Pathogens are microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, that can cause disease in horses. These microorganisms interact with the equine immune system, often leading to a range of health issues that can affect individual horses or entire populations. Pathogens can be transmitted through various routes, including direct contact, vectors, or environmental exposure. Common equine pathogens include Streptococcus equi, Equine Herpesvirus, and Strongylus vulgaris. Understanding the interactions between equine hosts and pathogens is essential for disease prevention, management, and treatment. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the identification, transmission, and impact of pathogens on equine health.
Yates KM, Stilwell NK, Fontenot RL, Betbeze CM.To determine the in vitro antibacterial efficacy of equine and canine autologous conditioned plasma (ACP) and amniotic membrane extract eye drops (AMEED) against aerobic bacteria common to the corneal surface. Methods: Canine (n = 4) and equine (n = 4) anticoagulated whole blood samples were sterilely collected, pooled for each species, and processed using the Arthrex ACP® Double-Syringe System. Platelet counts were performed on ACP and pooled blood. AMEED were obtained from a commercial source. An electronic medical records search (2013-2022) identified aerobic bacteria cultured from...
Magallanes S, Llorente F, Ruiz-López MJ, Martínez-de la Puente J, Soriguer R, Calderon J, Jímenez-Clavero MÁ, Aguilera-Sepúlveda P, Figuerola J.West Nile virus (WNV) is a re-emerging zoonotic pathogen with increasing incidence in Europe, producing a recent outbreak in 2020 in Spain with 77 human cases and eight fatalities. However, the factors explaining the observed changes in the incidence of WNV in Europe are not completely understood. Longitudinal monitoring of WNV in wild animals across Europe is a useful approach to understand the eco-epidemiology of WNV in the wild and the risk of spillover into humans. However, such studies are very scarce up to now. Here, we analysed the occurrence of WNV and Usutu virus (USUV) antibodies in ...
Faccin M, Wiener DJ, Rech RR, Santoro D, Rodrigues Hoffmann A.The skin covers the external surface of animals, and it is constantly exposed to and inhabited by different microorganisms, including bacteria. Alterations in the skin barrier allow commensal and/or pathogenic bacteria to proliferate and penetrate deep into the lower layers of the skin. Being the first barrier to the external environment, the skin is prone to injuries, allowing the penetration of microorganisms that may lead to severe deep infections. Companion animals, especially dogs, are prone to bacterial infections, often secondary to allergic dermatitis. When environmental conditions are...
Martín-Faivre L, Gaudaire D, Laugier C, Bouraïma-Lelong H, Zientara S, Hans A.Equine arteritis virus (EAV) is an Alphaarterivirus (family Arteriviridae, order Nidovirales) that frequently causes an influenza-like illness in adult horses, but can also cause the abortions in mares and death of newborn foals. Once primary infection has been established, EAV can persist in the reproductive tract of some stallions. However, the mechanisms enabling this persistence, which depends on testosterone, remain largely unknown. We aimed to establish an in vitro model of non-cytopathic EAV infection to study viral persistence. In this work, we infected several cell lines originating f...
Occhiogrosso L, Capozza P, Buonavoglia A, Decaro N, Trotta A, Marin C, Corrente M.Equine periodontal disease (EPD) is a painful oral inflammatory syndrome characterized by multifactorial pathogenesis. Although it is well known that bacterial proliferation and consequent gingivitis are caused by the decomposition process of food residues, in hypsodont species, the pathogenetic role and the different bacterial species involved in the progression of EPD must be fully clarified. This study aimed to investigate the association of bacteria, including the complex red bacteria (RCB), with EPD, and to evaluate possible EPD risk factors. Bacterial species, including , , (belonging t...
Pusterla N, Kalscheur M, Peters D, Bidwell L, Holtz S, Barnum S, Lawton K, Morrissey M, Schumacher S.Little information is presently available regarding the frequency of the silent shedders of respiratory viruses in healthy sport horses and their impact on environmental contamination. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the detection frequency of selected respiratory pathogens in nasal secretions and environmental stall samples of sport horses attending a multi-week equestrian event during the summer months. Six out of fifteen tents were randomly selected for the study with approximately 20 horse/stall pairs being sampled on a weekly basis. Following weekly collection for a to...
sub. (SEZ) is described as a commensal bacterium of several animal species, including humans. Growing evidence supports the potential role of SEZ in the onset and progression of severe clinical manifestations of diseases in horses and other animals. In the present communication, we describe the diagnostic procedure applied to characterize the streptococcal infections caused by a novel SEZ sequence type (ST525) in donkeys raised on a farm in Abruzzo, Italy. The diagnostic process began with anamnesis and anatomopathological analysis, which revealed a severe bacterial suppurative bronchopneumo...
Zakia LS, Arroyo LG, Gomez DE, Boerlin P, Surette MG, Lillie BN.Equine enterotyphlocolitis is an inflammatory process of the intestinal tract of horses that is associated with multiple etiologic agents and risk factors. Most clinical cases do not have an etiologic diagnosis. We describe here the pathogens detected and the histologic lesions found in horses with enterotyphlocolitis in Ontario that were submitted for postmortem examination, 2007-2019. We reviewed the medical records of 208 horses that fulfilled inclusion criteria. Cultures were positive in 67 of 208 (32%) equids for Clostridium perfringens, in 16 of 208 (8%) for Clostridioides difficile, and...
Holguin-Rocha AF, Calle-Tobon A, Vásquez GM, Astete H, Fisher ML, Tobon-Castano A, Velez-Tobon G, Maldonado-Ruiz LP, Silver K, Park Y....Ticks are obligatory hematophagous ectoparasites that transmit pathogens among various vertebrates, including humans. The composition of the microbial and viral communities in addition to the pathogenic microorganisms is highly diverse in ticks, but the factors driving the diversity are not well understood. The tropical horse tick, , is distributed throughout the Americas and it is recognized as a natural vector of and , the causal agents of equine piroplasmosis. We characterized the bacterial and viral communities associated with partially-fed females collected by a passive survey on hors...
Ricard RM, Burton J, Chow-Lockerbie B, Wobeser B.Chlamydiae are reported to cause abortion in several species, however the association between Chlamydia sp. and equine abortions is poorly understood. A zoonotic transfer event of C. psittaci from aborted equine tissues in Australia has emphasized the need to better understand the prevalence of this pathogen in equine populations. The prevalence of chlamydia in equine abortions in North America has not been investigated thoroughly. We examined 99 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded placental samples submitted between 2009 and 2020 from equine abortions in Western Canada using chlamydia-specific ...
Plasil M, Oppelt J, Klumplerova M, Bubenikova J, Vychodilova L, Janova E, Stejskalova K, Futas J, Knoll A, Leblond A, Mihalca AD, Horin P.The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) with its class I and II genes plays a crucial role in the immune response to pathogens by presenting oligopeptide antigens to various immune response effector cells. In order to counteract the vast variability of infectious agents, MHC class I and II genes usually retain high levels of SNPs mainly concentrated in the exons encoding the antigen binding sites. The aim of the study was to reveal new variability of selected MHC genes with a special focus on MHC class I physical haplotypes. Long-range NGS to was used to identify exon 2-exon 3 alleles in th...
Suniga PAP, Mantovani C, Santos MG, Rieger JSG, Gaspar EB, Dos Santos FL, Mota RA, Chaves KP, Egito AA, Filho JCO, Nassar AFC, Dos Santos LR....Glanders is a contagious disease of equids caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia mallei. In Brazil, the disease is considered to be reemerging and has been expanding, with records of equids with positive serology in most of the federative units. However, there are few reports describing the genotypic detection of the agent. This study demonstrated the detection of B. mallei by species-specific PCR directly from tissues or from bacterial cultures, followed by amplicon sequencing in equids (equines, mules, and asinines) with positive serology for glanders in all five geographic regi...
Afonso AC, Sousa M, Pinto AR, Cotovio M, Simões M, Saavedra MJ.As in human medicine, in veterinary medicine, chronic wounds are often related to polymicrobial infections and the presence of a biofilm, which compromises the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches. In this study, a Lusitano mare presented a 21-day-old chronic wound that was only being treated with an antiseptic. A swab sample was collected, and three isolates of Staphylococcus aureus and one of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were isolated. S. aureus did not show resistance to a panel of antibiotics. However, the P. aeruginosa isolate showed a resistance profile to carbapenems and fluoroquinolones, ...
Bookbinder LC, Mani R, Carr EA.Contemporary data reflecting local pathogens and their antibiograms is necessary to select empirical antimicrobial therapy for equine neonates. Objective: Describe bacterial isolates associated with equine neonatal infection and their antibiograms in the Midwestern United States. An increase in gram-positive infection and antibiotic resistance compared to previous literature was expected. Methods: Data from 149 fluid samples from 133 foals <30 days of age submitted for bacterial culture between January 2007 and December 2018. Methods: A retrospective evaluation of equine neonatal fluid cu...
Frisch V, Fuehrer HP, Cavalleri JV.In equine stables and their surroundings, a large number of insects are present that can be a nuisance to their equine hosts. Previous studies about dipterans transmitting infectious agents to Equidae have largely focused on Nematocera. For the preparation of this systematic review, the existing literature (until February 2022) was systematically screened for various infectious agents transmitted to Equidae via insects of the suborder Brachycera, including Tabanidae, Muscidae, Glossinidae and Hippoboscidae, acting as pests or potential vectors. The PRISMA statement 2020 (Preferred Reporting It...
Bernardino PN, Pusterla N, Conrad PA, Packham AE, Tamez-Trevino E, Aleman M, James K, Smith WA.Among the recognized neurologic diseases in horses, equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) has been reported around the world and still presents challenges in diagnosis and treatment. Horses can present with clinical neurologic signs consistent with EPM while testing negative for the two main causative agents, Sarcocystis neurona or Neospora hughesi, and may still be clinically responsive to anti-parasitic drug therapy. This context led to our hypothesis that another protozoal parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, which is known to cause toxoplasmosis in other mammalian species, is a potential pathog...
Eichenberger EM, Dent A, Hayes T, Woc-Colburn L.Streptococcus equi is an opportunistic pathogen in horses that has rarely been transmitted to humans. Here we present a zoonotic S. equi meningitis case in a kidney transplant recipient with exposure to infected horses. We discuss the patient's risk factors, clinical presentation, and management in the context of the limited literature on S. equi meningitis.
Mawhinney I, Bollard A.Detection of Taylorella equigenitalis (CEMO) in the horse uses genital swabs. These swabs traditionally have been put in Amies charcoal transport medium for detection by culture but are also used for PCR. We determined the suitability of swabs without transport medium (Dry swabs) for CEMO PCR compared to swabs in Amies charcoal transport medium. The experiment was a factorial design using swab type and dilution of organism in culture suspensions, done in two parts. Simulated genital swabs were prepared in the laboratory by dipping in pairs into culture suspensions containing T. equigenitalis w...
Bendlin A, Gemensky-Metzler AJ, Diaz-Campos D, Newbold GM, Miller EJ, Chandler HL.To compare results from a commercial next-generation sequencing (NGS) service to corneal cytology and culture for identification of causative organisms in veterinary patients presenting for infectious ulcerative keratitis (IUK). Methods: Swabs for corneal aerobic and fungal cultures and DNA swabs for NGS were submitted for canine and equine normal controls (n = 11 and n = 4, respectively) and IUK patients (n = 22 and n = 8, respectively) for which microbrush cytology specimens confirmed the presence of infectious organisms. The sensitivity of the NGS results was compared with bacterial...
Kawamura Y, Fujimoto Y, Kutsuna R, Tomida J, Yamamoto KI, Miyoshi-Akiyama T, Okuno M, Ogura Y, Matsuoka M, Kawaguchi T, Tsutsuki H, Sawa T.A Gram-stain-negative, spiral bacterium (PAGU 1991T) was isolated from the blood of a patient with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that the isolate was very closely related to Helicobacter equorum LMG 23362T (99.1 % similarity), originally isolated from a faecal sample from a healthy horse. PAGU 1991T was also very closely related to PAGU 1750 in our strain library (=CCUG 41437) with 99.7 % similarity. Additional phylogenetic analyses based on the 23S rRNA gene sequence and GyrA amino acid sequence further supported the close rel...
Carnet F, Perrin-Cocon L, Paillot R, Lotteau V, Pronost S, Vidalain PO.Vaccination is one of the most widely used strategies to protect horses against pathogens. However, available equine vaccines often have limitations, as they do not always provide effective, long-term protection and booster injections are often required. In addition, research efforts are needed to develop effective vaccines against emerging equine pathogens. In this review, we provide an inventory of approved adjuvants for equine vaccines worldwide, and discuss their composition and mode of action when available. A wide range of adjuvants are used in marketed vaccines for horses, the main fami...
White RT, Jelocnik M, Klukowski N, Haque MH, Sarker S.Chlamydia psittaci is a zoonotic pathogen that infects birds, humans, and other mammals. Notably, recent studies suggested the human-to-human transmission of C. psittaci, and this pathogen also causes equine reproductive loss in Australia. Molecular studies in Australia to date have focused on and described clonal sequence type (ST)24 strains infecting horses, wild psittacine, and humans. In contrast, the genetic identity of C. psittaci strains from captive psittacine hosts is scarce. In 2022, C. psittaci was detected in the faeces of a healthy captive blue-fronted parrot (Amazona aestiva). Ge...
Rühl-Teichner J, Jacobmeyer L, Leidner U, Semmler T, Ewers C. is an opportunistic pathogen that causes severe infections in humans and animals, including horses. The occurrence of dominant international clones (ICs), frequent multidrug resistance, and the capability to form biofilms are considered major factors in the successful spread of in human and veterinary clinical environments. Since little is known about isolates from horses, we studied 78 equine isolates obtained from clinical samples between 2008 and 2020 for their antimicrobial resistance (AMR), clonal distribution, biofilm-associated genes (BAGs), and biofilm-forming capability. Based on ...
Poh KC, Cole ZT, Smarsh DN, Springer HR, Kelly K, Kenny LB, Machtinger ET.To evaluate the safety of repeated applications of permethrin concentrations (0% control, 1.5%, 5%, and 10%) to the necks and faces of horses and assess the efficacy and longevity of permethrin as an equine tick repellent. Methods: 5 healthy adult Quarter Horses. Methods: Each treatment was applied to the neck of each horse (0.01 m2) 4 times a day, for up to 10 days. An 8-mm biopsy was taken to evaluate postexposure dermal responses. Any treatments that were not withdrawn were applied to a quadrant of the horse's face 4 times a day, for up to 5 days. For tick bioassays, a treatment was applied...
Tang Z, Li X, Wang X, Zhang C, Zou L, Ren H, Liu W. () is one of the foremost pathogens responsible for diarrhea in foals. As antibiotic resistance increases, phages that specifically lyse bacteria are of great interest to us with regard to . In this study, a novel phage DCp1 was isolated from the sewage of a donkey farm. Phage DCp1 had a non-contractile short tail (40 nm in length) and a regular icosahedral head (46 nm in diameter). Whole-genome sequencing indicated that phage DCp1 had a linear double-stranded DNA genome with a total length of 18,555 bp and a G + C content of 28.2%. A total of 25 ORFs were identified in the genome, 6 of whic...
Scilimati N, Angeli G, Di Meo A, Dall'Aglio C, Pepe M, Beccati F.The radiographic, ultrasonographic, and scintigraphic findings of horses with thoracolumbosacral pain have been previously reported. In this study, the computed tomographic appearance of anatomical variations and pathological changes of the equine caudal lumbar region through a post-mortem examination were investigated. A total of 40 horses that had died or were submitted for euthanasia, for reasons unrelated to the study, were included in the study. From all the specimens, the modified vertebral system was adopted to evaluate and describe the four most caudal lumbar vertebrae, which were numb...
Ferreira PFA, Xavier JF, Nunes JF, Fonseca IP, de Mattos de Oliveira Coelho S, Soares de Souza MM, da Silva Coelho I.Livestock waste is widely used in agriculture. Although they provide benefits to the soil, and consequently to plants, they have the potential to contaminate the environment, as they contain pathogenic microorganisms and determinants of antimicrobial resistance, if not properly managed. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effect of composting horse bedding and poultry litter in organic and conventional production systems on the occurrence of bacteria in the Enterobacteriales order and to identify their antimicrobial resistance profiles. Bacterial strains were isolated from Salmonella-Sh...
Seo MG, Ouh IO, Kwak D.A clinical case of was reported for the first time in our previous study (2019) in a horse, a nondefinitive host. Although is a ruminant and not a zoonotic pathogen, it is responsible for persistent infections in horses. In this follow-up study, the prevalence of spp., including , was assessed in horse blood and lung tissue samples to fully understand spp. pathogen distribution and the potential risk factors of infection. Among 1696 samples, including 1433 blood samples from farms nationwide and 263 lung tissue samples from horse abattoirs on Jeju Island, a total of 29 samples (1.7%) teste...
Nwobi OC, Anyanwu MU, Jaja IF, Nwankwo IO, Okolo CC, Nwobi CA, Ezenduka EV, Oguttu JW.Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from a total of 360 nasal and groin skin swabs from 180 systematic randomly-selected horses slaughtered for meat at Obollo-Afor, Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria and antimicrobial, methicillin and heavy metal resistance profile and virulence potentials of the isolates established. Baird-Parker agar with egg yolk tellurite was used for S. aureus isolation. S. aureus isolates were confirmed biochemically and serologically using a specific S. aureus Staphytect Plus™ latex agglutination test kit. The antimicrobial resistance profile, methicillin, vancomycin and i...
Gosai F, Gosai N.Strangles is a contagious upper respiratory tract infection primarily affecting equines. It is rare disease with zoonotic transmission. It is caused by the bacterium, . We present the rare case of strangles in an elderly patient complicated by bacteraemia, osteomyelitis and native valve endocarditis. The patient was treated successfully with appropriate antibiotics and no surgical intervention was needed. In an age of accelerated emerging zoonosis, this is an important entity clinicians should be aware of to prevent delay in diagnosis and poor outcome. Conclusions: Strangles is a disease of eq...
Magnarelli LA.Blood-engorged Coquillettidia perturbans, Psorophora ferox, Culex, Culiseta, and Aedes mosquitoes were collected principally by sweep net from salt marsh and woodland habitats in Connecticut. Of the 570 mosquitoes tested, precipitin tests identified the origins of 517 blood meals and revealed distinct host feeding patterns. Aedes mosquitoes fed chiefly on mammals; A. abserratus, A. cantator, and A. vexans showed selectivity for cattle and (or) horses. A. cantator also obtained blood from avian hosts and, in some instances, showed mixed passerine-mammal blood meals. These findings increase the ...
Lopez AM, Hines MT, Palmer GH, Alperin DC, Hines SA.Rhodococcus equi infects and causes pneumonia in foals between 2 and 4 months of age but does not induce disease in immunocompetent adults, which are immune and remain clinically normal upon challenge. Understanding the protective response against R. equi in adult horses is important in the development of vaccine strategies, since those mechanisms likely reflect the protective phenotype that an effective vaccine would generate in the foal. Twelve adult horses were challenged with virulent R. equi and shown to be protected against clinical disease. Stimulation of cells obtained from bronchoalve...
Reinemeyer CR, Nielsen MK.Equids are hosts to dozens of species of internal parasites that infect no other domestic animals. Virtually all horses, especially those exposed to pasture, experience some level of parasitism continuously. Despite pathologic evidence of parasitic damage in various organs and tissues, few parasitisms are manifested systemically in well-managed horses. Contrary to conventional wisdom, only three common parasitisms of horses are likely to be manifested as colic: Strongylus vulgaris, Parascaris equorum, and Anoplocephala perfoliata. This article discusses the life cycles, pathophysiology, manife...
Popoff MR.Tetanus is a neurologic disease of humans and animals characterized by spastic paralysis. Tetanus is caused by tetanus toxin (TeNT) produced by Clostridium tetani, an environmental soilborne, gram-positive, sporulating bacterium. The disease most often results from wound contamination by soil containing C. tetani spores. Horses, sheep, and humans are highly sensitive to TeNT, whereas cattle, dogs, and cats are more resistant. The diagnosis of tetanus is mainly based on the characteristic clinical signs. Identification of C. tetani at the wound site is often difficult.
Li F, Wang R, Guo Y, Li N, Feng Y, Xiao L.Limited data are available on infection rates and genetic identity of Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Giardia duodenalis in horses and donkeys. In this study, 865 fecal specimens were collected from donkeys (n = 540) and horses (n = 325) in three provinces and autonomous regions in northern China during 2015-2019. Enterocytozoon bieneusi was detected and genotyped by PCR and sequence analyses of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and G. duodenalis was detected and genotyped by PCR and sequence analyses of the β-giardin, glutamate dehydrogenase, and triosephosphate isomerase g...
Mitchell C, Steward KF, Charbonneau ARL, Walsh S, Wilson H, Timoney JF, Wernery U, Joseph M, Craig D, van Maanen K, Hoogkamer-van Gennep A, Leon A....The equine disease strangles, which is characterized by the formation of abscesses in the lymph nodes of the head and neck, is one of the most frequently diagnosed infectious diseases of horses around the world. The causal agent, subspecies , establishes a persistent infection in approximately 10 % of animals that recover from the acute disease. Such 'carrier' animals appear healthy and are rarely identified during routine veterinary examinations pre-purchase or transit, but can transmit to naïve animals initiating new episodes of disease. Here, we report the analysis and visualization of...
Schrenk D, Bignami M, Bodin L, Chipman JK, Del Mazo J, Grasl-Kraupp B, Hogstrand C, Leblanc JC, Nielsen E, Ntzani E, Petersen A, Sand S, Schwerdtle T....In 2018, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) adopted a Scientific Opinion on the risks for animal health related to the presence of fumonisins, their modified forms and hidden forms in feed. A no observed adverse effect level (NOAEL) of 1 mg/kg feed was established for pigs. In poultry a NOAEL of 20 mg/kg feed and in horses a reference point for adverse animal health effect of 8.8 mg/kg feed was established, referred to as NOAEL. The European Commission (EC) requested EFSA to review the information regarding the toxicity of fumonisins for pigs, poultry and horses an...
Ferris RA, McCue PM, Borlee GI, Loncar KD, Hennet ML, Borlee BR.In this study, we evaluated the ability of the equine clinical treatments N-acetylcysteine, EDTA, and hydrogen peroxide to disrupt in vitro biofilms and kill equine reproductive pathogens (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or Klebsiella pneumoniae) isolated from clinical cases. N-acetylcysteine (3.3%) decreased biofilm biomass and killed bacteria within the biofilms of E. coli isolates. The CFU of recoverable P. aeruginosa and K. pneumoniae isolates were decreased, but the biofilm biomass was unchanged. Exposure to hydrogen peroxide (1%) decreased the biofilm biomass and reduced the CF...
Dubey JP, Davis SW, Speer CA, Bowman DD, de Lahunta A, Granstrom DE, Topper MJ, Hamir AN, Cummings JF, Suter MM.Sarcocystis neuronan n. sp. is proposed for the apicomplexan taxon associated with myeloencephalitis in horses. Only asexual stages of this parasite presently are known, and they are found within neuronal cells and leukocytes of the brain and spinal cord. The parasite is located in the host cell cytoplasm, does not have a parasitophorous vacuole, and divides by endopolygeny. Schizonts are 5-35 microns x 5-20 microns and contain 4-40 merozoites arranged in a rosette around a prominent residual body. Merozoites are approximately 4 x 1 micron, have a central nucleus, and lack rhoptries. Schizonts...
Hansford KM, Carter D, Gillingham EL, Hernandez-Triana LM, Chamberlain J, Cull B, McGinley L, Paul Phipps L, Medlock JM.During September 2018, a tick was submitted to Public Health England's Tick Surveillance Scheme for identification. The tick was sent from a veterinarian who removed it from a horse in Dorset, England, with no history of overseas travel. The tick was identified as a male Hyalomma rufipes using morphological and molecular methods and then tested for a range of tick-borne pathogens including; Alkhurma virus, Anaplasma, Babesia, Bhanja virus, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic fever virus, Rickettsia and Theileria. The tick tested positive for Rickettsia aeschlimannii, a spotted fever group rickettsia li...
Kampen H, Holicki CM, Ziegler U, Groschup MH, Tews BA, Werner D.In 2018, West Nile virus (WNV) broke out for the first time in Germany, with continuation of the epidemic in 2019, involving birds, horses and humans. To identify vectors and characterize the virus, mosquitoes were collected in both years in zoological gardens and on a horse meadow immediately following the diagnosis of disease cases in birds and horses. Mosquitoes were identified and screened for WNV by qRT-PCR, with virus-positive samples being sequenced for the viral envelope protein gene. While no positive mosquitoes were found in 2018, seven mosquito pools tested positive for WNV in 2019 ...
Attoui H, Mohd Jaafar F.Many novel emerging orbiviruses have been isolated in the past 15 years. Important viruses include Peruvian horse sickness virus (PHSV) and Yunnan orbivirus (YUOV), pathogens of equids which were originally isolated almost simultaneously from 1997 to 1999 in the People's Republic of China, Australia and Peru. YUOV has also been isolated from cattle, sheep and a dog. The isolation of YUOVfrom a dog is not the first case of an orbivirus being isolated from a carnivore. Bluetongue virus and African horse sickness virus were earlier detected in carnivores which fed on contaminated meat. PHSV and Y...
Woolcock JB, Farmer AM, Mutimer MD.The development of a selective medium for the isolation of Corynebacterium equi is described. The medium has been used to examine fecal samples from 127 horses of which 90 have been found to carry the organism.
Hong CB, Donahue JM, Giles RC, Petrites-Murphy MB, Poonacha KB, Roberts AW, Smith BJ, Tramontin RR, Tuttle PA, Swerczek TW.Placentas from aborted, stillborn, and premature foals were examined during the 1988 and 1989 foaling seasons, and 236 of 954 (24.7%) had placentitis. Microorganisms associated with placentitis were isolated or demonstrated from 162 of 236 (68.6%) placentitis cases. Leptospira spp. and a nocardioform actinomycete were 2 important, newly emerging bacteria associated with equine placentitis. Major pathogens identified in decreasing order were Streptococcus zooepidemicus, Leptospira spp., Escherichia coli, a nocardioform actinomycete, fungi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus equisimilis, Ente...
Wang X, Kikuchi T, Rikihisa Y.Anaplasma phagocytophilum is an obligatory intracellular bacterium that causes human granulocytic anaplasmosis. The polymorphic 44-kDa major outer membrane proteins of A. phagocytophilum are dominant antigens recognized by patients and infected animals. However, the ability of anti-P44 antibody to neutralize the infection has been unclear due to a mixture of P44 proteins with diverse hypervariable region amino acid sequences expressed by a given bacterial population and lack of epitope-defined antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) 5C11 and 3E65 are directed to different domains of P44 prote...
Xia Y, Qin S, Shen Y.In this study, we isolated four Weissella confusa strains from the healthy horse feces to test their potential as equine probiotics. The identification and characteristics of these isolates were determined as per standard methods. Resistance and susceptibility of the isolated strains were tested to low pHs, different heat treatments, commonly used antibiotics and against the pathogenic strains of Salmonella, Pasteurella, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli. After 3 h cultural in different pH medium, the 4 strains still had a certain amount of survival above pH 3.0. WH2 and WH4 were s...
Schamberger GP, Diez-Gonzalez F.Escherichia coli strains were screened for their ability to inhibit E. coli O157:H7. An initial evaluation of 18 strains carrying previously characterized colicins determined that only colicin E7 inhibited all of the E. coli O157:H7 strains tested. A total of 540 strains that had recently been isolated from humans and nine different animal species (cats, cattle, chickens, deer, dogs, ducks, horses, pigs, and sheep) were tested by a flip-plating technique. Approximately 38% of these strains were found to inhibit noncolicinogenic E. coli K12 strains. The percentage of potentially colicinogenic E...
Issel CJ, Foil LD.There are several factors involved in the mechanical transmission of equine infectious anemia (EIA) virus by insects. Large hematophagous insects, especially tabanids, which feed from extravascular sites (ie, pool feeding) appear to be the most efficient vectors. The biology of the host-seeking and blood-feeding behavior of the vectors are important variables that have been overlooked in the mechanical transmission of pathogens like EIA virus. The biology, population levels, and diversity of the vectors, in addition to the clinical status and proximity of EIA virus-infected horses maintained w...
Ulbert S.West Nile virus (WNV) is a zoonotic virus that circulates in birds and is transmitted by mosquitoes. Incidentally, humans, horses and other mammals can also be infected. Disease symptoms caused by WNV range from fever to neurological complications, such as encephalitis or meningitis. Mortality is observed mostly in older and immunocompromised individuals. In recent years, epidemics caused by WNV in humans and horses have become more frequent in several Southern European countries, such as Italy and Greece. In 1999, WNV was introduced into the USA and spread over North America within a couple o...
Greay TL, Oskam CL, Gofton AW, Rees RL, Ryan UM, Irwin PJ.Ticks are among the most important vectors of pathogens affecting companion animals, and also cause health problems such as tick paralysis, anaemia, dermatitis, and secondary infections. Twenty ixodid species have previously been recorded on dogs, cats, and horses in Australia, including Rhipicephalus sanguineus, Ixodes holocyclus and Haemaphysalis longicornis, which transmit tick-borne diseases. A survey of hard ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) was conducted during 2012-2015 to investigate tick species that infest dogs, cats, and horses in Australia. Individual tick specimens were collected from dogs,...
Weaver SC, Bellew LA, Gousset L, Repik PM, Scott TW, Holland JJ.We evaluated genetic and phenotypic diversity within natural populations of the alphavirus, Eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus. RNA fingerprinting revealed that most populations within infected hosts (unpassaged isolates) contained a consensus genotype along with minority genotypes differing in one to three T1-resistant oligonucleotides. Mutation frequencies appeared to be similar to those reported for other RNA viruses, suggesting that the slow rate of EEE virus evolution is not limited by fidelity of genome replication. Within a given year, genetic diversity was generally greater a...
Iwatani S, Zendo T, Yoneyama F, Nakayama J, Sonomoto K.A novel bacteriocin, lacticin Z, produced by Lactococcus lactis QU 14 isolated from a horse's intestinal tract was identified. Lacticin Z was purified through a three step procedure comprised of hydrophobic-interaction, cation-exchange chromatography, and reverse-phase HPLC. ESI-TOF MS determined the molecular mass of lacticin Z to be 5,968.9 Da. The primary structure of lacticin Z was found to consist of 53 amino acid residues without any leader sequence or signal peptide. Lacticin Z showed homology to lacticin Q from L. lactis QU 5, aureocin A53 from Staphylococcus aureus A53, and mutacin BH...
McCoy HE, Broder CC, Lottenberg R.The species specificities of plasminogen activation and binding of plasmin by pathogenic group C streptococci isolated from humans, horses, and pigs were examined. Of 56 streptococcal isolates, 52 elaborated plasminogen activator activity and 49 of these had specificity for plasminogen of the homologous host. Analysis of supernatants from 13 isolates indicated that the plasminogen activator activity resulted from secreted streptokinases. These 13 streptokinases were antigenically related and bound all three plasminogens, indicating that the binding recognition sites were conserved despite the ...
Imam M, Alrashid B, Patel F, Dowah ASA, Brown N, Millard A, Clokie MRJ, Galyov EE.Phages are the most abundant biological entity on Earth. There are many variants in phage virion sizes, morphology, and genome sizes. Large virion sized phages, with genome sizes greater than 200 kbp have been identified and termed as Jumbo phages. These phages exhibit certain characteristics that have not been reported in phages with smaller genomes. In this work, a jumbo phage named MIJ3 (vB_PaeM_MIJ3) that infects PAO1 was isolated from an equine livery yard in Leicestershire, United Kingdom. The genome and biological characteristics of this phage have been investigated. MIJ3 is a Myovirus...
Ben Sallem R, Ben Slama K, Sáenz Y, Rojo-Bezares B, Estepa V, Jouini A, Gharsa H, Klibi N, Boudabous A, Torres C.The prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)- and plasmidic AmpC-beta-lactamase (pAmpC-BL)-producing Escherichia coli isolates has been studied in food-producing animals at the farm level in Tunisia, and recovered isolates were characterized for the presence of other resistance genes and integrons. Eighty fecal samples of food-producing animals (23 sheep, 22 chickens, 22 cattle, six horses, five rabbits, and two dromedaries) were obtained from 35 different farms in Tunisia in 2011. Samples were inoculated onto MacConkey agar plates supplemented with cefotaxime (2 mg/L) for cefot...
European journal of immunologySeptember 11, 2002
Volume 32, Issue 9 2598-2606 doi: 10.1002/1521-4141(200209)32:93.0.CO;2-#
Deeg CA, Thurau SR, Gerhards H, Ehrenhofer M, Wildner G, Kaspers B.Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is an inflammatory eye disease with high similarity to uveitis in man. It is the only spontaneous animal model for uveitis and the most frequent eye disease in horses affecting up to 10% of the population. To further investigate the pathophysiology of ERU we now report the establishment of an inducible uveitis model in horses. An ERU-like disease was elicited in seven out of seven horses by injection of interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) in complete Freund's adjuvant. Control horses did not develop uveitis. The disease model is characterized by a ...
Damborg P, Marskar P, Baptiste KE, Guardabassi L.The objective of this longitudinal study was to investigate the occurrence and genetic background of faecal Escherichia coli resistant to cefotaxime (CTX) in horses receiving broad-spectrum antimicrobial prophylaxis after admission to a veterinary teaching hospital. The ten horses enrolled in the study were treated with cefquinome either alone (n=4) or in combination with metronidazole (n=3) or other antimicrobial agents (n=3). CTX-resistant coliforms in faeces collected before, during and after treatment were quantified on selective MacConkey agar supplemented with CTX, and a colony isolated ...
Journal of medical entomologyDecember 9, 2008
Volume 45, Issue 6 1152-1155 doi: 10.1603/0022-2585(2008)45[1152:tobcbd]2.0.co;2
Schwint ON, Knowles DP, Ueti MW, Kappmeyer LS, Scoles GA.The tropical horse tick, Dermacentor nitens, is a natural vector of Babesia caballi in the Americas. B. caballi, one of the etiologic agents of equine piroplasmosis, occurs widely throughout the world, but the United States and a few other countries are considered to be free of infection. B. caballi is transovarially transmitted by the one-host tick D. nitens; we tested the hypothesis that B. caballi can persist in multiple generations of D. nitens in the absence of opportunity to reacquire infection from a susceptible equine host. Partially engorged female D. nitens were collected from a B. c...
