The topic of Public Health and horses encompasses the study of interactions between equine populations and human health systems. It involves examining the transmission of zoonotic diseases, which are diseases that can be transferred between animals and humans, as well as the role of horses in the epidemiology of such diseases. This field also considers the impact of equine-related activities on public health, including injuries and environmental effects. Research in this area often explores preventive measures, management strategies, and policies to mitigate health risks associated with horses. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that investigate the intersection of equine and public health, focusing on disease transmission, risk assessment, and health management strategies.
Patel JR, Heldens JG.Since the refinement of tissue culture techniques for virus isolation and propagation from the mid 1960s onwards, veterinary virology has received much academic and industrial interest, and has now become a major global industry largely centred on vaccine development against economically important virus diseases of food animals. Bio-tech approaches have been widely used for improved vaccines development. While many viral diseases are controlled through vaccination, many still lack safe and efficacious vaccines. Additional challenges faced by academia, industry and governments are likely to com...
Janvilisri T, Scaria J, Thompson AD, Nicholson A, Limbago BM, Arroyo LG, Songer JG, Gröhn YT, Chang YF.Clostridium difficile is a gram-positive, spore-forming enteric anaerobe which can infect humans and a wide variety of animal species. Recently, the incidence and severity of human C. difficile infection has markedly increased. In this study, we evaluated the genomic content of 73 C. difficile strains isolated from humans, horses, cattle, and pigs by comparative genomic hybridization with microarrays containing coding sequences from C. difficile strains 630 and QCD-32g58. The sequenced genome of C. difficile strain 630 was used as a reference to define a candidate core genome of C. difficile a...
Muñiz Fontán M, Moure González JD, Mirás Veiga A, Rodríguez Núñez A.Children's equestrian activities in the domestic, play activities, sports and educational areas are relatively frequent, and are not exempt from risks. Nevertheless, there is a lack of data on horse-related injuries, their circumstances and the key points for their prevention. Methods: Retrospective and descriptive study of pediatric equestrian injuries admitted to Hospital between July 1997 and September 2008. Results: A total of 17 patients with ages between 4 and 17 years were analyzed. There were 14 accidental falls, 2 kicks and 1 bite, and 8 patients had lost consciousness after the accid...
Kaiser A, Meier HP, Straub R, Gerber V.Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) is a reportable, eradicable epizootic disease caused by the equine lentivirus of the retrovirus family which affects equids only and occurs worldwide. The virus is transmitted by blood, mainly by sanguivorous insects. The main symptoms of the disease are pyrexia, apathy, loss of body condition and weight, anemia, edema and petechia. However, infected horses can also be inapparent carriers without any overt signs. The disease is diagnosed by serological tests like the Coggins test and ELISA tests. Presently, Switzerland is offi cially free from EIA. However, Switz...
Baguelin M, Newton JR, Demiris N, Daly J, Mumford JA, Wood JL.We present a metapopulation model of the spread of equine influenza among thoroughbred horses parametrized with data from a 2003 outbreak in Newmarket, UK. The number of horses initially susceptible is derived from a threshold theorem and a published statistical model. Two simulated likelihood-based methods are used to find the within- and between-yard transmissions using both exponential and empirical latent and infectious periods. We demonstrate that the 2003 outbreak was largely locally driven and use the parametrized model to address important questions of control. The chance of a large ep...
Svraka S, van der Veer B, Duizer E, Dekkers J, Koopmans M, Vennema H.Acute gastroenteritis is one of the most common diseases worldwide, with viruses, particularly noroviruses, being the leading cause in developed countries. In The Netherlands, systematic surveillance of gastroenteritis outbreaks of suspected viral etiology was established by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in 1994. Since 2002, the total number of outbreaks reported has been increasing, and with that comes the need for sensitive assays that can be performed quickly. In addition, the diagnostic demand changed so that now the proportion of samples from hospitals is hi...
Kaiser A, Meier HP, Doherr MG, Perler L, Zanoni R, Gerber V.Since 1991, no cases of Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) have been reported in Switzerland. Risk factors for introduction of the virus into Switzerland are still present or have even increased as frequent inapparent infections, large numbers of imported horses, (since 2003) absence of compulsory testing prior to importation, EIA cases in surrounding Europe, possible illegal importation of horses, frequent short-term stays, poor knowledge of the disease among horse owners and even veterinarians. The aim of this study was to provide evidence of freedom from EIA in imported and domestic horses in S...
Båverud V, Gunnarsson A, Engvall EO, Franzén P, Egenvall A.A cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the seroprevalence of different serovars of Leptospira spp. and their association with clinical disease and host factors in Swedish horses. Methods: Sera from 2017 horses brought to equine clinics during 1997-98 were investigated. The sera were examined by microscopic agglutination test for the presence of antibodies against the following L. interrogans serovars: Bratislava strain Jez, Icterohaemorrhagiae strain Kantorowicz and Pomona strain Pomona and also L. kirschneri sv Grippotyphosa strain Duyster and L. borgpetersenii sv Sejroe strain ...
Bartsch S, Bauer B, Wiemann A, Clausen PH, Steuber S.Host feeding patterns of engorged sibling species of the Culicoides obsoletus and Culicoides pulicaris groups captured during three nights on two selected farms maintaining either cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs (Seedorf, Brandenburg) or cattle, sheep, moufflons, and red and fallow deer (Paulinenaue, Brandenburg) were determined by polymerase chain reaction amplification using conserved primers and sets of species-specific primers derived from vertebrates mitochondrial cytochrome b. Out of a total of 177 blood meals analysed, 115 (65%) tested positive for a blood meal from vertebrates. 63.5% (...
Furet JP, Firmesse O, Gourmelon M, Bridonneau C, Tap J, Mondot S, Doré J, Corthier G.Pollution of the environment by human and animal faecal pollution affects the safety of shellfish, drinking water and recreational beaches. To pinpoint the origin of contaminations, it is essential to define the differences between human microbiota and that of farm animals. A strategy based on real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays was therefore developed and applied to compare the composition of intestinal microbiota of these two groups. Primers were designed to quantify the 16S rRNA gene from dominant and subdominant bacterial groups. TaqMan probes were defined for the qPCR technique used ...
Alonso-Padilla J, Loza-Rubio E, Escribano-Romero E, Córdoba L, Cuevas S, Mejía F, Calderón R, Milián F, Travassos Da Rosa A, Weaver SC....West Nile virus (WNV) was probably introduced in southern and northern Mexico from the USA in two independent events. Since then, WNV activity has been reported in several Mexican states bordering the USA and the Gulf of Mexico, but disease manifestations seen there in humans and equids are quite different to those observed in the USA. We have analysed WNV seroprevalence in asymptomatic, unvaccinated equids from two Mexican states where no data had been previously recorded. WNV IgG antibodies were detected in 31.6% (91/288) of equine sera from Chiapas and Puebla states (53.3% and 8.0%, respect...
Bryant NA, Rash AS, Russell CA, Ross J, Cooke A, Bowman S, MacRae S, Lewis NS, Paillot R, Zanoni R, Meier H, Griffiths LA, Daly JM, Tiwari A....Equine influenza virus (EIV) surveillance is important in the management of equine influenza. It provides data on circulating and newly emerging strains for vaccine strain selection. To this end, antigenic characterisation by haemaggluttination inhibition (HI) assay and phylogenetic analysis was carried out on 28 EIV strains isolated in North America and Europe during 2006 and 2007. In the UK, 20 viruses were isolated from 28 nasopharyngeal swabs that tested positive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All except two of the UK viruses were characterised as members of the Florida sublineage w...
Zeman P, Jahn P.Anaplasma phagocytophilum is a tick-borne rickettsial pathogen that has measurable genetic heterogeneity across its geographical range and reservoir spectrum. In the present study, publicly available sequences of the genes that have prevailingly been used for typing A. phagocytophilum were analysed to identify the segments giving the highest resolution with respect to the predictability of host and geographical provenances of the strains. Selected partial sequences of 16S rRNA, groL, msp4 and ank genes were then employed in a tentative multilocus typing scheme used to characterize the strains ...
Van Metre DC, Barkey DQ, Salman MD, Morley PS.To develop a syndromic surveillance system based on visual inspection from outside the livestock pens that could be used for detection of disease among livestock entering an auction market. Methods: Cross-sectional study. Methods: All livestock (beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and pigs) entering a single auction market in Colorado during 30 business days. Procedures-Livestock were enumerated and visually inspected for clinical signs of disease by a veterinarian outside the pens, and clinical signs that were observed were categorized into 12 disease syndromes. Frequency of clinical...
Singh BR, Jyoti J, Chandra M, Babu N, Sharma G.Salmonellosis is a zoonosis, and one of the most serious public health and animal health problems. Methods: We studied 111 isolates of Salmonella belonging to 14 S. enterica subspecies enterica serovars namely S. Abortusequi (45), S. Weltevreden (1), S. Dumfries (2), S. Tshiongwe (1), S.I. 4,5,12:r,i:1,5 (12), S. Bovismorbificans (3), S. Drogana (8), S. Lagos (4), S. Kottbus (3), S. Richmond (1), S. Typhimurium (6), S. Newport (7), S. Paratyphi B var Java (17) and S. Saintpaul (5) isolated from equids in India. Results: All strains studied were resistant to one or more antimicrobials. Strains ...
Gimenez C, Casado N, Criado-Fornelio A, de Miguel FA, Dominguez-Peñafiel G.This study reports a molecular survey of Hepatozoon species and of the order Piroplasmida in the Province of Burgos, northern Spain. The diagnostic techniques employed included PCR and the sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene. Eighty-nine blood samples from domestic animals plus 138 blood/coagulated blood samples from wild mammals were examined. Theilerid protozoa were found at relatively high frequencies in bovines (14.6%) and horses (36%). Theileria buffeli, T. sergenti and T. annulata were diagnosed in cows. T. equi was common in horses and T. annae was found in a donkey for the first time. A ne...
Hitchens PL, Blizzard CL, Jones G, Day LM, Fell J.To describe rates of occurrence of falls, injuries and fatalities to horse-racing jockeys in Australia. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data on race-day falls from stewards' reports provided by the Principal Racing Authority of each state and territory of Australia, August 2002 - July 2006. Methods: Fall, injury and fatality incidence rates; comparison with overseas rates. Results: There were 3360 jockey falls from 748 367 rides. Falls occurred at a rate of 0.42 per 100 rides in flat races and 5.26 per 100 rides in jumps races. In flat racing, 54.6% (1694/3101) of falls occurred before the ...
Odoi A, Carter CN, Riley JW, Smith JL, Dwyer RM.To develop an early-warning automated surveillance-data-analysis system for early outbreak detection and reporting and to assess its performance on an abortion outbreak in mares in Kentucky. Methods: 426 data sets of abortions in mares in Kentucky during December 2000 to July 2001. Methods: A custom software system was developed to automatically extract and analyze data from a Laboratory Information Management System database. The software system was tested on data on abortions in mares in Kentucky reported between December 1, 2000, and July 31, 2001. The prospective space-time permutations sc...
Mazan MR, Svatek J, Maranda L, Christiani D, Ghio A, Nadeau J, Hoffman AM.People working in cattle, swine and poultry barns have a higher prevalence of respiratory symptoms and decreased lung function. There is scant evidence regarding the respiratory health of humans working in horse barns, although it is well documented that stabled horses have a high prevalence of airway disease. Objective: To determine whether people spending time in horse barns have a higher prevalence of self-reported respiratory symptoms than non-exposed controls. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted from May 2005 to January 2006 to investigate the prevalence of self-r...
Lucas M, Day L, Fritschi L.Data from a health risks of Australian veterinarians (HRAV) study were reviewed to identify reported serious injuries incurred while working with horses and the factors associated with these injuries. Of the 2188 serious injuries reported in the HRAV study, 1583 (72.3 per cent) were associated with animals, and of these, 453 (28.6 per cent) involved horses. Most of them were sustained in stock or handling yards. Factors associated with an increased frequency of injury included activities such as suturing, wound care, tubing and drenching. The parts of the body most commonly injured were the he...
Davis J, Garner MG, East IJ.In 2007, an incursion of equine influenza (EI) occurred in Australia. Accurate maps of property boundaries were used to examine the pattern and mechanism of local spread of EI. This study focussed on a cluster of infected premises (IPs) at Park Ridge, a peri-urban suburb 26 km south of Brisbane, Queensland. The cluster recorded 437 IPs and 81% of these were not contiguous to a previously IP. The mean distance from each new IP to the closest previous IP was 0.85 +/- 1.50 km with a range of 0.01-12.94 km. Eighty-two percent of new IPs were within 1 km of a previous IP. The spatial mean for each ...
Madejón P, Domínguez MT, Murillo JM.Pasture established on polluted soil may pose a risk to grazing livestock creating a requirement for mechanical management which may affect biodiversity and expend energy. The risk associated with managing pasture by grazing horses (non-edible livestock) is being assessed in the Guadiamar Valley (SW Spain), where soils are polluted with trace elements following a major pollution incident. Soil pollution does not affect biomass production or floristic composition of pasture, although both variables influence trace element accumulation in herbage. Element concentrations in herbage are below maxi...
Moodley A, Guardabassi L.A cross-sectional study was carried out to investigate species distribution and clonality of methicillin-resistant coagulase-negative staphylococci (MRCoNS) isolated from the nasal cavity of 39 horses and 32 veterinary or caretaker staff, and from 76 environmental surfaces at three equine facilities in Denmark. MRCoNS obtained by selective isolation were characterised by 16S rDNA sequencing, PCR detection of mecA, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). MRCoNS were found in 32 (82%) horses, 20 (63%) humans and 50 (66%) environmental samples. The most common species was S. vitulinus (n=56)...
Gates MC, Boston RC.Identifying risk factors for West Nile virus transmission is vital for future public health control measures. This study investigated the effect of irrigation, expressed as percent irrigated land, and population density on the incidence of human and veterinary West Nile virus (WNV) cases using a sample of 2827 counties from the United States over a 3-year period. Zero-inflated Poisson regression models were selected because of the large number of counties reporting zero cases. The mean percentage of irrigated land for the entire sample was approximately 0.029, while counties reporting both hum...
Zhu D, Zeng ZL, Peng D, Chen X, Zhao LB, Zhang YY, Xu MM, Zhan QL, Yu JP, Xie P.To investigate the epidemiological pattern of Borna disease virus (BDV) infection in horses and to analyze the phylogenetic tree of derived BDV in Yili, Xinjiang. Methods: We established a modified nested RT-PCR (nRT-PCR) to detect BDV p24 segment in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and brain tissues of 120 horses in Yili, Xinjiang. Positive products were analyzed by sequencing and homology analysis. Results: The positive rate of BDV infection was 2.5% in both PMBCs and brain tissues at the same time. The gene sequence revealed in positive PCR samples was more than 93%, identical to ...
Gabal MA, Awad YL, Morcos MB, Barakat AM, Malik G.Mycotoxicoses involving horses, rabbits and cattle have been studied. Fusarium tricinctum and T-2 toxin were isolated from all incriminated feedstuffs. Other isolated trichothecenes from the feed included HT-2, verrucarins and roridin. The toxins were separated, identified and quantitated using thin-layer chromatography, gas-liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. T-2 toxin was detected in amounts varying from 0.5-204 ppm. The contaminated feedstuffs in connection with the affected horses and rabbits, included cereal grains (corn, cornstalks, bran and barley), whereas fescue hay was assoc...
Tantaoui-Elaraki A, Mekouar SL, el Hamidi M, Senhaji M.From 10 moldy straw samples collected in a Moroccan area with an apparent equine stachybotryotoxicosis outbreak in November 1991, 8 isolates of Stachybotrys atra were obtained. They all showed toxigenesis, however they were variable in nature and intensity. While 1 isolate had only mild toxicity when fed to mice as moldy barley, another revealed very high toxicity to Artemia saline larvae, or rat skin, and to mice. The toxicity of the other 6 isolates were between these 2 limits. This study indicates that the November 1991 outbreak was due to toxigenic strains of Stachybotrys atra.
Getachew AM, Innocent G, Proudman CJ, Trawford A, Feseha G, Reid SW, Faith B, Love S.A 12/13 kDa antigen, tapeworm ELISA test, developed for use in horses, was used to detect parasite-specific serum antibody, IgG(T), in the serum of donkeys. In a pilot study the 12/13 kDa antigen was tested and proved to detect the antibody, IgG(T), in donkey sera. Blood samples from 797 donkeys, naturally exposed to cestode infection, from four geographical localities were collected and sera were prepared and analysed. There was substantial serological evidence that donkeys were potentially infected with A. perfoliata. A range of ELISA OD values were obtained from the serological assay. Over ...
Ishii H, Leung GN, Yamashita S, Nagata SI, Kushiro A, Sakai S, Toju K, Okada J, Kawasaki K, Kusano K, Kijima-Suda I.The use of nicotine stimulants in horses is generally banned in horse racing and equestrian sports-accidental consumption of tobacco products is one of the possible causes of nicotine exposure in horses. The authors recently reported a comprehensive metabolic study of nicotine in equines, differentiating between nicotine exposure and sample contamination by means of a nicotine biomarker trans-3'-hydroxycotinine. To identify potential biomarkers for the differentiation of genuine nicotine administration and consumption of tobacco products, tobacco leaves (equivalent to 250 mg of nicotine) wer...
Newton JR, Wood JL, Castillo-Olivares FJ, Mumford JA.Serological analysis of blood samples submitted to the Animal Health Trust showed that during 1995, 185 of 9203 unvaccinated horses (2.0 per cent) tested positive for antibodies to equine arteritis virus (EAV), and that during 1996, 46 of 8851 unvaccinated horses (0.52 per cent) tested positive. During both years thoroughbreds were the predominant breed tested and only a small proportion of these (<0.3 per cent), consisting predominantly of imported mares, were seropositive. In contrast, among standardbred horses, from which samples were actively solicited in 1995, 84 of 454 (18.5 per cent) we...
Equine infectious anaemia (EIA) is a disease with an almost worldwide distribution, with several outbreaks having been reported recently in European countries. In Italy, two regions, Lazio and Abruzzo, are considered as endemic areas for this disease. In nature, the EIA virus is mechanically transmitted by biting flies such as tabanids (Diptera: Tabanidae), although few studies have investigated the epidemiological implications. In the present study, several sites characterized by different levels of EIA prevalence were sampled. In sites with high tabanid populations, a seasonal succession of ...
Yıldırım Y, Yılmaz V, Yazıcı K, Öziç C, Ozkul A, Çağırgan AA.West Nile virus (WNV), a member of the Flaviviridae, is a major arbovirus that causes West Nile fever. Previous data showed the prevalence of the WNV serologically and molecular in Turkey, and the presence of lineage 1 in horses and humans has been reported. This is the first notification of partial phylogeny of WNV detected in donkeys in the northeast of Turkey (on the Iranian border). Blood serum samples collected from 25 donkeys without clinical symptoms were tested by RT-PCR. Sequence analysis of the sample detected as positive was performed. Multiple sequence alignments of reference seque...
Khrustaleva TA, Khrustalev VV, Barkovsky EV, Kolodkina VL, Astapov AA.The SF23 peptide corresponding to the receptor binding fragment of diphtheria toxin (residues 508-530) has been synthesized. This fragment forming a protruding beta hairpin has been chosen because it is the less mutable B-cell epitope. Affine chromatography and ELISA show that antibodies from the sera of persons infected by toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae and those immunized by diphtheria toxoid are able to bind the synthetic SF23 peptide. There are antibodies recognizing the SF23 peptide in the serum of horses hyperimmunized with diphtheria toxoid. Analysis of circular dichroism spectra...
Fan Y, Lou J, Tam CC, Wen W, Conrad F, Leal da Silva Alves P, Cheng LW, Garcia-Rodriguez C, Farr-Jones S, Marks JD.Equine-derived antitoxin (BAT) is the only treatment for botulism from botulinum neurotoxin serotype G (BoNT/G). BAT is a foreign protein with potentially severe adverse effects and is not renewable. To develop a safe, more potent, and renewable antitoxin, humanized monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) were generated. Yeast displayed single chain Fv (scFv) libraries were prepared from mice immunized with BoNT/G and BoNT/G domains and screened with BoNT/G using fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Fourteen scFv-binding BoNT/G were isolated with K values ranging from 3.86 nM to 103 nM (median K 2...
Bescoby SR, Davis SA, Sherriff M, Ireland AJ.Routine equine odontoplasty is performed by both Veterinary Surgeons and Equine Dental Technicians. The production of aerosolised particulates from motorised equipment has been well documented in human orthodontics but has yet to be investigated in the veterinary industry. Objective: To assess the size, quantity and composition of particulates produced during routine motorised odontoplasty and to model their deposition in the human respiratory tree. Methods: Analytic observational study. Methods: Fifteen-minute routine motorised odontoplasties were performed on cadaver heads with monitoring eq...
Venturi SS, da Silva AF, Frazão-Teixeira E, de Oliveira FCR, Consalter A, Padilha FGF, Fonseca ABM, Ferreira AMR.The aim of this study was to perform a survey on the prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in horses from Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. From 2012 to 2013, a total of 624 blood samples were collected from horses from the eight regions comprising Rio de Janeiro State (Baixadas Litorâneas, Serrana, Norte Fluminense, Noroeste Fluminense, Centro-Sul, Metropolitana, Médio Paraíba, and Costa Verde). All sera samples were tested for anti-T. gondii antibodies by performing the modified agglutination test with a cut-off of 1:25. Positive serology for T. gondii was detected in 22.8% (142/624...
Traversa D, Otranto D.Dogs, cats, and horses are popular pets in many countries of the World and they have lived in close proximity with human beings for thousands of years. The effect of pet ownership on human health is well known and there is significant merit in preserving the health and welfare of these animals. Some infections caused by parasitic nematodes and arthropods of dogs, cats, and horses are now spreading in several areas of the world. This is the case of canine spirocercosis, feline aelurostrongylosis, and equine gastro-intestinal and nasal nematode and botfly infections. These diseases affect animal...
Tahoun A, Elnafarawy HK, El-Sharkawy H, Rizk AM, Alorabi M, El-Shehawi AM, Youssef MA, Ibrahim HMM, El-Khodery S.This work aimed to characterize S. aureus isolates from the eyes of healthy and clinically affected equines in the Kafrelsheikh Governorate, Egypt. A total of 110 animals were examined for the presence of S. aureus, which was isolated from 33 animals with ophthalmic lesions and 77 healthy animals. We also investigated the antimicrobial resistance profile, oxacillin resistance mechanism, and the major virulence factors implicated in many studies of the ocular pathology of pathogenic S. aureus. The association between S. aureus eye infections and potential risk factors was also investigated. The...
Spotin A, Dalir F, Hazratian T, Shekarchi AA, Mahami-Oskouei M, Farmani M, Dolatkhah A, Ahmadpour E.The genetic variability of apicomplexan parasite Babesia species is a principal strategy used by piroplasma to evade their hosts' immune responses. The purpose of this review was to evaluate our current knowledge on global haplotype distribution and phylogeography of Babesia ovis derived from sheep, goat, horse and ixodid (hard) ticks. Bibliographic English databases were searched from 2017 to 2023, identifying a total of 11 publications. The 18S ribosomal RNA (18S rRNA) sequences of B. ovis from Asia, Europe, and Africa were retrieved and subjected to estimate the genetic diversity and phylog...
Mettler NE, Fernández AS, Di Santo MI, Pardo DA.Sera from 282 equines from Tandil country and surroundings were investigated searching for hemagglutination inhibition (HI), Complement fixation (CF), and Neutralizing (NT) antibodies against three flavivirus:Ilheus, St. Louis Encephalitis, and Yellow Fever from the Togaviridae family. Sera were collected between 3-20-79 and 11-25-80 from 10 different places in Tandil and Ayacucho countries. Animals ranged from 45 days to 27 years old. Forty nine of them reacted with one or more flavivirus by HI and/or CF tes representing a prevalence of 17.4% for this antigenic complex. Twenty four of them ne...
Cui Z, Shi J, Li Y.The spent wheat straw from horse stall bedding has lower cellulose and hemicellulose contents, but higher volatile fatty acid content than raw wheat straw. Biogas production from solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) of spent wheat straw and raw wheat straw was compared in this study. The SS-AD tests were conducted at 22% total solids (TS) content using inoculum from a liquid AD system at three feedstock-to-inoculum (F/I) ratios of 2.0, 4.0, and 6.0. Daily methane yields of spent wheat straw peaked 8 and 3 days earlier than those of raw wheat straw at F/I ratios of 2.0 and 4.0, respectively....
Rudd C, Wheeler B, Pasiuk E, Schroeder K.Equine-Assisted Services (EAS) gained a foothold in the healthcare industry as a unique modality addressing the physical, cognitive, and psychological health issues for people across the lifespan. These services require a team approach, with volunteer support playing a prominent role in service delivery. Volunteers are a precious resource for EAS programs and step into a variety of support roles, including preparation and handling. However, little is known about the horse-volunteer relationship or factors that influence their working relationships. Therefore, the purpose of this web-based surv...
Krcmar S, Hribar LJ, Kopi M.The attraction of female tabanids to Malaise traps and canopy traps baited with aged horse urine, 1-octen-3-ol, or a combination of aged horse urine and acetone was studied in the Kopacki rit Nature Park in Eastern Croatia. Malaise traps captured very few tabanids relative to canopy traps. The number of females of Tabanus tergestinus and Haematopotapluvialis collected from 1-octen-3-ol baited canopy traps differed significantly from traps baited with aged horse urine. However, the number of females of Tabanus bromius, Atylotus loewianus, and Tabanus maculicornis collected from canopy traps bai...
Alinovi CA, Ward MP, Couëtil LL, Wu CC.To assess methods of detecting environmental contamination with Salmonella organisms and evaluate a cleaning and disinfection protocol for horse stalls in a veterinary teaching hospital. Methods: Original study. Methods: 37 horses with diarrhea likely to be caused by Salmonella infection and their stall environments. Methods: Fecal samples were collected from horses daily during hospitalization; samples were obtained from stall sites after cleaning and application of disinfectants. Fecal and environmental samples were cultured for Salmonella spp and tested via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a...
Flunker JC, Clouser JM, Swanberg JE.Thoroughbred horse farm workers self-report a high frequency of work-related injuries and pain. However, an analysis of Thoroughbred horse farm workers' compensation injury claims is absent from the literature, yet may benefit worker safety. We analyzed workers' compensation insurance firm data containing 2276 claims filed between 2008 and 2015. Injury frequency, cost, and lost time per cause, nature, and body part injured were examined qualitatively and via univariate tests. Factors associated with high cost and high duration lost time claims were modeled via multivariable logistic regression...
Francis AO, McCabe F, McCabe P, O'Daly BJ, Leonard M.Horse riding related accidents can present with devastating pelvic and acetabular fractures. This study examines the nature, management and treatment outcomes of severe pelvic and acetabular trauma in amateur horse riders presenting to a national tertiary referral centre. We also aim to define certain at-risk groups. Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive cohort of all patients who were referred to the National Centre for Pelvic and Acetabular trauma resulting from horse riding accidents. All patients who were referred to the National Centre for Pelvic and Acetabular Trauma between Janu...
Vaidyanathan R, Edman JD.To estimate human exposure to potential vectors of eastern equine encephalomyelitis (EEE) virus, we compared collections of putative EEE virus vectors from human biting collections with collections from CDC, AB (American Biophysics), and New Jersey light traps and resting boxes in enzootic/epidemic foci of EEE virus in southeastern Massachusetts. Human biting collections caught significantly more host-seeking females than resting boxes or unbaited light traps (P < 0.05). Regression analysis of human biting collections to AB traps supplemented with CO2 could predict 60-70% of the actual human b...
Haq I, Durrani AZ, Khan MS, Mushtaq MH, Ahmad I.Antimicrobial resistance results in selective colonization in animals. In the present study, 447 diarrheic foals (235 horse foals, 165 donkey foals and 47 mule foal) were selected from Lahore and Sahiwal districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Fresh fecal and blood samples from diarrheic foals were collected for isolation and confirmation of Salmonella Polymerase chain reaction. Results revealed that 50 (11.25%) foals (horse n=29, donkey n=12 and mule n=9) were positive. Fifty Salmonella enterica isolates belonging to 7 serovars S. Paratyphi B (15), S. Saintpaul (7), S. Newport (6), S. Typhimu-rium (11...
Pinsky TC, Puja IK, Aleri J, Hood J, Sasadara MM, Collins T.Many working equids in developing countries experience poor health and welfare due to environmental and management factors. Collecting baseline data on these populations is essential to inform education projects to improve equid health and welfare. Gili Trawangan is an island in Indonesia that has no motor vehicles and a working pony population of approximately 200. This pilot study sought to determine baseline data on their health, welfare, and husbandry to inform future health and welfare strategies. A cross-sectional study was performed in May 2017 consisting of a pony cart driver questionn...
Andrews ES, Turell MJ.Emerging and re-emerging arboviruses continue to be a threat to global public health, and viral surveillance of mosquito populations is critical for mosquito control operations. Due to the tropical climate of many of the affected areas, it may be difficult to maintain a cold chain as the samples travel from collection sites to laboratories for testing. We determined how suboptimal holding temperatures affected the ability to detect viruses in pools of mosquitoes. Adult female Aedes albopictus and Ae. taeniorhynchus individuals were inoculated with chikungunya virus or Venezuelan equine encepha...
Jaffé W.After a brief discussion of some of the aspects of importance, sources, deficiencies and excesses of selenium the great differences of ingestion between different countries are mentioned. Breast fed children from an area in Venezuela ingest 10 times the amount compared with children from Finland. Among sesame seed samples from 20 different countries used as Se indicators, the highest and the lowest values were found in those of Latin-American origin. With very few exceptions the highest and the lowest urinary and serum Se levels reported in the literature came from this region. The performance...
Neustroev MP, Petrova SG.An inactivated vaccine based on the BN-12 strain with the TNP-3 strain filtrate used as immunomodulator has been developed in order to prevent salmonella-induced equine abortion. Preclinical and clinical trials with the white mice and the horses, respectively, are carried out. The lack of toxicity is proven. The vaccine immunogenicity for mouse and mare models comprised 90 and 100%, respectively. The industrial vaccine tests showed that the industrial output of foals increased by 13.8% after immunization. Cost-effectiveness of the vaccine used with the TNP-3 strain filtrate comprised 14.1 r...
Bustos CP, Leiva CL, Gambarotta M, Guida N, Chacana PA.Equine salmonellosis is caused by several Salmonella serotypes, including Salmonella Newport, which cause enterocolitis and diarrhea. Treatment usually includes the administration of antibiotics. However, since multidrug-resistant Salmonella is commonly detected, alternative options to control the pathogen are needed. One of these options is the use of specific egg yolk antibodies (IgY) for passive immunotherapy. Thus, the aim of our work was to produce IgY antibodies against an equine S. Newport strain and assess their in vitro inhibitory activity. To this end, laying hens were immunized with...
Koekemoer JJ, Dijk AA.Since protection against African horsesickness (AHS) is serotype-specific, rapid serotyping of AHSV is crucial to identify the correct vaccine serotype for efficient control of the spread of AHS outbreaks, especially when they occur in non-endemic regions. This paper describes the first one-day serotyping procedure that requires only a single RT-PCR and hybridization and which can identify multiple serotypes in mixed infections in one assay. The same region of genome segment 2 of all nine AHSV serotypes is amplified in a single RT-PCR. A universal primer set, designed to amplify the 5'-termina...
Liu L, Yu W, Cai K, Ma S, Wang Y, Ma Y, Zhao H. () is a zoonotic opportunistic pathogen that can cause life-threatening infections. The rapid evolution of multidrug-resistant and the fact that there is no currently licensed effective vaccine against warrant the need for vaccine development. Reverse vaccinology (RV), which involves screening a pathogen's entire genome and proteome using various web-based prediction tools, is considered one of the most effective approaches for identifying vaccine candidates. Here, we performed a pangenome analysis to determine the core proteins of . We then used the RV approach to examine the subcellular l...
