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.
Motie A.An outbreak of suspected equine infectious anaemia (EIA) among a population of 678 horses from 16 farms occurred in the Rupununi Savannahs of Guyana. Clinical signs of EIA were detected in 110 horses. Agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) tests on 92 sera examined showed positive serological evidence of EIA in 67 (72·8%). The mean packed cell volume of 50 horses studied was 0·178
and the mean red blood cell count was 3·7 × 1012/l with the mean white blood cell count 4·1 × 109/l.
The morbidity rate of the disease was 14·0% and the mortality rate 11·1%. The majority (78%) of all seroposi...
Wood JM, Mumford J, Schild GC, Webster RG, Nicholson KG.Single-radial-immunodiffusion (SRD) provides a sensitive and reproducible in vitro assay for haemagglutinin (HA) concentration in inactivated influenza vaccines. The use of SRD for human influenza vaccine standardization and application for equine and avian influenza vaccines is discussed. In clinical trials, vaccine HA concentration measured by SRD has been shown to be directly related to antibody responses and to protection against challenge. The use of SRD may considerably reduce the usage of animals for potency testing of veterinary influenza vaccines.
McDonough PL, Shin SJ, Timoney JF.The salmonella serotypes isolated during 1978 to 1983 at the diagnostic and clinical laboratories of the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine from animal sources in New York state were reviewed and compared to earlier data from New York state animals and to national data for both human and animal sources. A total of 255 salmonella strains were studied from the six year period and included 33 serotypes. Salmonella enteritidis ser Typhimurium continued to be the most commonly reported serotype followed by serotype Anatum. Generally serotypes from New York state animals reflected nationa...
Garris GI, Scotland K.Cattle, sheep, goats and horses were examined for ticks. Over 95% of Holstein cross-breeds, 28% of sheep (local mixed breeds) and 18% of goats (local mixed breeds) examined from 18 August to 4 September 1983 were infested with the southern cattle tick, Boophilus microplus Canestrini. About 90 and 17% of the horses examined were infested with the tropical horse tick, Anocentor nitens Neumann, and the tropical bont tick, Amblyomma variegatum Fabricius, respectively. The tropical bont tick was found infesting 10% of cattle in the Gros Islet area of St. Lucia. The tropical bont tick was also found...
Piscator M.Cadmium exposure, metabolism, and effects are described especially in relation to dietary intakes. Data on dietary intakes in several countries have been complied from studies using the duplicate diet method or fecal analysis. These two methods seem to give more accurate data than estimates based on cadmium concentrations in food classes and food consumption (composite method). The present data on absorption and retention of ingested cadmium indicate that normally less than 5% is ingested, but absorption may increase in women who have iron deficiency. Earlier estimates of the critical concentr...
Woods WE, Chay S, Houston T, Blake JW, Tobin T.The efficacy of testing for illegal drugs in race horses was surveyed by evaluating 27 questionnaires received from 28 racing jurisdictions polled. Large variations in the number of samples tested and drugs detected were reported. Some jurisdictions reported only illegal medications, whereas others also reported permitted medications. To facilitate comparison, stimulants, depressants, local anesthetics, narcotic analgesics, and tranquilizers were classified as hard drugs. Other drugs, which are legal in some jurisdictions, were classified as soft. To evaluate the efficacy of testing, positive ...
McLean RG, Frier G, Parham GL, Francy DB, Monath TP, Campos EG, Therrien A, Kerschner J, Calisher CH.A study was undertaken to investigate an increase in reported cases of clinical encephalitis due to eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus in horses and to determine the natural vertebrate hosts of that virus. Horses, birds, and small mammals were sampled at sites in a contiguous area in St. Joseph and Kalamazoo counties, Michigan, from 25 August to 5 September 1980. Serum samples from four horses acutely ill with encephalitis and 16 of 39 pasture mates of ill horses had neutralizing (N) antibody against EEE virus (46.5%); no viruses were isolated from these 43 sera. None of 24 draft horses f...
Rhodes JB, Schweitzer D, Ogg JE.Non-O1 Vibrio cholerae was isolated from a horse (Equus caballus), a lamb (genus Ovis), and two American buffalo (Bison bison) suffering from enteric disease in the western part of Colorado. In 1981, a foal died of apparent respiratory failure. Necropsy findings included heart failure and gastroenteritis. V. cholerae serovar 347 (Smith) was isolated from the colon of this animal. V. cholerae serovar 27 (Smith) was isolated in 1983 from the intestine of a feedlot lamb suffering from pneumonia and severe watery diarrhea. In 1984, an enteric disease occurred in a herd of American bison. The sick ...
Bixby-Hammett DM.In brief: In a two-year study of the estimated 13,428,000 hours of horse activities by 18,408 US Pony Clubs (USPC) members aged 6 to 21 in scheduled supervised programs, there were 64 accidents resulting in 88 injuries in 16 areas of the body. The head/face was the area most often injured (27.27%), and bruise/abrasion was the most common type of injury (28.26%). Cross-country riding was the most dangerous event (42.31%). Unexpected actions of the horse caused many accidents-25% occurred when the horse bucked and threw the rider, 23.08% when the horse refused a jump, and 17.31% when the horse f...
Gaffin SL, Wells M, Jordan JP.Death in humans from ionising radiation overexposure in the 3-8 Gy (300-800 rad) range is in part due to the toxaemia caused by the entry of gram-negative bacteria and/or their lipopolysaccharide toxin (LPS) into the blood circulation through the walls of partially denuded gut. Anti-LPS hyperimmune equine plasma was evaluated for its ability to lower irradiation-induced lethality. Mice were irradiated with 6.3 Gy (630 rad) and six days later received equine Anti-LPS hyperimmune plasma, control plasma or saline. Mortalities in the three groups were 58%, 92% and 79% (p less than 0.01) respective...
Monath TP, Sabattini MS, Pauli R, Daffner JF, Mitchell CJ, Bowen GS, Cropp CB.Serologic surveys of wild and domestic birds, wild mammals, and horses were conducted during arbovirus field studies in Argentina from 1977 through 1980, a non-epizootic interval. The prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) was consistently higher than to western equine encephalitis (WEE) virus in all species and all areas. The presence of antibodies in short-lived avian species and in young unvaccinated horses and the demonstration of seroconversions in horses during the period, indicated that these viruses are either enzootic in, or annually reintroduced in...
Sabattini MS, Monath TP, Mitchell CJ, Daffner JF, Bowen GS, Pauli R, Contigiani MS.This is the introductory paper to a series on the ecology of arboviruses in Argentina. Epizootics of equine encephalitis have occurred since at least 1908, principally in the Pampa and Espinal biogeographic zones, with significant economic losses; human cases of encephalitis have been rare or absent. Both western equine and eastern equine encephalitis viruses have been isolated from horses during these epizootics, but the mosquitoes responsible for transmission have not been identified. A number of isolations of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus were reported between 1936 and 1958 in ...
Dubey JP.Thirteen 6-month- to 13-year-old equids were each inoculated orally with 10,000 infective Toxoplasma gondii oocysts. The equids remained clinically normal. Equids were euthanatized on postinoculation days 33, 45, 90, 104, 120, 140, 162, 183, 197, 204, 211, 294, and 476. Their tissues were bioassayed for viable oocysts by feeding muscles to Toxoplasma-free cats and by inoculation of pepsin digests of 13 organs into mice. Using mouse inoculation, T gondii was recovered from tissues of the 9 equids euthanatized on each of postinoculation days 33, 45, 120, 140, 183, 197, 211, 294, and 476. Toxopla...
Palmer JE, Benson CE, Whitlock RH.Salmonella was isolated from 13 of 100 colicky horses admitted to a referral hospital. Seven horses were shedding the microorganism at or soon after hospital admission. A unique serotype was introduced into the hospital by a horse not shedding Salmonella at admission. It was concluded that 8 horses were infected before admission. Whether the remaining 5 horses were infected before or after admission could not be determined. Salmonella senftenberg was the most commonly isolated serotype from colicky horses and from horses with salmonellosis that were not colicky on hospital admission during the...
Cummings E, James ER.Of 664 horses reported to have originated in southeastern and midwestern United States, 341 (51.4%) were positive for Onchocerca cervicalis cutaneous microfilariasis. The highest prevalence of 68.8% was recorded for horses from Virginia. Horses with the highest concentrations of microfilariae (as high as 19,770 microfilariae/mg in 1 horse) were from the Southeast (Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama). For horses from South Carolina, the prevalence of infection was 57.1%; from the Midwest (Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana), 54.4%; from North Carolina, 45.5%; from Pennsylvania, 7.7%; a...
Chhabra MB, Gupta SL, Gautam OP.In a serological survey of latent Toxoplasma prevalence on 3761 animals in northern India by the microtitre indirect haemagglutination test, 23.7 per cent were found to have antibody titres ranging from 1:4 to 1:1024. Seropositivity was recorded in 25.3 per cent of 1227 sheep, 30.3 per cent of 961 goats, 11.8 per cent of 603 horses, 19.3 per cent of 243 cattle, 15.7 per cent of 108 water buffaloes, 31.5 per cent of 178 pigs, 30.9 per cent of 175 dogs, 33.7 per cent of 80 cats and in 9.7 per cent of 186 bandicoot rats. Relevant epidemiological data has been furnished. High seropositivity in foo...
Muwanga LC, Dove AF.We report the frequency with which horse riders with a significant head injury present to a large accident and emergency department. We have also recorded details about the use of headwear and conclude that horse-riding is associated with a serious risk of head injury and 'protective' headwear may not always protect.
of surveillance testing, July to September 2016International disease occurrence in the third quarter of 2016These are among matters discussed in the most recent quarterly equine disease surveillance report, prepared by Defra, the Animal Health Trust and the British Equine Veterinary Association.
Ferraro CC, Kloss AB, De Souza DF, Deconto I, Biondo AW, Molento MB.The carthorses are used as an alternative for people of low income for collecting recyclable material. However, these horses are managed without proper assistance, suffering several problems, among them the parasites. In this study we used 41 animals, their body condition score and other parameters were analyzed and parasite egg count was performed from fecal samples. It was determined the absence of eggs on 12% and parasite infection in 88%. Strongylids were found in all contaminated animals, often associated with oocysts or Parascaris equorum. This condition may be due to poor nutritional ma...
This year's BEVA congress saw the launch of MumsVet, an online support network for working parents. Set up by four working vet mums, including the new BEVA president, Vicki Nicholls, the network - for dads as well - aims to help vets balance work and parenthood. Gill Harris reports.
Wilsdorf G, Graf G.Since the early twenties several institutes of the Veterinary College in Berlin were involved in the development of microchemical analyzing methods for doping-alkaloids and clinical studies in doped race horse. This research made it possible to build national acting structures against the abuse of doping in race horses, which soon became a model for similar activities in other countries, for instance Greece, Japan and the United States. Concerning the results of their research, the scientists of the Veterinary College in Berlin have got an enormous part in fighting against doping in race horse...
Whipp SC, Donta ST.Antibody titers to Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) were measured in serum samples collected from mature cows, butcher pigs, mature sows and adult sheep, horses, dogs, cats, turkeys, and chickens. The frequency of LT antitoxin titers was greatest in sows (94%) and less in cows (38%). Titers were higher in swine than in cattle. There were no LT antitoxin titers in serums from sheep, horses, dogs, cats, turkeys, and chickens. It was concluded that LT-producing Escherichia coli are prevalent in the swine population, but much less so in cattle and the other species examined.
Tremelling AM, Marley RA, Marley MB, Woofter CM, Docherty C, Salvator AE, Muakkassa FF.Many Americans sustain large animal-related injuries (LARIs) from blunt trauma. We compare the injuries and management of LARI in our region of the United States with those of motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). Methods: A 15-year retrospective study of trauma patients with LARI matched to MVC controls by Injury Severity Score (ISS), age, and sex was conducted. Values were statistically compared, and differences were considered statistically significant at P < .05. Results: There were 156 LARI cases, of which 87% were related to horses, 8% to bulls, and the remainder to deer, mules, bison, cows, ...
Li HP, Wang NP, Dai YT.Human activity intensity is mostly used to quantify the degree of human influence on natural systems, with obvious spatial variability. With Lashihai watershed in Yunnan Province as an example, we used SPOT remote sensing images to update land use data, and obtained a comprehensive index of land use intensity after gridding by assigning weights to different land types, which was considered as the basic human activity intensity. The local tourism activities (horseback riding and boating) were also included. The horseback riding and boating were spatially quantified according to the location of ...