of risk factors associated with infection. A seroprevalence of 8.5% was found: 8.2% of the animals were positive for anti-T. equi antibodies and 0.3% for anti-B. caballi antibodies. No...
Gibney KB, Robinson S, Mutebi JP, Hoenig DE, Bernier BJ, Webber L, Lubelczyk C, Nett RJ, Fischer M.Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) is one of the most severe arboviral encephalitides in North America. Before 2009, limited nonhuman EEE virus activity had been reported in Maine, all from the southernmost area of the state. No human case has been reported in a Maine resident. Methods: We review all EEE virus activity reported to Maine Centers for Disease Control in 2009 and describe current testing practices for possible human EEE cases. Results: In 2009, fatal cases of EEE were identified in 15 horses, 1 llama, and 3 flocks of pheasants in Maine, with activity extending into the central part...
Kitai Y, Shirafuji H, Kanehira K, Kamio T, Kondo T, Konishi E.West Nile virus (WNV) and Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus are distributed separately in the world with some exceptions. There is a concern that WNV may invade into Asia where JE virus exists. On and after such invasion, any differential diagnosis could be complicated by serological crossreactivities. We previously demonstrated experimentally using horses infected with WNV that preimmunization with inactivated JE vaccine considerably affected the ability of neutralization tests and immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to diagnose WNV infection. Here...
Elschner MC, Scholz HC, Melzer F, Saqib M, Marten P, Rassbach A, Dietzsch M, Schmoock G, de Assis Santana VL, de Souza MM, Wernery R, Wernery U....The in vivo diagnosis of glanders relies on the highly sensitive complement fixation test (CFT). Frequently observed false positive results are troublesome for veterinary authorities and cause financial losses to animal owners. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop a test with high specificity. Hence, a Western blot assay making use of a partly purified lipopolysaccaride (LPS) containing antigen of three Burkholderia mallei strains was developed. The test was validated investigating a comprehensive set of positive and negative sera obtained from horses and mules from endemic and non...
Kim DY, Johnson PJ, Senter D.A 9-year-old Tennessee Walking Horse gelding was presented for diagnosis of the cause of extensive alopecia. Complete hair loss was noted over the head, neck, shoulder, thigh, and proximal limbs, but the trunk, distal limbs, pelvic area, mane, and tail were unaffected. The alopecic areas were visually noninflammatory with no exudate or crust except on the shoulder and along the back, where multifocal patchy areas of alopecia with scales and crust were evident. The horse was slightly pruritic. Microscopically, the hair bulbs, inner and outer root sheaths of inferior segments, and perifollicular...
Sonmez K, Gurel A, Takai S.The aim of the present study was to develop an immunocytochemical procedure for the early detection and demonstration of Rhodococcus equi in smears of tracheal aspirates taken from live foals in field conditions. Tracheal wash samples were collected from thoroughbred foals, aged 1-5 months and located in studs around Bursa and Istanbul, Turkey. Some foals were suspected of having R. equi infection on the basis of clinical examination (n=56) and others were unaffected control animals (n=54). Serum samples were also collected from each foal for testing for the presence of R. equi-specific antibo...
Ryan PL, Christiansen DL, Hopper RM, Walters FK, Moulton K, Curbelo J, Greene JM, Willard ST.Uterine and placental infections are the leading cause of abortion, stillbirth, and preterm delivery in the mare. Whereas uterine and placental infections in women have been studied extensively, a comprehensive examination of the pathogenic processes leading to this unsatisfactory pregnancy outcome in the mare has yet to be completed. Most information in the literature relating to late-term pregnancy loss in mares is based on retrospective studies of clinical cases submitted for necropsy. Here we report the development and application of a novel approach, whereby transgenically modified bacter...
Castillo-Olivares J, Mansfield KL, Phipps LP, Johnson N, Tearle J, Fooks AR.West Nile virus (WNV) has re-emerged as an important pathogen for humans and horses, which are considered to be incidental 'dead-end' hosts. We have demonstrated that horses are susceptible to experimental infection with WNV and that horses infected with either WNV lineage 1 or lineage 2 elicit a similar antibody profile in serum samples. These data suggest that virus-neutralizing antibody responses persist for longer than WNV-specific IgM levels in serum and that there are not any notable differences in the antibody profile following experimental infection of horses with either WNV lineage 1 ...
Lengacher B, Kline TR, Harpster L, Williams ML, Lejeune JT.Manure from draft animals deposited in fields during vegetable and fruit production may serve as a potential source of preharvest pathogen contamination of foods. To better quantify this risk, we determined the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in horses. Between June and September 2009, freshly voided fecal samples were collected from horses stabled on 242 separate premises in Ohio, USA. Overall, the prevalence of E. coli O157:H7 was 1 of 242 (0.4% prevalence, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.01 to 2.28). E. coli O157:H7 was recovered from none of the 107 equine fecal samples (0% prevale...
Shimojima M, Nagao Y, Shimoda H, Tamaru S, Yamanaka T, Matsumura T, Kondo T, Maeda K.In the past 25 years, there has been only one case of Japanese encephalitis in horses in Japan. We determined the full genome sequence of the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) strain JEV/eq/Tottori/2003 isolated from an afflicted horse and also analyzed its virulence in mice. The sequence analysis showed that the genome of JEV/eq/Tottori/2003 is similar to that of genotype I, a dominant genotype of JEV presently circulating in Japan. Its neurovirulence, but not neuroinvasiveness, was still as high as it was for genotype III, thus indicating the necessity for continuation of a vaccination progr...
Oue Y, Ishihara R, Edamatsu H, Morita Y, Yoshida M, Yoshima M, Hatama S, Murakami K, Kanno T.A new equine coronavirus was isolated from the feces of adult horses with pyrogenic and enteric disease. The disease outbreak was mainly observed among 2- to 4-year-old horses living in stables of a draft-horse racetrack in Japan. On comparing the isolated virus (isolate Tokachi09) with the equine coronavirus NC99 strain, no significant differences were observed in several biological properties such as hemagglutinating activity, antigenicity (in indirect immunofluorescence and neutralization tests), and one-step growth (in cell culture). The sequences of the nucleocapsid and spike genes of iso...
Mujica FF, Perrone T, Forlano M, Coronado A, Meléndez RD, Barrios N, Alvarez R, Granda F.The main objective of this study was to demonstrate the occurrence of equine piroplasmosis (EP) in horses of Lara State, Venezuela, and to correlate it with the factors host's sex and age in order to know the epidemiology of this disease at the Venezuelan Centroccidental Region. Antibody levels to Babesia caballi and Theileria equi were assessed in 360 equine serum samples, collected from 9 municipalities of Lara State, using an ELISA technique with recombinant antigens and monoclonal antibodies (Mabs). Antibodies to B. caballi were found in 254 horses (70.6%), whereas 181 animals (50.3%) were...
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...
El-Hage C, Legione A, Devlin J, Hughes K, Jenkins C, Gilkerson J. is an important zoonotic pathogen. Although primarily a pathogen of birds, from which infection can spillover into humans and other mammalian hosts, the importance of as a cause of equine reproductive loss and the risk of infection to humans in contact with infected horses are increasingly being recognised in Australia and elsewhere. Despite the risks to both human and equine health, infection in horses is incompletely understood. This study aimed to update and summarise cases of equine psittacosis in Australia in the period 2018-2022, thus addressing a knowledge gap relating to recent case...
Xiao C, Liu Y, Jiang Y, Magoffin DE, Guo H, Xuan H, Wang G, Wang LF, Tu C.Four monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were generated by immunizing BALB/C mice with recombinant nucleocapsid protein (N) of Nipah virus (NiV) and Hendra virus (HeV) expressed in E. coli. Two mAbs each were obtained for the HeV N and NiV N, respectively. All four mAbs displayed specific reactivity with the recombinant N proteins of both viruses by western blot, which was further confirmed by immunofluorescent antibody assay using fixed insect cells infected with recombinant baculoviruses expressing either the HeV or NiV N protein. Epitope mapping using a 12-mer random peptide phage display library ...
Tirosh-Levy S, Gottlieb Y, Steinman A.Stress has been suggested as a risk factor for Theileria equi peracute disease and may lead to relapse in clinical signs in chronically infected horses. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of stress on T. equi parasitemia in sub-clinically infected horses in two settings: horses hospitalized at a veterinary teaching hospital and horses from an endurance farm. Blood samples were collected from the hospitalized horses (n = 32) upon admission (T0) and at discharge (T1) from the hospital, and results were compared between horses that underwent surgery (stress) and other hospitalized...
Hitchcock PJ, Brown TM, Corwin D, Hayes SF, Olszewski A, Todd WJ.Examination of recently isolated cultures of three strains of Contagious Equine Metritis Organism grown on specially formulated, serum-free, clear typing medium revealed the presence of numerous colonial opacity variants. These colonies were prepared by a number of fixation and staining techniques and examined by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Opaque and transparent phenotypes produced copious amounts of extracellular material compared with intermediate-opacity phenotypes which produced little or none. Also unique to intermediate colonies were numerous thin intercellular strand...
Wang LF, Gould AR, Selleck PW.Full-length cDNA clones coding for the matrix (M) and fusion (F) proteins of equine morbillivirus (EMV) were isolated by RT-PCR, and expressed in Escherichia coli using two different expression systems. Western blot analysis indicated that the M and F proteins, expressed either by itself or as fusion proteins with glutathione S-transferase (GST), were insoluble and degraded after expression. Analysis of the degradation pattern of recombinant M protein suggested that the N-terminus of the matrix protein might be more stable and antigenic than the C-terminal region. Therefore a third system was ...
Thaker SR, Dutta SK, Adhya SL, Mattingly-Napier BL.A gene bank of Ehrlichia risticii was constructed in plasmid vector pUC13. Five clones representing discrete regions of the E. risticii genome were tested for their ability to hybridize specifically to E. risticii DNA. None of the clones cross-hybridized with Ehrlichia equi DNA, whereas four of these clones cross-hybridized with Ehrlichia canis and Ehrlichia sennetsu DNAs. However, one clone carrying a 1-kilobase HindIII fragment of E. risticii DNA failed to cross-react with the genomes of E. sennetsu, E. canis, and E. equi in dot blot hybridization assays. The sensitivity of this probe for th...
Petry S, Sévin C, Kozak S, Foucher N, Laugier C, Linster M, Breuil MF, Dupuis MC, Hans A, Duquesne F, Tapprest J.Study of the rifampicin resistance of Rhodococcus equi strains isolated from French horses over a 20-year period. Rifampicin susceptibility was tested by disk diffusion (DD) and broth macrodilution methods, and rpoB gene sequencing and MLST were performed on 40 R. equi strains, 50.0% of which were non-susceptible to rifampicin. Consistency of results was observed between rifampicin susceptibility testing and rpoB sequencing. Strains non-susceptible to rifampicin by DD had a substitution at one of the sites (Asp516, His526 and Ser531) frequently encountered and conferring rifampicin resistance....
Fernández-Pinero J, Fernández-Pacheco P, Rodríguez B, Sotelo E, Robles A, Arias M, Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM.A highly sensitive and specific TaqMan-MGB real-time RT-PCR assay has been developed and standardised for the detection of African horse sickness virus (AHSV). Primers and MGB probe specific for AHSV were selected within a highly conserved region of genome segment 7. The robustness and general application of the diagnostic method were verified by the detection of 12 AHSV isolates from all of the nine serotypes. The analytical sensitivity ranged from 0.001 to 0.15 TCID(50) per reaction, depending on the viral serotype. Real-time PCR performance was preliminarily assessed by analysing a panel of...
Uchida-Fujii E, Niwa H, Senoh M, Kato H, Kinoshita Y, Mita H, Ueno T.We encountered 34 Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection (CDI) cases among Thoroughbred horses in Japan from 2010 to 2021. Among them, 79.4% (27/34) either died or were euthanised. The risk factors associated with CDI and mortality among Japanese Thoroughbred horses remain unclear. We used genetic methods to examine C. difficile strains and their relationships with prognosis. Twenty-two (64.7%) cases were hospitalised at the onset of colitis. Outcomes were balanced for hospitalisation rates at the onset of colitis. The mortality rates of cases treated with metronidazole (65.0%) were...
Rios LM, Sheu JJ, Day JF, Maruniak JE, Seino K, Zaretsky H, Long MT.The objective of this study was to examine the extrinsic risk factors of West Nile virus (WNV) clinical disease in Florida horses as established from confirmed and negative horses tested within the state from 2001 to 2003. An Arboviral Case Information Form (ACF) was submitted by a referring veterinarian at the time of testing to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on every horse suspected of a viral encephalitis in Florida. A follow-up survey that focused on arbovirus prevention and farm ecology was created and mailed to the owner of each tested horse. Data from the fo...
Vissani MA, Damiani AM, Barrandeguy ME.Equine coital exanthema (ECE) is a highly contagious, venereally-transmitted mucocutaneous disease, characterized by the formation of papules, vesicles, pustules and ulcers on the external genital organs of mares and stallions, and caused by (EHV-3). The infection is endemic worldwide and the virus is transmitted mainly through direct contact during sexual intercourse and by contaminated instruments during reproductive maneuvers in breeding facilities. The disease does not result in systemic illness, infertility or abortion, yet it does have a negative impact on the equine industry as it forc...
Bouillant AM, Becker SA.The successive steps of maturation of seven retroviruses from five species of farm animals and one retrovirus from a mouse were compared in cell cultures. The viruses included three type C oncoviruses, one spumavirus, and three lentiviruses. Although members of the 3 subfamilies shared some gross morphologic features such as budding on plasma membranes, core, and surface projections, differences were noted in the ultrastructural detail of these features. Type C oncoviruses did not show any structural differentiation in identifiable form in the cytoplasm as opposed to characteristic features ob...
Fraser DG, Leib SR, Zhang BS, Mealey RH, Brown WC, McGuire TC.The effect of immunization with five lipopeptides, three containing T-helper (Th) epitopes and two with both Th and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes, on equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) challenge was evaluated. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from EIAV lipopeptide-immunized horses had significant proliferative responses to Th peptides compared with those preimmunization, and the responses were attributed to significant responses to peptides Gag from positions 221 to 245 (Gag 221-245), Gag 250-269, and Pol 326-347; however, there were no consistent CTL responses. The significant pr...
Gür S, Gürçay M, Seyrek A.Bovine enteroviruses (BEV) are members of Enterovirus genus of the family Picornaviridae. BEV1 has a broad host spectrum, including humans. The virus usually causes subclinical infection, but fatal/severe cases have also been reported in different animal species. There is quite limited data regarding BEV1 in humans. The purpose of this study is to investigate human infection and to identify possible risk factors for viral exposure. For this purpose, blood serum samples (n=1,526) were collected from a city center and nearby villagers simultaneously from humans and farm animals in Elazig provinc...
Zhang Y, Wen X, Xiao P, Fan X, Li M, Chahan B.Ticks in Xinjiang distribute widely and account for one third of China. Ticks can carry and transmit bacteria, virus, and parasite. However, the research of tick-borne pathogens in Xinjiang is rather little. To understand the situation of hard tick carry Theileria equi, Babesia caballi and Rickettsia spp. of Zhaosu and Altay in Xinjiang. In this study, 119 tick samples were obtained from horses in Xinjiang, China, Ticks were identified morphologically to determine species and PCR was used to investigate the situation of pathogens by hard ticks. One hundred and seven belong to Dermacentor margi...
Slater JD, Lunn DP, Horohov DW, Antczak DF, Babiuk L, Breathnach C, Chang YW, Davis-Poynter N, Edington N, Ellis S, Foote C, Goehring L, Kohn CW....Amongst the infectious diseases that threaten equine health, herpesviral infections remain a world wide cause of serious morbidity and mortality. Equine herpesvirus-1 infection is the most important pathogen, causing an array of disorders including epidemic respiratory disease abortion, neonatal foal death, myeloencephalopathy and chorioretinopathy. Despite intense scientific investigation, extensive use of vaccination, and established codes of practice for control of disease outbreaks, infection and disease remain common. While equine herpesvirus-1 infection remains a daunting challenge for i...
Słońska A, Cymerys J, Godlewski MM, Dzieciątkowski T, Tucholska A, Chmielewska A, Golke A, Bańbura MW.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) causes respiratory disease, abortion and neurological disorders in horses. In the present study, we investigated reorganization of the cytoskeleton in neurons infected with two EHV-1 strains: Jan-E (wild-type strain) and Rac-H (attenuated strain). The studies were performed on primary murine neurons, which are an excellent model for studying neurotropism and neurovirulence of EHV-1. We have demonstrated for the first time that EHV-1 infection causes rearrangements in the actin network of neurons that are dependent on the virus strain and its adaptation to cell...
Canever MF, Miletti LC.The development of new drugs targeting neglected animal diseases is imperative. In Asia and South America, Trypanosoma evansi is a pathogen that affects horses and other species, causing economic losses associated with reduced animal productivity and death. In order to accelerate the identification of drugs with activity against neglected diseases, Medicines for Malaria Venture has developed Pathogen Box®, a library of 400 different molecules. The present work aimed to identify compounds present in the Pathogen Box® library, measuring in vitro activity against T. evansi. Among the 400 compou...
Birkett AJ, Yélamos B, Rodríguez-Crespo I, Gavilanes F, Peterson DL.The gene coding for the major core protein (p26) of the lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) was cloned from EIAV infected serum, expressed in E. coli, and the resultant protein purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. The protein was expressed in a soluble form and was purified by conventional protein separation methods. When analyzed by SDS-PAGE, under both reducing and non-reducing conditions, the purified protein migrated as a 26 kDa monomer. Recombinant p26 (rp26), therefore, does not contain any intermolecular disulfide bond. Gel filtration chromatography also indicated that ...
Pan J, Ji L, Wu H, Wang X, Wang Y, Wu Y, Yang S, Shen Q, Liu Y, Zhang W, Zhang K, Shan T.Mammals are potential hosts for many infectious diseases. However, studies on the viral communities of herbivorous mammals in the Northwest Plateau are limited. Here, we studied the viral communities of herbivorous mammals in the Northwest Plateau using virus metagenomic analysis to analyze and compare the viral community composition of seven animal species. Results: By library construction and next-generation sequencing, contigs and singlets reads with similar viral sequences were classified into 24 viral families. Analyzed from the perspective of sampling areas, the virus community compositi...
Eady NA, Holmes C, Schnabel C, Babasyan S, Wagner B.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is a contagious respiratory pathogen that infects the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract (URT). Mucosal immune responses at the URT provide the first line of defense against EHV-1 and are crucial for orchestrating immunity. To define host-pathogen interactions, we characterized B-cell responses, antibody isotype functions, and EHV-1 replication of susceptible (non-immune) and clinically protected (immune) horses after experimental EHV-1 infection. Nasal secretion and nasal wash samples were collected and used for the isolation of DNA, RNA, and mucosal antib...
Khalefa HS, Arafa AA, Hamza D, El-Razik KAA, Ahmed Z.Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen responsible for various infections in humans and animals. It is known for its resistance to multiple antibiotics, particularly through the production of Extended-Spectrum Beta-Lactamases (ESBLs), and its ability to form biofilms that further complicate treatment. This study aimed to isolate and identify K. pneumoniae from animal and environmental samples and assess commercial disinfectants' effectiveness against K. pneumoniae isolates exhibiting ESBL-mediated resistance and biofilm-forming ability in poultry and equine farms in Giza Governorat...
Lightbody KL, Austin A, Lambert PA, von Samson-Himmelstjerna G, Jürgenschellert L, Krücken J, Nielsen MK, Sallé G, Reigner F, Donnelly CG....Cyathostomins are ubiquitous equine nematodes. Infection can result in larval cyathostominosis due to mass larval emergence. Although faecal egg count (FEC) tests provide estimates of egg shedding, these correlate poorly with burden and provide no information on mucosal/luminal larvae. Previous studies describe a serum IgG(T)-based ELISA (CT3) that exhibits utility for detection of mucosal/luminal cyathostomins. Here, this ELISA is optimised/validated for commercial application using sera from horses for which burden data were available. Optimisation included addition of total IgG-based calibr...
Artsob H, Wright R, Shipp L, Spence L, Th'ng C.A study was undertaken in 1975 to determine California encephalitis virus activity in southern Ontario. Three thousand and sixty-one mosquitoes, primarily Aedes species, were divided into 104 pools and inoculated into suckling mice. Isolates of snowshoe hare virus were obtained from one pool each of Aedes fitchii and A. triseriatus mosquitoes collected in the Guelph area. Serological testing of horse sera revealed extensive virus activity in southern Ontario and indicated that horses may serve as excellent monitors for California encephalitis virus.
Hain-Saunders NMR, Knight DR, Bruce M, Byrne D, Riley TV.Clostridioides difficile poses an ongoing threat as a cause of gastrointestinal disease in humans and animals. Traditionally considered a human healthcare-related disease, increases in community-associated C. difficile infection (CDI) and growing evidence of inter-species transmission suggest a wider perspective is required for CDI control. In horses, C. difficile is a major cause of diarrhoea and life-threatening colitis. This study aimed to better understand the epidemiology of CDI in Australian horses and provide insights into the relationships between horse, human and environmental strains...
Moolla N, Adler D, Blumberg L, Glass A, Grobbelaar A, Le Roux C, Paweska J, Weyer J.Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is caused by hantavirus infection. Hantaviruses are not endemic to South Africa, and we report the first detection of an imported case of HFRS in the country. The case involved a traveller from Croatia who presented to a Johannesburg hospital with an acute febrile illness with renal dysfunction. The patient reported visiting rurally located horse stables in Croatia before falling ill, and that a worker in the stables with similar illness was diagnosed with HFRS. Given the exposure history and clinical findings of the case, a clinical diagnosis of H...
Myers DM.Three pathogenic leptosipras and 12 saprophytic Leptospira biflexa strains were isolated from 72 apparently normal horse kidneys collected at an abattoir in Argentina. Cross-agglutination reaction patterns of the pathogens showed that they were antigenically homologous with members of the Hebdomadis group. When one of the strains was compared to Hebdomadis serotypes in reciprocal agglutination-absorption tests, it was found to be serologically homologous to serotype hardjo. This is the first known report of an isolation of this serotype from horses. Serological tests were also carried out on r...
Erol E, Jackson C, Horohov D, Locke S, Smith J, Carter C.Determination of fetal serum amyloid A (SAA) concentrations in aborted fetuses can provide valuable information regarding the infectious and/or inflammatory process of abortion in horses. To investigate the relationship between fetal SAA levels and the infectious/inflammatory disease process in feto-placental tissues, a SAA ELISA was used to test heart serum samples of 89 equine fetuses that were necropsied and diagnosed in the following groups: a multiorgan disease process diagnosed with an identified microorganism (14 cases, group 1); only placentitis diagnosed with an identified microorgan...
