Laboratory methods in equine research encompass a variety of techniques and procedures used to analyze biological samples from horses to study health, disease, genetics, and physiology. These methods include hematological analyses, biochemical assays, molecular biology techniques, and microbiological cultures. Commonly utilized laboratory techniques involve blood tests for complete blood count (CBC) and serum chemistry, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for genetic and infectious disease studies, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for detecting specific proteins or antibodies. These methods provide valuable data that contribute to understanding equine health and disease mechanisms. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the application, development, and outcomes of laboratory methods in the context of equine research.
Olitsky PK, Cox HR, Syverton JT.We have studied certain properties, additional to those previously described (3), of the virus of vesicular stomatitis of horses, and of the characteristic biological reactions of the virus of equine encephalomyelitis. It has been found that the virus of stomatitis, ordinarily dermotropic, can acquire neurotropism and the neurotropic encephalomyelitis virus can, in turn, be rendered dermotropic in its action. The neurotropism in both instances is associated with definite, although not pronounced, viscerotropism. Both viruses can bring about a similar infection in the white mouse, rat, guinea p...
Parker JT, McCoy MV.1. The serum of horses immunized with increasing doses of certain anaerobically produced autolysates of pneumococci contain potent neutralizing antibodies for the pneumotoxin. 2. The method for the in vitro titration of these horse antipneumotoxic serums is given.
Abramson HA.1. The cataphoretic velocity of blood platelets (horse) in plasma has been found to be between 40 and 51 micro per sec. per volt per cm. The mean velocity obtained from five horses is . 45 micro per sec. per volt per cm. 2. The cataphoretic velocity of polymorphonuclear leucocytes in similar specimens is practically identical with that of the platelets. This is noteworthy because of the fact that lymphocytes and red cells have different speeds. 3. With spontaneous agglutination of platelets, white cells and red cells, there is no change in the cataphoretic velocity incidental to aggregation. 4...
Friedlander M, Sobotka H, Banzhaf EJ.The precipitin indices for a number of monovalent and polyvalent antipneumococcus sera were determined under known conditions, and found to vary as did the number of protective units. The ratio precipitin index/protective units in monovalent sera was found to lie between 2.8 and 4.8 for Type I and to be about ten times greater for Type III. Lower values were found in polyvalent horses and when mixing heterologous monovalent sera with each other. The influence of the duration of treatment upon the quotient was studied. Several refined and concentrated preparations showed a relative increase in ...
Reimann HA.It is conceivable that a change from the virulent, non-phagocytable S form of Pneumococcus to the avirulent phagocytable R form may take place in pneumococcus disease, but the experiments here reported do not settle the question whether or not this is an important factor in determining the outcome in natural infection. It has been shown experimentally that the degradation from the S form to the R form actually does take place in cultures of Pneumococcus growing in agar subcutaneously embedded in guinea pigs, in agar enclosed in vials subcutaneously embedded in rabbits, and spontaneously in the...
Jungeblut CW.1. A flocculation reaction has been described which occurs between alcoholic extracts of pneumococci and antipneumococcus serum. 2. The reaction appears to be species-specific. It is not strictly type-specific, as slight or moderate cross-reactions occurred between Type I serums and Type II and Type III extracts. 3. The flocculating power of the serum from five horses undergoing immunization with pneumococcus, Type I, did not develop to any extent before the end of the 4th or 5th month. 4. In the case of two of these horses in which it was possible to carry out parallel tests on a larger numbe...
Amoss HL, Marsh P.Experiments were made for the purpose of testing the reaction of protection against infection as a measure of potency of antimeningococcic serum. The results of the experiments were extremely variable and bore no relation to the quality of the sera as determined by the period of immunization of the horses from which they were obtained, or the indications of efficiency based upon their employment in human cases of epidemic meningitis. The results also failed entirely to conform to the agglutination titer of the sera tested and to be affected by the different type forms of the meningococci. We r...
Wadsworth AB, Kirkbride MB.Horses immunized to Type I pneumococci developed serum, 0.1 cc. of which protected against 0.5 cc. of a virulent culture, 0.000001 cc. of which killed mice in less than 40 hours. Protective tests of serum from horses immunized to Type II organisms varied, 0.1 cc. protecting, however, in certain instances against 0.1 and 0.01 cc. of virulent homologous culture. Types I and II sera obtained in our experiments with culture sediment and whole culture did not vary markedly for a given type and corresponded closely in their protective titer with samples of sera received from The Rockefeller Institut...
Hiss PH, Atkinson JP.THE RESULTS OF THE FOREGOING EXPERIMENTS MAY BE BRIEFLY SUMMARIZED AS FOLLOWS: The amount of antitoxic substance obtained by precipitation with magnesium sulphate from the blood-serum of the horse corresponds, as nearly as can be determined by the use of test guinea-pigs, in full to the protective power of the serum from which it is obtained, i. e. the precipitate from 1 cc. of serum will protect against the same amount of toxin as 1 cc. of the serum itself. Equal amounts of the precipitates by magnesium sulphate from immunized and non-immunized horses act differently toward toxin; i. e. the p...
Atkinson JP.1. The globulins of both normal and diphtheria antitoxic serum exhibit chemically toward reagents the same reactions, being precipitated by magnesium sulphate and split up into fractions in precisely the same way. 2. All of the diphtheric antitoxic power of both normal and immunized serum is always carried by the globulin and its fractional precipitates. 3. During the fractional precipitation of the serum globulin of horses immunized from diphtheria toxin and horses not immunized from diphtheria toxin, some of the globulin is lost, likewise at the same time some of the antitoxic power of the g...
The goal of this work was the development of suitable (real-time) RT-PCR techniques for fast and sensitive diagnosis of EAV and for molecular-epidemiological characterisation of viral strains, as an alternative to virus isolation. To this purpose two conventional RT-PCR methods and one real-time RT-PCR were adapted to detect the broadest possible spectrum of viral strains. Several dilutions with Bucyrus strain showed a 100-fold higher sensitivity of real-time RT-PCR and heminested RT-PCR compared to simple RT-PCR. Making use of 11 cell culture supernatants of different EAV isolates and 7 semen...
Furukawa R, Tozaki T, Kawate K, Kikuchi M, Ishige T, Fukui E, Kakoi H.A subset of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are associated with various phenotypes, including diseases, coat colour, and athletic performance, and are widely used in medical and veterinary fields. In this study, we developed a novel method for direct SNP genotyping from whole blood without DNA extraction. Thoroughbred blood samples were diluted 100-fold with Milli-Q water and analysed using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with hydrolysis probes. Specificity and sensitivity were improved by increasing the annealing temperature and number of PCR cycles. Genotyping results for SN...
Gluck-Flynn CR, Han H, Valenzuela M, Routh P, Ostland VE, Pratt-Phillips SE.Hepcidin (Hepc) is a peptide hormone primarily produced by hepatocytes and considered the master regulator of iron homeostasis, with Hepc controlling the release of iron within the circulation. Despite the renewed interest in iron-related research due to Hepc discovery, there is limited data on serum hepcidin in horses. The objective of the study was to develop and partially validate a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to quantify serum hepcidin in horses. Precision was evaluated using horse serum samples representing low, medium and high Hepc concentrations, yielding intra...
Gmel AI, Pirani A, McInnis L, Neuditschko M.Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays are commonly used in livestock genetics to investigate complex traits including genome-wide associations and fine mapping, genomic prediction and genetic diversity analyses. In a European equine diversity study, we analysed the AxiomTM Equine 670K SNP genotype data from 2,768 equids representing 20 horse breeds and one donkey breed. Using a strict detection setting to identify genome-wide runs of homozygosity (ROH), 169 purebred horses displayed fewer ROH segments than F1 crosses. Under medium and relaxed settings, ROH counts increased, while some ho...
Rivers S, Robertson G, O'Sullivan L, Powell T, Porr S.Serum cortisol concentration is one of the common physiological reference standards for evaluating stress in animals. However, it only evaluates acute stress at the moment of blood collection. Hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) could provide a method for assessing cortisol concentrations over extended periods of time, giving an estimate of chronic stress levels. In this case, high HCC results could help equine managers alter management practices to improve welfare. Objective: To evaluate the effect of the month of collection and the storage method on equine HCC. Methods: Tail hair was collecte...
Gernhardt J, Reuter T, Mählmann K, Schulze N, Lischer CJ.To compare the feasibility and biomechanical stability of two surgical techniques for fixation of vertical plane fractures of the accessory carpal bone (ACB). Methods: Randomized experimental ex vivo study. Methods: Eight equine accessory carpal bones were included in a control group. A total of 20 equine cadaveric forelimbs were randomly assigned into two groups (n = 10 per group). Methods: Vertical plane fractures were created palmar to the extensor sulcus using an oscillating saw. In Group 1 (CS), fractures were stabilized with two 4.5 mm cortical screws in lag fashion. In Group 2 (XP...
Federico F, Amie W, Alzbeta C, Anders J, David LP, Mandy PJ.Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is a valuable source of biomarkers for neurological diseases, but detection of low-abundance proteins is often masked by highly abundant proteins. Enrichment strategies can enhance proteomic coverage and improve biomarker discovery, yet comparative evaluations of such methods in equine CSF are limited. Objective: This study compared the ProteoMiner Small-Capacity Enrichment Kit and the PreOmics Enrich-iST Kit for their ability to deplete high-abundance proteins and enhance detection of low-abundance proteins relevant to neuropathology. Methods: Equine CSF samples were...
Castelain D, Bokma J, Pas ML, Verbanck S, Paepe D, Pardon B, Boyen F.Accurate diagnosis of bloodstream infections is crucial for survival and antimicrobial de-escalation in veterinary medicine. Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry enables faster identification of bacteria in BSIs. This study aimed to compare diagnostic accuracy of two Sepsityper methods (Rapid Sepsityper and Sepsityper Extraction) with conventional culture method for bacterial identification in clinical samples. Mean time-to-positivity and frequency of bacteria in BSIs were also determined. This diagnostic test study used bloodstream infection samples fro...
Brown JE, Noormohammadi AH, Courtman NF.Commercially available D-dimer assays use antibodies against human D-dimer, with limited sensitivity and specificity data in companion animals. Objective: To evaluate the immunoreactivity of D-dimer in plasma of dogs, horses, and cats with commercially available antibodies to human D-dimer. Methods: Plasma samples were collected from healthy dogs and horses, and from surplus feline plasma submitted for diagnostic purposes. Methods: Descriptive research study. A cross-linked fibrin lysate was prepared from plasma samples, and SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting were performed with a variety of commerci...
Johnson CI, Hyde LE, Cornwall T, Spear M.At the University of Bristol, we established a novel dissection course to complement our anatomy degree. Students enrolled in this undergraduate course are trained as comparative anatomists, with equal time given to both human and veterinary anatomy. Historically, students opted to dissect either human or veterinary donors as part of the course. To fully reflect the comparative nature of the degree, the dissection course was redesigned so students could dissect both human and veterinary specimens as part of the same course. This facilitated a wide-ranging experience of anatomy, encouraging det...
Kumar B, Brahmbhatt NN, Thakre B, Maharana BR, Parmar VL, Kumar M.Haemoparasitic diseases constitute a significant constraint to economic livestock farming. Diagnostic techniques that are inexpensive, rapid, reliable, and precise are crucial for the management of diseases. In this context, PCR assays are very valuable yet expensive since the samples must be processed before being included in the PCR reaction. Accordingly, the goal of the current study was to lower the PCR costs without jeopardizing the assay's sensitivity and specificity. For that purpose, the alkaline solution was optimized for low cost and quick DNA extraction (blood lysate), and PCR reage...
Kubai MA, Roy MM, Stinman CC, Kenne DE, Allbaugh RA, Sebbag L.Bacterial keratitis is a common and serious condition that often leads to vision impairment and potential loss of the eye if not treated promptly and adequately. Topical blood products are often used concurrently with topical antibiotics, helping to mitigate corneal 'melt' from proteases released on the ocular surface. However, blood products are rich in albumin and could affect the efficacy of antibiotics due to drug-protein binding. In this study, serum and plasma samples were harvested from 10 healthy dogs and 10 healthy horses, obtaining fresh and frozen (1 month at -20°C) aliquots for ...
Amirkhani A, Karami-Mohajeri S, Heidari MR, Amirheidari B, Mandegary A, Hosseininejad-Chafi M, Khalili-Salmasi M, Tavangarroosta S....Scorpion envenomation, especially from Hemiscorpius lepturus, poses a significant health risk, leading to considerable morbidity and mortality. The venom's major toxin, which includes phospholipase D (PLD), is responsible for various systemic complications. In prior studies, we identified a native phospholipase D (PLD) toxin as a key lethal factor in the venom of H. lepturus. A recombinant PLD that retained its toxicity was developed and designated as PLD1. Additionally, a non-toxic and devoid of lethal effects mutant form of the recombinant PLD1 protein, was produced and named as mPLD1. Build...
Belhout C, Wang F, Rossano A, Collaud A, Fernandez JE, Marchionatti E, Keller JE, Overesch G, Kaessmeyer S, Schwendener S, Perreten V.Nine Gram-positive, non-motile, facultatively anaerobic cocci, designated EM39Eᵀ, JEK85, 18KM676, 21M1142, 18KM445, 18KM444, 18KM245, 18KM583 and 21KM1573, were isolated from diverse animal material, including horse and pig skin, bovine mastitis milk and feline urine from a urinary tract infection. Phylogenomic analysis based on amino-acid alignment obtained from translated whole-genome sequences; digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH); 16S rRNA, , , and gene comparison; and MALDI-TOF MS spectral profiles placed the strains within the clade. They were closely related to CCM 7100ᵀ, CCM 7...
White GW.Polysulfated glycosaminoglycan (PSGAG) is an antiarthritic drug that has been used in veterinary medicine for many years. PSGAG is rapidly distributed to diseased joint tissue after intraarticular or intramuscular administration, as shown in pharmacological studies conducted on a variety of animal species. In diseased joint tissue, PSGAG stimulates: 1) its own incorporation into the cartilage matrix, 2) inhibition of catabolic enzymes, 3) anabolic effects in the synovial and cartilage tissue, and 4) anti-inflammatory effects. Laboratory and clinical studies in humans, rabbits, horses, and dogs...
Songsungthong W, Pornthanakasem W, Leartsakulpanich U, Srijuntongsiri G.The ability to accurately and rapidly identify causative agents of infectious diseases facilitates precise treatment, improves clinical outcomes, and augments epidemiology studies. For many veterinary and zoonotic pathogens, however, simple molecular tests for species identification are not available. causes severe diseases, such as sleepy foal disease, septicemia, and meningitis in horses and pigs. can also cause severe diseases in humans bitten by infected animals. Existing identification methods are biochemical tests, 16S rRNA gene amplification followed by DNA sequencing, and MALDI-TOF ...
Pollaris E, Hannes C, Haspeslagh M, Demey W, Teysen S, Boussauw B, Vlaminck L.Bit-related trauma is a welfare issue in equestrian sports; therefore, a proper understanding of how the bit behaves inside the mouth is of importance. The objective of this study is to investigate the influence of bit design (snaffle bits/single/double-jointed; ring/eggbutt and curb bits), size, rein tension, and rein angle on the intra-oral movement of the bit in ex vivo specimens. The lateral and posterior movement of different bits was measured on cadaver heads under different circumstances. This ex vivo model, while not fully replicating natural conditions, provided insight into potential...
