Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a statistical technique used to simplify complex datasets by reducing their dimensionality while preserving as much variance as possible. In equine research, PCA can be applied to various types of data, including genetic, physiological, and performance metrics, to identify patterns and relationships that may not be immediately apparent. By transforming original variables into a new set of uncorrelated variables called principal components, researchers can effectively analyze and interpret large datasets. PCA facilitates the identification of key factors influencing traits or conditions in horses, aiding in areas such as genetic studies, disease susceptibility, and performance optimization. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the application, methodology, and findings of Principal Component Analysis in equine science.
Carvalho JRG, Trindade PHE, Conde G, Antonioli ML, Funnicelli MIG, Dias PP, Canola PA, Chinelatto MA, Ferraz GC.Facial-expression-based analysis has been widely applied as a pain coding system in horses. Herein, we aimed to identify pain in horses undergoing subcutaneously polylactide-based polymer implantation. The sham group was submitted only to surgical incision. The horses were filmed before and 24 and 48 h after implantation. Five statistical methods for evaluating their facial expressions (FEs) were tested. Primarily, three levels of scores (0, 1, and 2) were applied to the seven FEs (ear movements, eyebrow tension, orbicularis tension, dilated nostrils, eye opening, muzzle tension, and masticato...
Panizzi L, Vignes M, Dittmer KE, Waterland MR, Rogers CW, Sano H, McIlwraith CW, Pemberton S, Owen M, Riley CB.to determine the accuracy of infrared (IR)-based serum biomarker profiling to differentiate horses with early inflammatory changes associated with a traumatically induced model of equine carpal osteoarthritis (OA) from controls. Methods: unilateral carpal OA was induced in 9 of 17 healthy Thoroughbred fillies, while the remainder served as sham operated controls. Serum samples were obtained before induction of OA (Day 0) and weekly thereafter until Day 63 from both groups. Films of dried serum were created, and IR absorbance spectra acquired. Following pre-processing, partial least squares dis...
Salek Ardestani S, Zandi MB, Vahedi SM, Janssens S.The genetic structure and characteristics of Iranian native breeds are yet to be comprehensibly investigated and studied. Therefore, we employed genomic information of 364 Iranian native horses representing the Asil (n = 109), Caspian (n = 40), Dareshuri (n = 44), Kurdish (n = 95), and Turkoman (n = 76) breeds to reveal the genetic structure and characteristics. For these and 19 other horse breeds, principal component analysis, Bayesian model-based, Neighbor-Net, and bootstrap-based TreeMix approaches were applied to investigate and compare their genetic structure. Additionally, thre...
Debeljak N, Košmerlj A, Altimiras J, Šemrov MZ.We tested 35 Lipizzan horses older than 5 years, ridden and healthy in three behavioural tests (handling, fear-reaction, and target training test). Physiological (heart rate and heart rate variability) and anatomical measurements (120 head and body distances and angles) were collected to validate parameters that reliably inform on handling/cooperation, fear/exploration and trainability in horses. Utilizing a standard clustering methodology on the behavioural data, we identified four general types of responses and categorised an individual as intermediate, low fearful, horses with low cooperati...
Maśko M, Wierzbicka M, Zdrojkowski Ł, Jasiński T, Sikorska U, Pawliński B, Domino M.Since donkey breeding has increased due to their variety of uses, welfare evaluation has become more important. This study aimed to compare donkey, pony, and horse dorsal profiles and head shapes using geometric morphometrics (GM). Photographs of 14 donkeys, 14 ponies, and 14 horses were analyzed using GM, including the sliding semilandmarks method. The variations in the first three principal components (PCs) were PC1: 57.16%, PC2: 16.05%, and PC3: 8.31% for the dorsal profiles and PC1: 44.77%, PC2: 13.46%, and PC3: 7.66% for the head shapes. Both the dorsal profiles and head shapes differed b...
Yun J, Oyungerel B, Kong HS.This study aimed to identify the genetic diversity and population structure of Mongolian horse populations according to the province of residence (Khentii, KTP; Uvs, USP; Omnogovi and Dundgovi, GOP; Khovsgol, KGP) using 14 microsatellite (MS) markers. Methods: A total of 269 whole blood samples were obtained from the four populations (KTP, USP, GOP, KGP) geographically distinct provinces. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was conducted using 14 MS markers (AHT4, ASB2, ASB17, ASB23, CA425, HMS1, HMS2, HMS3, HMS6, HMS7, HTG4, HTG6, HTG7, and VHL20), as recommended by the International So...
de Faria DA, do Prado Paim T, Dos Santos CA, Paiva SR, Nogueira MB, McManus C.Since domestication, horse breeds have adapted to their environments and differentiated from one another. This paper uses two methods to detect selection signatures in 23 horse breeds, eight of which are Brazilian (610 animals), both cold-blooded and warm-blooded, from temperate and tropical regions. These animals were genotyped using the GGP Equine BeadChip and we analysed the data by Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The samples were separated into groups based on their geographical area of origin and PCA results studied. The genomic regions under selection were detected by hapFLK and PCAd...
Drabbe A, Janssens S, Blott S, Ducro BJ, Fontanel M, Francois L, Schurink A, Stinckens A, Lindgren G, Van Mol B, Pille F, Buys N, Velie BD.Osteochondrosis (OC) is an important skeletal disease causing profound welfare concerns in horses. Although numerous studies have explored the genetics underlying OC in various breeds, the Belgian Warmblood (BW) remains unstudied despite having a concerning prevalence of 32.0%. As a result, this study aimed to conduct genome-wide association (GWA) analyses to identify candidate variants associated with OC in BWs. To achieve this, blood samples and radiographs were collected from 407 Belgian Warmbloods registered to one of two BW studbooks (Belgisch Warmbloedpaard and Zangersheide), and genotyp...
Cozzi MC, Valiati P, Longeri M, Ferreira C, Abreu Ferreira S.The Lusitano Horse (LH) originates from Portugal, but is reared worldwide. Since 1994, the University of Milan has routinely tested the LHs bred in Italy for parentage control. This study aims to assess the genetic variability of the LH reared in Italy using 16 microsatellites markers. Moreover, the genetic variability changes over the years in the total population (n.384) and in unrelated horses (n.47) were evaluated. Horses were grouped according to their date of birth (1975-1990, 1991-2000, 2001-2010, 2010-2019). Standard genetic diversity parameters, including observed (Ho) and expected (H...
de Oliveira Bussiman F, Carvalho RSB, E Silva FF, Ventura RV, Ferraz JBS, Mattos EC, Eler JP, Balieiro JCC.Multitrait models can increase the accuracy of breeding value prediction and reduce bias due to selection by using traits measured before and after it has occurred. However, as the number of traits grows, a similar trend is expected for the number of parameters to be estimated, which directly affects the computing power and the amount of data required. The aim of the present study was to apply reduced rank (principal components model-PCM) and factor analytical models (FAM), to estimate (co)variance components for nineteen traits, jointly evaluated in a single analysis in Campolina horses. A to...
Lagos J, Rojas M, Tadich T.Suitability and physical attributes of working mules are important features that can affect management, performance, and welfare. The aim of this study was to assess the morphology of working mules used in the Chilean army and determine if they adjust to soldier's preference and perceptions of their ideal pack mule. A total of 16 morphometric traits were measured per mule and six morphofunctional indexes calculated in 60 mules. Perception and preferences for the ideal mule in 73 soldiers was assessed through a questionnaire. The questionnaire included one closed-ended question where the ideal ...
Nogueira MB, McManus C, de Faria DA, Santos SAO, Ianella P, Paiva SR.Among the animal species first introduced in Brazil during the country's discovery, horses (Equus caballus) stand out because of their evolutionary history and relationship with humans. Among the Brazilian horse breeds, the Pantaneiro draws attention due to its adaptative traits. Blood samples of 116 Pantaneiro horses were divided into six populations based on their sampling location, aiming to identify the existence of genetic structure and quantify genetic diversity within and between them. Populations were compared to elucidate genetic variability and differentiation better and assess the i...
The study investigates the changes in meat organoleptic characteristics and sarcoplasmic proteins of 3 horse muscles during aging. Longissimus lumborum (LL), semimembranosus (SM) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles, were removed from 12 Italian Heavy Draft Horse carcasses and aged for 1, 3, 6, 9 and 14 days. The lowest values of hardness and chewiness were found in LL muscle. During aging, a decrease of hardness was observed in ST muscle reaching the lowest value at 14 days. 2DE revealed a decrease of 15 sarcoplasmic protein spots in all muscles. Muscle-differences were found at 14 days. An inc...
Hanot P, Bayarsaikhan J, Guintard C, Haruda A, Mijiddorj E, Schafberg R, Taylor W.The potential of artificial selection to dramatically impact phenotypic diversity is well known. Large-scale morphological changes in domestic species, emerging over short timescales, offer an accelerated perspective on evolutionary processes. The domestic horse (Equus caballus) provides a striking example of rapid evolution, with major changes in morphology and size likely stemming from artificial selection. However, the microevolutionary mechanisms allowing to generate this variation in a short time interval remain little known. Here, we use 3D geometric morphometrics to quantify skull morph...
Wouters CP, Toquet MP, Renaud B, François AC, Fortier-Guillaume J, Marcillaud-Pitel C, Boemer F, De Tullio P, Richard EA, Votion DM.Atypical myopathy (AM) is a severe rhabdomyolysis syndrome that occurs in grazing horses. Despite the presence of toxins in their blood, all horses from the same pasture are not prone to display clinical signs of AM. The objective of this study was to compare the blood metabolomic profiles of horses with AM clinical signs with those of healthy co-grazing (Co-G) horses. To do so, plasma samples from 5 AM horses and 11 Co-G horses were investigated using untargeted metabolomics. Metabolomic data were evaluated using unsupervised, supervised, and pathway analyses. Unsupervised principal component...
Barreto da Rocha P, Driessen B, McDonnell SM, Hopster K, Zarucco L, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Hopster-Iversen C, Esteves Trindade PH, Gonzaga da Rocha TK....Proper pain therapy requires adequate pain assessment. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Unesp-Botucatu horse acute pain scale (UHAPS), the Orthopedic Composite Pain Scale (CPS) and unidimensional scales in horses admitted for orthopedic and soft tissue surgery. Forty-two horses were assessed and videotaped before surgery, up to 4 hours postoperatively, up to 3 hours after analgesic treatment, and 24 hours postoperatively (168 video clips). After six evaluators viewing each edited video clip twice in random order at a 20-day interval, they chose whether analgesia would b...
Monteiro de Barros MR, Davies-Morel MCG, Mur LAJ, Creevey CJ, Alison RH, Nash DM.Persistent mating-induced endometritis is a major cause of poor fertility rates in the mare. Endometritis can be investigated using an ex vivo equine endometrial explant system which measures uterine inflammation using prostaglandin F2α as a biomarker. However, this model has yet to undergo a wide-ranging assessment through transcriptomics. In this study, we assessed the transcriptomes of cultured endometrial explants and the optimal temporal window for their use. Endometrium harvested immediately post-mortem from native pony mares (n = 8) were sampled (0 h) and tissue explants were cultured ...
Oddi S, Carluccio A, Ciaramellano F, Mascini M, Bucci R, Maccarrone M, Robbe D, Dainese E.Sperm cryopreservation represents a powerful tool for horse breeding. To improve the efficiency of artificial insemination in the horse using cryopreserved spermatozoa, an adequate understanding of the underlying biophysical properties that affect sperm cryosurvival needs to be reached yet. In this pilot study, we described isolation and analysis of the main fatty acids from sperms of stallions classified as good and poor freezers (7 GF and 5 PF, according to sperm motility and viability, before and after cryopreservation). Fatty acid profiles were only assessed in pre-thaw sperms. Eight mai...
de Oliveira AR, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Ringer SK, Schauvliege S, Fonseca MW, Esteves Trindade PH, Prospero Puoli Filho JN, Luna SPL.Although facial characteristics are used to estimate horse sedation, there are no studies measuring their reliability and validity. This randomised controlled, prospective, horizontal study aimed to validate a facial sedation scale for horses (FaceSed). Seven horses received detomidine infusion i.v. in low or high doses/rates alone (DL 2.5 μg/kg+6.25 μg/kg/h; DH 5 μg/kg+12.5 μg/kg/h) or combined with methadone (DLM and DHM, 0.2 mg/kg+0.05 mg/kg/h) for 120 min, or acepromazine boli i.v. in low (ACPL 0.02 mg/kg) or high doses (ACPH 0.09 mg/kg). Horses' faces were photographed at i) baseline,...
Gacem S, Valverde A, Catalán J, Yánez Ortiz I, Soler C, Miró J.This study aimed to characterize the sperm kinematic values with high frames per second, to define the subpopulation structure of a horse and a donkey and compare them. A total of 57 fresh semen ejaculates (26 Spanish and 16 Arabian horse breeds and 10 donkeys) were collected and subsequently analyzed for kinematic parameters using the Computer-aided sperm motility analysis ISAS®v1.2 system and using a Spermtrack® 10-μm depth counting chamber. Sequences were recorded at 250 frames per second, and eight kinematic parameters were automatically evaluated. All kinematic parameters showed signif...
Noordwijk KJ, Qin R, Diaz-Rubio ME, Zhang S, Su J, Mahal LK, Reesink HL.Carpal osteochondral fragmentation and subsequent post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) are leading causes of wastage in the equine athlete. Identification of synovial fluid biomarkers could contribute to the diagnosis and understanding of osteoarthritis (OA) pathophysiology. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify differentially expressed metabolic and glycosylation pathways in synovial fluid from healthy horses and horses with naturally occurring carpal OA. Methods: Cross-sectional, in vivo metabolomics and glycomics study. Methods: In cohort 1, carpal synovial fluid (n = 12 horses...
Jin Y, Luo B, Cai J, Yang B, Zhang Y, Tian F, Ni Y.In the present study 114 lactic acid bacteria strains, isolated from raw mare milks from pastoral areas for ethnic minorities in northwest China, were screened for probiotic traits, and their characteristics were compared with those of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a commercial strain. Among the 114 strains identified, the most common species was Pediococcus pentosaceus (n = 52), followed by Leuconostoc lactis (n = 35), Lactobacillus helveticus (n = 7), Lactobacillus plantarum (n = 6), Lactobacillus kefiri (n = 5), Lactobacillus curvatus (n = 4), Lactobacillus paracasei (n = 3), and Lactococcus ...
Raspa F, Roggero A, Palestrini C, Marten Canavesio M, Bergero D, Valle E.The effects of specific feeding positions upon the horse's shape variations of the back and neck postures as well as the variations of the mandibular angle have never been objectively studied. For this reason, geometric morphometrics was applied. Six horses, aged 14 ± 8 years (mean ± standard deviation, SD), were video-recorded while using three different feeding positions: on the ground-control position (CP); neck held 15 ± 3° below withers height with low hay net position (LP); neck held 15 ± 3° above withers height with high hay net position (HP). Data were analyzed using principal co...
Reed KJ, Kunz IGZ, Scare JA, Nielsen MK, Turk PJ, Coleman RJ, Coleman SJ.As hindgut fermenters, horses are especially dependent on the microbiota residing in their cecum and large intestines. Interactions between these microbial populations and the horse are critical for maintaining gut homeostasis, which supports proper digestion. The current project was motivated to determine if any features of the fecal microbiota are informative of the microbial communities from the cecum, ventral colon, or dorsal colon. Digesta from the cecum, ventral colon, dorsal colon and feces were collected from 6 yearling miniature horses. Microbial DNA was isolated and the microbiota fr...
Yousefi-Mashouf N, Mehrabani-Yeganeh H, Nejati-Javaremi A, Bailey E, Petersen JL.The present research aimed to characterize the Persian Kurdish horse population relative to the Persian Arabian and American Thoroughbred populations using genome-wide SNP data. Fifty-eight Kurdish, 38 Persian Arabian and 83 Thoroughbred horses were genotyped across 670,796 markers. After quality control and pruning to eliminate linkage disequilibrium between loci which resulted in 13,554 SNPs in 52 Kurdish, 24 Persian Arabian and 58 Thoroughbred horses, the Kurdish horses were generally distinguished from the Persian Arabian samples by Principal Component Analyses, cluster analyses and calcul...
de Oliveira AR, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Ringer SK, Schauvliege S, Fonseca MW, Trindade PHE, Puoli Filho JNP, Luna SPL.The lack of standardization of sedation scales in horses limits the reproducibility between different studies. This prospective, randomized, blinded, horizontal and controlled trial aimed to validate a scale for sedation in horses (EquiSed). Seven horses were treated with intravenous detomidine in low/high doses alone (DL 2.5 μg/kg + 6.25 μg/kg/h; DH 5 μg/kg +12.5 μg/kg/h) or associated with methadone (DLM and DHM, 0.2 mg/kg + 0.05 mg/kg/h) and with low (ACPL 0.02 mg/kg) or high (ACPH 0.09 mg/kg) doses of acepromazine alone. Horses were filmed at (i) baseline (ii) peak, (iii) intermediate,...
Liao Q, Li Z, Han Y, Deng L.The purpose of this study was to investigate the profile change of serum trace and major elements, and biochemical and hematological parameters in jennies during late pregnancy and early lactation. Twenty-five healthy Chinese Liaoxi jennies were used in late pregnancy and early lactation. Results showed that the levels of Fe, total protein (TP), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were highly variable interindividual among the jennies. Early lactating jennies showed significantly lower serum levels of K, Se, AST, total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride than late pregnant jennies (P < .05)...
Frontiers in geneticsJanuary 29, 2021
Volume 12 619947 doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.619947
Dugué M, Dumont Saint Priest B, Crichan H, Danvy S, Ricard A.Functional longevity is essential for the well-being of horses and the satisfaction of riders. Conventional selection using longevity breeding values calculated from competition results is not efficient because it takes too long to obtain reliable information. Therefore, the objective was to identify early criteria for selection. We assessed two types of early criteria: gait traits of young horses and QTLs. Thus, our aim was to estimate the genetic correlation between gait traits and longevity and to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for longevity. Measurements of gaits by acceler...
Ricard A, Dumont Saint Priest B, Chassier M, Sabbagh M, Danvy S.The aim was to assess the efficiency of gaits characteristics in improving jumping performance of sport horses and confront accelerometers and judge scores for this purpose. A sample of 1,477 young jumping horses were measured using accelerometers for walk, trot, and canter. Of these, 702 were genotyped with 541,175 SNPs after quality control. Dataset of 26,914 horses scored by judges in breeding shows for gaits and dataset of 142,682 horses that performed in jumping competitions were used. Analysis of accelerometric data defined three principal components from 64% to 89% of variability explai...
Xing J, Liu G, Zhang X, Bai D, Yu J, Li L, Wang X, Su S, Zhao Y, Bou G, Dugarjaviin M.The community of microorganisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract of monogastric herbivores played critical roles in the absorption of nutrients and keeping the host healthy. However, its establishment at different age groups has not been quantitatively and functionally examined. The knowledge of microbial colonization and its function in the intestinal tract of different-age donkeys is still limited. By applying the V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene and functional prediction on fecal samples from different-age donkeys, we characterized the gut microbiota during the different age...
Kayis SA, Atli MO, Kurar E, Bozkaya F, Semacan A, Aslan S, Guzeloglu A.The aim was an evaluation of a set of housekeeping genes (HKGs) to be used in the normalization of gene expression in the equine endometrium. Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), hypoxanthine ribosyl transferase 1 (HPRT1), ubiquitin B (UBB), tubulin alpha 1 (TUBA1), ribosomal protein L32 (RPL32), beta-2-microglobulin (B2M), 18S rRNA (18S), and 28S rRNA (28S) HKGs were evaluated using real-time PCR and were compared in different physiological stages of the endometrium. Endometrial biopsies were obtained from mares on day of ovulation (d0, n=4), at late diestrus (LD, n=4), after lut...
Cucchi T, Mohaseb A, Peigné S, Debue K, Orlando L, Mashkour M.The Plio-Pleistocene evolution of and the subsequent domestication of horses and donkeys remains poorly understood, due to the lack of phenotypic markers capable of tracing this evolutionary process in the palaeontological/archaeological record. Using images from 345 specimens, encompassing 15 extant taxa of equids, we quantified the occlusal enamel folding pattern in four mandibular cheek teeth with a single geometric morphometric protocol. We initially investigated the protocol accuracy by assigning each tooth to its correct anatomical position and taxonomic group. We then contrasted the ph...
Vinther AM, Heegaard PM, Skovgaard K, Buhl R, Andreassen SM, Andersen PH.Local inflammation may progress into systemic inflammation. To increase our understanding of the basic immunological processes during transition of equine local inflammation into a systemic state, investigation into the equine systemic immune response to local inflammation is warranted. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the innate peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) immune response to local inflammation in horses, and to compare this response with the PBL immune response during the early phase of acute systemic inflammation. Expression of 22 selected inflammation-related genes w...
Prystupa JM, Juras R, Cothran EG, Buchanan FC, Plante Y.As part of the requirements of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada has been investigating the genetic diversity of its native equine and pony populations. Along with examining four indigenous Canadian equine populations (Canadian horse, Lac La Croix pony, Newfoundland pony and Sable Island population), another 10 Mountain and Moorland, three Nordic, four horse and two feral equine populations (thought to have influenced some pony breeds) were also investigated. In total, 821 individuals were genotyped at 38 microsatellite loci. Results of the analysis of molecular variance indicated...
de Oliveira AR, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Ringer SK, Schauvliege S, Fonseca MW, Trindade PHE, Puoli Filho JNP, Luna SPL.The lack of standardization of sedation scales in horses limits the reproducibility between different studies. This prospective, randomized, blinded, horizontal and controlled trial aimed to validate a scale for sedation in horses (EquiSed). Seven horses were treated with intravenous detomidine in low/high doses alone (DL 2.5 μg/kg + 6.25 μg/kg/h; DH 5 μg/kg +12.5 μg/kg/h) or associated with methadone (DLM and DHM, 0.2 mg/kg + 0.05 mg/kg/h) and with low (ACPL 0.02 mg/kg) or high (ACPH 0.09 mg/kg) doses of acepromazine alone. Horses were filmed at (i) baseline (ii) peak, (iii) intermediate,...
Masko M, Domino M, Lewczuk D, Jasinski T, Gajewski Z.A treadmill is an important tool in the equine analysis of gait, lameness, and hoof balance, as well as for the evaluation of horse rehabilitation or poor performance including dynamic endoscopy. Before all of these uses, horses have to be habituated to a treadmill locomotion. We used principal component analysis to evaluate the relationship between aspects of the horse's temperament and emotional response, and progress in the behavioral habituation to a treadmill. Fourteen horses were tested, by the same familiar handler, using the novel object test, the handling test, and both positive and n...
Ma H, Wang S, Zeng G, Guo J, Guo M, Dong X, Hua G, Liu Y, Wang M, Ling Y, Ding X, Zhao C, Wu C. The Jinjiang horse is a unique Chinese indigenous horse breed distributed in the southern coastal areas, but the ancestry of Jinjiang horses is not well understood. Here, we used Equine SNP70 Bead Array technology to genotype 301 horses representing 10 Chinese indigenous horse breeds, and we integrated the published genotyped data of 352 individuals from 14 foreign horse breeds to study the relationships between Jinjiang horses and horse breeds from around the world. Principal component analysis (PCA), linkage disequilibrium (LD), runs of homozygosity (ROH) analysis, and ancestry estimating m...
Trindade PHE, Hartmann E, Keeling LJ, Andersen PH, Ferraz GC, Paranhos da Costa MJR.The horses' responses to exercise are commonly monitored using physiological variables, nonetheless physical and mental states can also be expressed through body language. The aims of this study were: (i) to identify how facial expressions and other behavioural variables change in ranch horses after a routine workday, and (ii) to investigate if these changes can be used as indicators of physical tiredness by relating them to known variables of physical fitness and workload. Fourteen crossbred ranch horses were assessed pre- and post-workday on two farms, recording the body language, physiologi...
Komosa M, Purzyc H.An exterior comparison was made between 2 primitive horse breeds: the Konik and the Hucul breeds. Each animal was characterized using 25 measurements and 24 indices. Statistical methods employed in this study were principal components analysis and the Student's t-test. It was found that in spite of both breeds being included in the group of horses with a primitive exterior, the Konik and the Hucul possess completely different metric properties of their body conformations. Although the mean height for the Hucul breed slightly exceeds that of the Konik, the latter has longer scapulae and metacar...
Clarke EJ, Lima C, Anderson JR, Castanheira C, Beckett A, James V, Hyett J, Goodacre R, Peffers MJ.Equine osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative disease of the articular joint, characterised by cartilage degradation resulting in pain and reduced mobility and thus is a prominent equine welfare concern. Diagnosis is usually at a late stage through clinical examination and radiographic imaging, whilst treatment is symptomatic not curative. Extracellular vesicles are nanoparticles that are involved in intercellular communication. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of Raman and Optical Photothermal Infrared Spectroscopies to detect osteoarthritis using plasma-derive...
Moro FL, Spröwitz A, Tuleu A, Vespignani M, Tsagarakis NG, Ijspeert AJ, Caldwell DG.This manuscript proposes a method to directly transfer the features of horse walking, trotting, and galloping to a quadruped robot, with the aim of creating a much more natural (horse-like) locomotion profile. A principal component analysis on horse joint trajectories shows that walk, trot, and gallop can be described by a set of four kinematic Motion Primitives (kMPs). These kMPs are used to generate valid, stable gaits that are tested on a compliant quadruped robot. Tests on the effects of gait frequency scaling as follows: results indicate a speed optimal walking frequency around 3.4 Hz, an...
Sadek MH, Al-Aboud AZ, Ashmawy AA.Data of 13 body measurements have been analysed from 166 Arabian horses, 123 mares and 43 stallions, ranging from 49 to 298 months of age, belonging to Alzahraa stud, Cairo, Egypt. General linear model was used to study age and gender effects on these measures. Gender was a significant source of variation for most studied traits, but not for neck girth, cannon bone circumference of fore and hind legs, and pastern girth of fore and hind legs. Age significantly affected pastern girths of fore and hind legs and cannon bone circumference of fore legs, while there was no significant effect on the o...
Hitchens PL, Hultgren J, Frössling J, Emanuelson U, Keeling LJ.Determining welfare status in a population is the first step in efforts to improve welfare. The primary objective of this study was to explore a new epidemiological approach for analysis of data from official competent authorities that pertain to compliance with animal welfare legislation. We reviewed data already routinely collected as part of Swedish official animal welfare inspections for 2010-13, using a checklist containing 45 checkpoints (CPs). These covered animal-, resource- and management-based measures of equine welfare. The animal-based CPs were measures that directly related to the...
Barreto da Rocha P, Driessen B, McDonnell SM, Hopster K, Zarucco L, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Hopster-Iversen C, Esteves Trindade PH, Gonzaga da Rocha TK....Proper pain therapy requires adequate pain assessment. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Unesp-Botucatu horse acute pain scale (UHAPS), the Orthopedic Composite Pain Scale (CPS) and unidimensional scales in horses admitted for orthopedic and soft tissue surgery. Forty-two horses were assessed and videotaped before surgery, up to 4 hours postoperatively, up to 3 hours after analgesic treatment, and 24 hours postoperatively (168 video clips). After six evaluators viewing each edited video clip twice in random order at a 20-day interval, they chose whether analgesia would b...
Chan GH, Ho EN, Leung DK, Wong KS, Wan TS.The use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) is prohibited in both human and equine sports. The conventional approach in doping control testing for AAS (as well as other prohibited substances) is accomplished by the direct detection of target AAS or their characteristic metabolites in biological samples using hyphenated techniques such as gas chromatography or liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Such an approach, however, falls short when dealing with unknown designer steroids where reference materials and their pharmacokinetics are not available. In addition, AASs with fast...
Fenner K, Dashper K, Serpell J, McLean A, Wilkins C, Klinck M, Wilson B, McGreevy P.The Equine Behaviour Assessment and Research Questionnaire (E-BARQ) is a questionnaire instrument developed to obtain quantitative data on the domestic equine triad of training, management, and behaviour of horses. The E-BARQ was developed to identify how changes in training and management impact behaviour over time, to define normal behaviour in horses, and to discover how to improve rider safety and horse welfare, leading to ethical equitation. During the development of the E-BARQ, we also investigated how best to motivate stakeholders to engage with this citizen science project. The pilot v...
Liao Q, Li Z, Han Y, Deng L.The purpose of this study was to investigate the profile change of serum trace and major elements, and biochemical and hematological parameters in jennies during late pregnancy and early lactation. Twenty-five healthy Chinese Liaoxi jennies were used in late pregnancy and early lactation. Results showed that the levels of Fe, total protein (TP), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were highly variable interindividual among the jennies. Early lactating jennies showed significantly lower serum levels of K, Se, AST, total cholesterol (TC), and triglyceride than late pregnant jennies (P < .05)...
Barrera R, Torres N, Freier JE, Navarro JC, García CZ, Salas R, Vasquez C, Weaver SC.The distribution of the sylvatic subtype ID Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) viruses in the lowland tropical forests of western Venezuela was investigated using remote sensing and geographic information system technologies. Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper satellite imagery was used to study the reflectance patterns of VEE endemic foci and to identify other locations with similar reflectance patterns. Enzootic VEE virus variants isolated during this study are the closest genetic relatives of the epizootic viruses that emerged in western Venezuela during 1992-1993. VEE virus surveillance was condu...
Nazari-Ghadikolaei A, Fikse F, Gelinder Viklund Å, Eriksson S.Assessment protocols to describe the various aspects of conformation, gait and jumping traits on a linear scale were introduced at young horse tests for Swedish Warmblood horses in 2013. The traits scored on a linear scale are assumed to be less subjective and more easily compared across populations than the traditional evaluated traits that are scored relative to the breeding goal. However, the resulting number of traits is considerable, and several of the traits are correlated. The aim of this study was to investigate the interrelationship between the different evaluated and linearly scored ...
Martig S, Hitchens PL, Stevenson MA, Whitton RC.The repetitive large loads generated during high-speed training and racing commonly cause subchondral bone injuries in the metacarpal condyles of racehorses. Adaptive bone modelling leads to focal sclerosis at the site of highest loading in the palmar aspect of the metacarpal condyles. Information on whether and how adaptive modelling of subchondral bone changes during the career of a racehorse is sparse. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to describe the changes in subchondral bone micromorphology in the area of highest loading in the palmar aspect of the metacarpal condyle in thorough...
Behl R, Behl J, Gupta N, Gupta SC.The genetic relationships of five Indian horse breeds, namely Marwari, Spiti, Bhutia, Manipuri and Zanskari were studied using microsatellite markers. The DNA samples of 189 horses of these breeds were amplified by polymerase chain reaction using 25 microsatellite loci. The total number of alleles varied from five to 10 with a mean heterozygosity of 0.58 ± 0.05. Spiti and Zansakari were the most closely related breeds, whereas, Marwari and Manipuri were most distant apart with Nei's DA genetic distance of 0.071 and 0.186, respectively. In a Nei's DA genetic distances based neighbour joining...
Nolazco Sassot L, Villarino NF, Dasgupta N, Morrison JJ, Bayly WM, Gang D, Sanz MG.A comprehensive study of the effect of supramaximal exercise in lipid homeostasis of Thoroughbreds provides the basis for future research on the role of lipids on energy metabolism in racehorses. Objective: To compare the plasma lipidome of Thoroughbreds before and after supramaximal exercise using an untargeted lipidomics approach. Methods: Pilot experimental study. Methods: Four Thoroughbred horses were used. The maximal oxygen consumption (VO ) was calculated for each horse. Horses then underwent treadmill exercise at the speed for which the oxygen requirements had been calculated to be 11...
The Journal of heredityApril 27, 2017
Volume 108, Issue 4 361-368 doi: 10.1093/jhered/esx025
Al Abri MA, König von Borstel U, Strecker V, Brooks SA.Horse breeders rely heavily on pedigrees for identification of ancestry in breeding stock. Inaccurate pedigrees may erroneously assign individuals to false lineages or breed memberships resulting in wrong estimates of inbreeding and coancestry. Moreover, discrepancies in pedigree records can lead breeders seeking to limit inbreeding into making misguided breeding decisions. Genome-wide SNPs provide a quantitative tool to aid in the resolution of lineage assignments and the calculation of genomic measures of relatedness. The aim of this project was to pilot a comparison between pedigree and gen...
The study investigates the changes in meat organoleptic characteristics and sarcoplasmic proteins of 3 horse muscles during aging. Longissimus lumborum (LL), semimembranosus (SM) and semitendinosus (ST) muscles, were removed from 12 Italian Heavy Draft Horse carcasses and aged for 1, 3, 6, 9 and 14 days. The lowest values of hardness and chewiness were found in LL muscle. During aging, a decrease of hardness was observed in ST muscle reaching the lowest value at 14 days. 2DE revealed a decrease of 15 sarcoplasmic protein spots in all muscles. Muscle-differences were found at 14 days. An inc...
de Oliveira AR, Gozalo-Marcilla M, Ringer SK, Schauvliege S, Fonseca MW, Esteves Trindade PH, Prospero Puoli Filho JN, Luna SPL.Although facial characteristics are used to estimate horse sedation, there are no studies measuring their reliability and validity. This randomised controlled, prospective, horizontal study aimed to validate a facial sedation scale for horses (FaceSed). Seven horses received detomidine infusion i.v. in low or high doses/rates alone (DL 2.5 μg/kg+6.25 μg/kg/h; DH 5 μg/kg+12.5 μg/kg/h) or combined with methadone (DLM and DHM, 0.2 mg/kg+0.05 mg/kg/h) for 120 min, or acepromazine boli i.v. in low (ACPL 0.02 mg/kg) or high doses (ACPH 0.09 mg/kg). Horses' faces were photographed at i) baseline,...
Hori Y, Tozaki T, Nambo Y, Sato F, Ishimaru M, Inoue-Murayama M, Fujita K.Tractability, or how easily animals can be trained and controlled, is an important behavioural trait for the management and training of domestic animals, but its genetic basis remains unclear. Polymorphisms in the serotonin receptor 1A gene (HTR1A) have been associated with individual variability in anxiety-related traits in several species. In this study, we examined the association between HTR1A polymorphisms and tractability in Thoroughbred horses. We assessed the tractability of 167 one-year-old horses reared at a training centre for racehorses using a questionnaire consisting of 17 items....
Jin Y, Luo B, Cai J, Yang B, Zhang Y, Tian F, Ni Y.In the present study 114 lactic acid bacteria strains, isolated from raw mare milks from pastoral areas for ethnic minorities in northwest China, were screened for probiotic traits, and their characteristics were compared with those of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, a commercial strain. Among the 114 strains identified, the most common species was Pediococcus pentosaceus (n = 52), followed by Leuconostoc lactis (n = 35), Lactobacillus helveticus (n = 7), Lactobacillus plantarum (n = 6), Lactobacillus kefiri (n = 5), Lactobacillus curvatus (n = 4), Lactobacillus paracasei (n = 3), and Lactococcus ...
Almarzook S, Reissmann M, Arends D, Brockmann GA.Although Arabian horses have been bred in strains for centuries and pedigrees have been recorded in studbooks, to date, little is known about the genetic diversity within and between these strains. In this study, we tested if the three main strains of Syrian Arabian horses descend from three founders as suggested by the studbook. We examined 48 horses representing Saglawi (n = 18), Kahlawi (n = 16) and Hamdani (n = 14) strains using the Equine SNP70K BeadChip. For comparison, an additional 24 Arabian horses from the USA and three Przewalski's horses as an out group were added. Observed h...
Bordin C, Raspa F, Greppi M, Harris P, Ellis AD, Roggero A, Palestrini C, Cavallini D, Bergero D, Valle E.In the last decade, haynets and slow feeders have been promoted as sustainable tools to improve the feeding management of horses and reduce forage waste, but little is known about their effects on ponies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the effects of different hay feeding methods on the ingestive behaviors, intake rate and mouth shaping of ponies belonging to two breed types, which are characterized by different head morphologies. Shetland type (SH, n = 5) and Welsh/Cob type (WC, n = 4) ponies were fed hay using four feeding methods: on the ground (G), a fully filled h...
Elmeua González M, Šarabon N.Equestrian sports have been a source of numerous studies throughout the past two decades, however, few scientists have focused on the biomechanical effects, including muscle activation, that the horse has on the rider. Because equitation is a sport of two (the horse-human dyad), we believe there is a need to fill in the knowledge gap in human biomechanics during riding. To investigate the differences between novice and advanced riders at a neuromuscular level we characterized the motor output of a set of riders' key muscles during horse riding. Six recreational riders (24 ± 7 years) and nine ...
