Species comparison in horses involves examining the physiological, anatomical, and behavioral differences and similarities between horses and other animal species. This area of study can provide insights into the evolutionary adaptations and ecological roles of horses. Researchers often focus on aspects such as digestive systems, locomotion, sensory capabilities, and social structures to understand how horses have evolved to meet their environmental and survival needs. Comparative studies may also explore genetic differences and similarities, contributing to a broader understanding of species evolution and adaptation. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research and scholarly articles that analyze various aspects of species comparison involving horses, highlighting significant findings and methodologies used in the field.
Davis KU, Sheats MK.Asthma is a common and debilitating chronic airway disease that affects people and horses of all ages worldwide. While asthma in humans most commonly involves an excessive type 2 immune response and eosinophilic inflammation, neutrophils have also been recognized as key players in the pathophysiology of asthma, including in the severe asthma phenotype where neutrophilic inflammation predominates. Severe equine asthma syndrome (sEAS) features prominent neutrophilic inflammation and has been increasingly used as a naturally occurring animal model for the study of human neutrophilic asthma. This...
Packard GC.I re-examined published data for ontogenetic change in relative mass of the brain in six species of mammal (i.e., sheep, pig, cow, horse, rat, cat) to illustrate an insidious problem with conventional analyses of brain-body allometry. Graphical displays of logarithmic transformations of the original data for each species give the appearance of two discrete mathematical distributions, but untransformed observations nonetheless conform to a single distribution that is well described by a single, nonlinear equation. The concept of biphasic, allometric growth by the brain consequently is an artifa...
Su Y, Zhu J, Salman S, Tang Y.The development of the induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) technology has revolutionized the world on the establishment of pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) across a great variety of animal species. Generation of iPSCs from domesticated animals would provide unrestricted cell resources for the study of embryonic development and cell differentiation of these species, for screening and establishing desired traits for sustainable agricultural production, and as veterinary and preclinical therapeutic tools for animal and human diseases. Induced PSCs from domesticated animals thus harbor enormous sc...
The most common musculoskeletal conditions reported in donkeys are related to the foot. Radiographic examinations are clinically important in the diagnosis of foot abnormalities and are commonly used. However, few studies have been conducted to establish the normal radiographic appearance of a donkey's foot. To determine the radiographic features of the front digit in healthy Amiata donkeys. Radiographic examinations were performed on 56 forefeet of 28 Amiata donkeys. Three radiographic views of each front foot were taken: lateromedial, dorsopalmar and dorso-65°proximal/palmarodistal oblique....
Sanz MG, Schnider DR, Mealey KA.Relative to other species, horses seem particularly susceptible to oxidative stress. Plasma albumin plays an important role in preventing oxidative damage, in part due to its methionine (MET) content. Equine albumin is highly unusual in that it contains no MET residues. Whether or not this causes deficient antioxidant capacity in equine plasma relative to that of other species has not yet been explored. The objective of this study was to compare the redox status of equine (no MET) to that of bovine (moderate amount of MET) plasma. Plasma was collected from healthy, nonpregnant Quarter Horse ma...
Santos Alves J, da Silva Anjos M, Silva Bastos M, Sarmento Martins de Oliveira L, Pereira Pinto Oliveira I, Batista Pinto LF....Equid breeds originating from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa are believed to have genetically contributed to the formation of breeds and ecotypes from Brazil. The country has numerous breeds and ecotypes of horses and donkeys but there are no extensive studies on maternal genetic diversity and their origins. This study reports the results of the first genetic analysis of all horse and donkey breeds/ecotypes from Brazil based on sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region (D-loop) whose main objective was to characterize the genetic variation in these animals. These analyses will ...
Bellaw JL, Nielsen MK.Cyathostomins infect virtually all horses, and concomitant infections with 10 or more species per horse is standard. Species-specific knowledge is limited, despite potential species bias in development of disease and anthelmintic resistance. This is the first meta-analysis to examine effects of geographical region and cyathostomin collection method on reported composition of cyathostomin communities. Methods: Thirty-seven articles published in English in 1975 or later, in which adults of individual species were systematically enumerated, were included. Seven regions; North America, South Ameri...
Contreras-Aguilar MD, Tvarijonaviciute A, Monkeviciene I, Martín-Cuervo M, González-Arostegui LG, Franco-Martínez L, Cerón JJ, Tecles F....Measurement of adenosine deaminase (ADA) can provide information about cell-mediated immunity. This report's objective was to study the enzymatic activity of total ADA (tADA) and its isoenzymes ADA1 and ADA2 in canine, equine, porcine, and bovine serum and saliva and their changes in different inflammatory situations in each species. Besides, an automated method for ADA2 measurement was developed and validated. Results: tADA was present in serum and saliva of healthy animals of the four species. Erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl) adenine (EHNA) concentration of 0.47 mM was needed for ADA1 inhibit...
Dittmer KE, Heathcott RW, Marshall JC, Azarpeykan S.The aim of this preliminary study was to determine the relative expression of phosphatonin pathway-related genes in normal dog, sheep and horse kidneys and to explore the relationships between the different genes. Kidneys were collected post-mortem from 10 sheep, 10 horses and 8 dogs. RNA was extracted, followed by reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction for fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 IIIc (), sodium-phosphate co-transporter () 1 (), (), (), parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (), klotho (), vitamin D receptor (), 1a-hydroxylase () and 24-hydroxylase (). was highly ...
Gómez-Torres F, Ballesteros-Acuña L, Ruíz-Sauri A.Atrioventricular node is responsible for delaying the passage of the electrical impulse to ventricles in order to protect them from fast depolarizations coming from the atria. The importance of this study is to identify the morphological variations of the components of atrioventricular zone that affect the conduction system and its clinical relationship in different species of mammals. We analyzed ten human hearts, nine from horses, eight from pigs, and five from dogs without a clinical history of cardiac pathologies. Histological section thickness of 5 μm were obtained with a microtome and ...
Klumplerova M, Splichalova P, Oppelt J, Futas J, Kohutova A, Musilova P, Kubickova S, Vodicka R, Orlando L, Horin P.The mammalian Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) is a genetic region containing highly polymorphic genes with immunological functions. MHC class I and class II genes encode antigen-presenting molecules expressed on the cell surface. The MHC class II sub-region contains genes expressed in antigen presenting cells. The antigen binding site is encoded by the second exon of genes encoding antigen presenting molecules. The exon 2 sequences of these MHC genes have evolved under the selective pressure of pathogens. Interspecific differences can be observed in the class II sub-region. The family E...
Karagianni AE, Lisowski ZM, Hume DA, Scott Pirie R.The mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) is a family of cells of related function that includes bone marrow progenitors, blood monocytes and resident tissue macrophages. Macrophages are effector cells in both innate and acquired immunity. They are a major resident cell population in every organ and their numbers increase in response to proinflammatory stimuli. Their function is highly regulated by a wide range of agonists, including lymphokines, cytokines and products of microorganisms. Macrophage biology has been studied most extensively in mice, yet direct comparisons of rodent and human macro...
Hulliger MF, Pacholewska A, Vargas A, Lavoie JP, Leeb T, Gerber V, Jagannathan V.Severe equine asthma is an incurable obstructive respiratory condition affecting 10-15% of horses in temperate climates. Upon exposure to airborne antigens from hay feeding, affected horses show neutrophilic airway inflammation and bronchoconstriction, leading to increased respiratory effort. The resulting implications range from welfare concerns to economic impacts on equestrian sports and horse breeding. Immunological and pathophysiological characteristics of severe equine asthma show important parallels with allergic and severe neutrophilic human asthma. Our study aimed at investigating reg...
Orlando L.The domestication of the horse some 5,500 years ago followed those of dogs, sheep, goats, cattle, and pigs by ∼2,500-10,000 years. By providing fast transportation and transforming warfare, the horse had an impact on human history with no equivalent in the animal kingdom. Even though the equine sport industry has considerable economic value today, the evolutionary history underlying the emergence of the modern domestic horse remains contentious. In the last decade, novel sequencing technologies have revolutionized our capacity to sequence the complete genome of organisms, including from arch...
Liu C, Lei H, Ran X, Wang J.The Guizhou pony (GZP) is an indigenous species of equid found in the mountains of the Guizhou province in southwest China. We selected four regions of the equine leukocyte antigen (ELA), including , , and and used them to assess the diversity of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II gene using direct sequencing technology. had the lowest / ratio (0.560) compared with the other three loci, indicating that was conserved and could be conserved after undergoing selective processes. Nine , five , nine and seven codons were under significant positive selection at the antigen b...
Cappellato A, Miletto Petrazzini ME, Bisazza A, Dadda M, Agrillo C.The perception of different size illusions is believed to be determined by size-scaling mechanisms that lead individuals to extrapolate inappropriate 3D information from 2D stimuli. The Muller-Lyer illusion represents one of the most investigated size illusions. Studies on non-human primates showed a human-like perception of this illusory pattern. To date, it is not clear whether non-primate mammals experience a similar illusory effect. Here, we investigated whether horses perceive the Muller-Lyer illusion by using their spontaneous preference for the larger portion of carrot. In control trial...
Lansade L, Colson V, Parias C, Reigner F, Bertin A, Calandreau L.Recent studies have demonstrated that horses can recognize humans based simply on visual information. However, none of these studies have investigated whether this involves the recognition of the face itself, or simply identifying people from non-complex external clues, such as hair color. To go beyond this we wanted to know whether certain features of the face were indispensable for this recognition (e.g., colors, hair or eyes). The 11 horses in this study had previously learned to identify four unfamiliar faces (portrait view and in color) presented repeatedly on a screen. We thus assessed w...
Saleh AG, El-Habashi N, Abd-Ellatieff HA, Abas OM, Anwar S, Fukushi H, Yanai T.Equine herpesvirus-9 (EHV-9), equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) and zebra-borne EHV-1 are members of the family Herpesviridae and cause encephalitis and rhinopneumonitis in a range of animal species. The aim of this study was to characterize and compare the rhinopneumonitis induced by experimental intranasal inoculation of groups of hamsters with EHV-9, EHV-1 strain Ab4p or zebra-borne EHV-1 viruses. Animals inoculated with EHV-9 had earlier and more severe neurological and respiratory signs than those inoculated with EHV-1 strain Ab4p or zebra-borne EHV-1. At 4-5 days post inoculation (dpi), hamst...
Morandi L, Sabattini S, Renzi A, Rigillo A, Bettini G, Dervas E, Schauer A, Morandi M, Gissi DB, Tarsitano A, Evangelisti S, Tonon C.Ultra-conserved non-coding elements (UCNEs) are genomic sequences that exhibit > 95% sequence identity between humans, mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish. Recent findings reported their functional role in cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the DNA methylation modifications of UNCEs in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) from different mammal species. Fifty SCCs from 26 humans, 17 cats, 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 bovine, 1 badger, and 1 porcupine were investigated. Fourteen feline stomatitis and normal samples from 36 healthy human donors, 7 cats, 5 dogs, 5 horses, 2 bovines and 1 badger were c...
Gambini A, Duque Rodríguez M, Rodríguez MB, Briski O, Flores Bragulat AP, Demergassi N, Losinno L, Salamone DF.Several equids have gone extinct and many extant equids are currently considered vulnerable to critically endangered. This work aimed to evaluate whether domestic horse oocytes support preimplantation development of zebra embryos obtained by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, zebroid) and cloning, and to study the Hippo signaling pathway during the lineage specification of trophectoderm cells and inner cell mass cells. We first showed that zebra and horse sperm cells induce porcine oocyte activation and recruit maternal SMARCA4 during pronuclear formation. SMARCA4 recruitment showed to be...
Miró J, Gutiérrez-Reinoso M, da Silva JA, Fernandes C, Rebordão MR, Alexandre-Pires G, Catalán J, Ferreira-Dias G.Collagen fibers and inflammatory cells are the basis for jenny endometrium Kenney and Doig's classification developed for the mare. The infiltration of a large number of eosinophils in the jenny endometrium is intriguing. Eosinophil and fibroblast produced IL33, which has been related to fibrosis development and chronicity. This work on the endometrium consisted of (i) quantification of collagen type I (COL1A2), type III (COL3A1), and IL33 transcripts; (ii) histological localization and quantification of COL1 and COL3 proteins; and (iii) eosinophil and neutrophil count and correlation with col...
Rørvang MV, Nielsen BL, McLean AN.Vision, hearing, olfaction, taste, and touch comprise the sensory modalities of most vertebrates. With these senses, the animal receives information about its environment. How this information is organized, interpreted, and experienced is known as perception. The study of the sensory abilities of animals and their implications for behavior is central not only to ethology but also to animal welfare. Sensory ability, perception, and behavior are closely linked. Horses and humans share the five most common sensory modalities, however, their ranges and capacities differ, so that horses are unlikel...
Sardinia, an island located to the west of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea, boasts three native horse breeds: Giara, Sarcidano, and Sardinian Anglo-Arab. Here, we have investigated for the first time three loci of the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome (NRY) in 34 stallions from these breeds and performed a phylogenetic analysis of the maternal relationships among 178 previously published mitochondrial control regions. We found that the current NRY diversity of Sardinian horse breeds is linked to three haplotypes (HT), all identified within Sarcidano. Each breed showed a typical HT: HT1...
Brütsch DR, Hunziker P, Pot S, Tappeiner C, Voelter K.Intraocular fibrin clots caused by severe uveitis can be a sight-threatening condition that needs to be resolved quickly and reliably. Intracameral injection of tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA) is commonly used to resolve intraocular fibrin. However, the drug does not reach fibrinolytic concentrations after topical application. Desmoteplase (DSPA) is a structurally similar but smaller fibrinolytic agent with a higher fibrin selectivity, a longer half-life, and better biocompatibility compared with tPA. This study was designed to evaluate the corneal and scleral permeability of DSPA in rabbit...
Shihadih DS, Harris TR, Kodani SD, Hwang SH, Lee KSS, Mavangira V, Hamamoto B, Guedes A, Hammock BD, Morisseau C.The veterinary pharmacopeia available to treat pain and inflammation is limited in number, target of action and efficacy. Inhibitors of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) are a new class of anti-inflammatory, pro-resolving and analgesic drugs being tested in humans that have demonstrated efficacy in laboratory animals. They block the hydrolysis, and thus, increase endogenous concentrations of analgesic and anti-inflammatory signaling molecules called epoxy-fatty acids. Here, we screened a library of 2,300 inhibitors of the sEH human against partially purified feline, canine and equine hepatic sEH...
Battaglia F, Meucci V, Tognetti R, Bonelli F, Sgorbini M, Lubas G, Pretti C, Intorre L.In human medicine, procalcitonin (PCT), the precursor of calcitonin, is used for the rapid identification of the origin and severity of sepsis. In veterinary medicine, PCT has been studied in horses, cattle, and dogs, but the use of PCT in diagnostic and/or prognostic settings is not possible because of the lack of validated assays to obtain reference ranges. The aim of the present study was the investigation of commercially available ELISA kits for the detection of canine and equine PCT in plasma samples. Validation of the ELISA kits was performed by using species-specific recombinant protein...
Shilton CA, Kahler A, Davis BW, Crabtree JR, Crowhurst J, McGladdery AJ, Wathes DC, Raudsepp T, de Mestre AM.The first 8 weeks of pregnancy is a critical time, with the majority of pregnancy losses occurring during this period. Abnormal chromosome number (aneuploidy) is a common finding in human miscarriage, yet is rarely reported in domestic animals. Equine early pregnancy loss (EPL) has no diagnosis in over 80% of cases. The aim of this study was to characterise aneuploidies associated with equine EPL. Genomic DNA from clinical cases of spontaneous miscarriage (EPLs; 14-65 days of gestation) and healthy control placentae (various gestational ages) were assessed using a high density genotyping arr...
Mousa WM, Abdel-Wahab AM, El-Gameel Sohila M, Mahdy OA.Cystic echinococcosis is an important cosmopolitan parasitic zoonosis that causes public health and economic problems in Egypt. The present study was undertaken to identify genotypes of hydatid cyst (HC) DNA isolated from different animal isolates and to identify the genotype of secondary hydatid cysts (HCs) developed in rabbits experimentally infected with camel HC for detection of any genetic mutation. In the present study, we extracted DNA from the germinal layers of 8 HCs collected from 3 camels, 1 cattle, 1 sheep and 3 donkeys in addition to 3 secondary HCs collected from rabbits experime...
van der Weyden L, Brenn T, Patton EE, Wood GA, Adams DJ.In contrast to other cancer types, melanoma incidence has been increasing over the last 50 years, and while it still represents less than 5% of all cutaneous malignancies, melanoma accounts for the majority of skin cancer deaths, due to its propensity to metastasise. Whilst melanoma most commonly affects the skin, it can also arise in mucosal surfaces, the eye, and the brain. For new therapies to be developed, a better understanding of the genetic landscape, signalling pathways, and tumour-microenvironmental interactions is needed. This is where animal models are of critical importance. The ...
Felkel S, Vogl C, Rigler D, Jagannathan V, Leeb T, Fries R, Neuditschko M, Rieder S, Velie B, Lindgren G, Rubin CJ, Schlötterer C, Rattei T, Brem G....Humans have shaped the population history of the horse ever since domestication about 5500 years ago. Comparative analyses of the Y chromosome can illuminate the paternal origin of modern horse breeds. This may also reveal different breeding strategies that led to the formation of extant breeds. Recently, a horse Y-chromosomal phylogeny of modern horses based on 1.46 Mb of the male-specific Y (MSY) was generated. We extended this dataset with 52 samples from five European, two American and seven Asian breeds. As in the previous study, almost all modern European horses fall into a crown group...
Tecles F, Cerón JJ.Whole blood cholinesterase was measured using acetyl-, butyryl- and propionylthiocholine as substrates in 10 healthy adult dogs, cats, horses, pigs, goats, sheep and cows, in order to determine and characterise the cholinesterase activity in whole blood of the main domestic animals. An in vitro exposure test with two anticholinesterase compounds, the organophosphate insecticide coumaphos and the carbamate insecticide imidocarb, was also performed. In whole blood of ruminants and pigs, acetylthiocholine yielded the highest cholinesterase activity and other substrates were poorly hydrolysed; in ...
Berger J.Much evidence now suggests that the postnatal killing of young in primates and carnivores, and induced abortions in some rodents, are evolved traits exerting strong selective pressures on adult male and female behaviour. Among ungulates it is perplexing that either no species have developed convergent tactics or that these behaviours are not reported, especially as ungulates have social systems similar to those of members of the above groups. Only in captive horses (Equus caballus) has infant killing been reported. It has been estimated that 40,000 wild horses live in remote areas of the Great...
Lansade L, Colson V, Parias C, Trösch M, Reigner F, Calandreau L.Horses are capable of identifying individual conspecifics based on olfactory, auditory or visual cues. However, this raises the questions of their ability to recognize human beings and on the basis of what cues. This study investigated whether horses could differentiate between a familiar and unfamiliar human from photographs of faces. Eleven horses were trained on a discrimination task using a computer-controlled screen, on which two photographs were presented simultaneously (32 trials/session): touching one was rewarded (S+) and the other not (S-). In the training phase, the S+ faces were of...
Gonzales DS, Jones JM, Pinyopummintr T, Carnevale EM, Ginther OJ, Shapiro SS, Bavister BD.The behaviour of bovine, equine and human blastocysts was studied in vitro by time-lapse videomicrography and computer imaging. This study revealed that cytoplasmic extensions of the trophectoderm ['trophectoderm projections' (TEP)] were expressed by embryos of all three species, prior to or during zona escape. Bovine and human blastocysts escaped their zonae with a combination of blastocoele expansion, collapse and re-expansion coupled with the penetration of the zona pellucida by TEP. In equine embryos, after several cycles of blastocoele expansion and collapse, trophectoderm ruptured the zo...
Kader A, Li Y, Dong K, Irwin DM, Zhao Q, He X, Liu J, Pu Y, Gorkhali NA, Liu X, Jiang L, Li X, Guan W, Zhang Y, Wu DD, Ma Y.Body size, one of the most important quantitative traits under evolutionary scrutiny, varies considerably among species and among populations within species. Revealing the genetic basis underlying this variation is very important, particularly in humans where there is a close relationship with diseases and in domestic animals as the selective patterns are associated with improvements in production traits. The Debao pony is a horse breed with small body size that is unique to China; however, it is unknown whether the size-related candidate genes identified in Western breeds also account for the...
Hestand MS, Kalbfleisch TS, Coleman SJ, Zeng Z, Liu J, Orlando L, MacLeod JN.Current gene annotation of the horse genome is largely derived from in silico predictions and cross-species alignments. Only a small number of genes are annotated based on equine EST and mRNA sequences. To expand the number of equine genes annotated from equine experimental evidence, we sequenced mRNA from a pool of forty-three different tissues. From these, we derived the structures of 68,594 transcripts. In addition, we identified 301,829 positions with SNPs or small indels within these transcripts relative to EquCab2. Interestingly, 780 variants extend the open reading frame of the transcri...
Janova E, Matiasovic J, Vahala J, Vodicka R, Van Dyk E, Horin P.The major histocompatibility complex genes coding for antigen binding and presenting molecules are the most polymorphic genes in the vertebrate genome. We studied the DRA and DQA gene polymorphism of the family Equidae. In addition to 11 previously reported DRA and 24 DQA alleles, six new DRA sequences and 13 new DQA alleles were identified in the genus Equus. Phylogenetic analysis of both DRA and DQA sequences provided evidence for trans-species polymorphism in the family Equidae. The phylogenetic trees differed from species relationships defined by standard taxonomy of Equidae and from trees...
Ling Y, Ma Y, Guan W, Cheng Y, Wang Y, Han J, Jin D, Mang L, Mahmut H.Y chromosome acts as a single nonrecombining unit that is male specific and in effect haploid, thus ensuring the preservation of mutational events as a single haplotype via male lines. In this study, 6 Y chromosome-specific microsatellites (SSR) were tested for the patrilineal genetic variations of 573 male samples from Chinese domestic horse (30 breeds), Przewalski's horse, and donkey. All the 6 loci appeared as a haplotype block in Przewalski's horse and the domestic donkey. There were notable differences, however, at Y chromosome markers between horse and donkey. There were 2 haplotypes of ...
Ellis SA, Martin AJ, Holmes EC, Morrison WI.Nineteen horse MHC class I specificities have been serologically identified previously at a single locus (ELA-A), and two other specificities appear to be coded at other loci. Biochemical studies indicate that there are at least two expressed loci. In order to establish the number of transcribed horse MHC class I genes, we made a cDNA library from a heterozygous animal (ELA-A3/A7), and screened for positive clones using a bovine class I probe. More than 200 class I clones were isolated in this way, and so far seven unique full length sequences have been identified. All of the sequences are pre...
Osthaus B, Proops L, Long S, Bell N, Hayday K, Burden F.There are clear differences between donkeys and horses in their evolutionary history, physiology, behaviour and husbandry needs. Donkeys are often kept in climates that they are not adapted to and as such may suffer impaired welfare unless protection from the elements is provided. Objective: To compare some of the hair coat properties of donkeys, mules and horses living outside, throughout the year, in the temperate climate of the UK. Methods: Longitudinal study. Methods: Hair samples were taken from 42 animals: 18 donkeys (4 females, 14 males), 16 horses (6 females, 10 males) and eight mules ...
McFarlane D.Parkinson's disease (PD) is a leading cause of neurologic disability in the aged population. Remarkable progress has been made in the past decade to understand the cellular and molecular events that occur in PD. However attempts to unravel the early, initiating factors in the pathogenesis of dopaminergic neurodegeneration and PD have been limited by the lack of a suitable animal model. Models in which there has been genetic or environmental manipulation are not of use in determining the natural cause of a disease. While a large scale prospective human study would be ideal, the relatively low p...
Arlt D, Forslund P, Jeppsson T, Pärt T.To assess population persistence of species living in heterogeneous landscapes, the effects of habitat on reproduction and survival have to be investigated. Results: We used a matrix population model to estimate habitat-specific population growth rates for a population of northern wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe breeding in farmland consisting of a mosaic of distinct habitat (land use) types. Based on extensive long-term data on reproduction and survival, habitats characterised by tall field layers (spring- and autumn-sown crop fields, ungrazed grasslands) displayed negative stochastic population ...
Witte H, Biltzinger J, Hackert R, Schilling N, Schmidt M, Reich C, Fischer MS.In three species of small therian mammals (Scandentia: Tupaia glis, Rodentia: Galea musteloides and Lagomorpha: Ochotona rufescens) the net joint forces and torques acting during stance phase in the four kinematically relevant joints of the forelimbs (scapular pivot, shoulder joint, elbow joint, wrist joint) and the hindlimbs (hip joint, knee joint, ankle joint, intratarsal joint) were determined by inverse dynamic analysis. Kinematics were measured by cineradiography (150 frames s(-1)). Synchronously ground reaction forces were acquired by forceplates. Morphometry of the extremities was perfo...
Hedges JF, Demaula CD, Moore BD, McLaughlin BE, Simon SI, MacLachlan NJ.Expression of E-selectin on activated endothelium is a critical initial step that leads to extravasation of leucocytes during inflammation, yet E-selectin is largely uncharacterized in several animal species including the horse. We have sequenced and compared E-selectin genes derived from activated cultures of purified equine (horse), cervid (black-tailed deer) and ovine (sheep) pulmonary artery endothelial cells (ECs). Phylogenetic and amino acid sequence comparisons indicate that bovine, cervid and ovine E-selectin are similar, whereas human and equine E-selectin are more closely related to ...
Gould AR.The nucleotide sequence of the matrix protein of equine morbillivirus (EMV) was determined to be 1062 nucleotides and coded for a deduced protein of M(r) 40148 having a net charge of + 19 at neutral pH. The matrix protein gene was separated from the P and F genes by intercistronic regions of 546 and 469 nucleotides, respectively. The nucleotide sequence which coded for the F protein was 1641 nucleotides and coded for a deduced protein of 546 amino acids having an M(r) of 60,447 and a charge + 4 at neutral pH. Partial sequence information was also determined for the P/V proteins. M, P and F pro...
Adams GP, Ratto MH.Ovulation in mammals involves pulsatile release of GnRH from the hypothalamus into the hypophyseal portal system with subsequent release of LH from the anterior pituitary into systemic circulation. Elevated circulating concentrations of LH induce a cascade of events within the mature follicle, culminating in follicle rupture and evacuation. The broad classification of species as either spontaneous or induced ovulators is based on the type of stimulus responsible for eliciting GnRH release from the hypothalamus. In spontaneously ovulating species (e.g., human, sheep, cattle, horse, pigs), relea...
Oakenfull EA, Clegg JB.Sequences of the alpha1, alpha2 and theta globin genes from six equid species have been determined to investigate relationships within the genus Equus. Analyses using standard phylogenetic methods, or an approach designed to account for the effects of gene conversion between the alpha genes, gave broadly similar results and show that the horses diverged from the zebra/ass ancestor approximately 2.4 million years ago and that the zebra and ass species arose in a rapid radiation approximately 0.9 million years ago. These results from the alpha genes are corroborated by theta gene data and are in...
Wutke S, Sandoval-Castellanos E, Benecke N, Döhle HJ, Friederich S, Gonzalez J, Hofreiter M, Lõugas L, Magnell O, Malaspinas AS, Morales-Muñiz A....Present-day domestic horses are immensely diverse in their maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, yet they show very little variation on their paternally inherited Y chromosome. Although it has recently been shown that Y chromosomal diversity in domestic horses was higher at least until the Iron Age, when and why this diversity disappeared remain controversial questions. We genotyped 16 recently discovered Y chromosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 96 ancient Eurasian stallions spanning the early domestication stages (Copper and Bronze Age) to the Middle Ages. Using this Y chromosomal t...
Geddes LA, Tacker WA, Rosborough JP, Moore AG, Cabler PS.Electrical ventricular defibrillation of heavy subjects (over 100 kg body weight) is uncommon for the human or any animal species. This paper reports trans-chest ventricular defibrillation of subjects ranging in weight from 2.3 to 340 kg using conventional defibrillation current (heavily damped sine wave) of 0.3-30 ms duration. It was found that a body weight-to-electrical-shock strength relationship exists and can be expressed in terms of either electrical energy or peak current. For the duration of current pulse used clinically (3-10 ms), the relationship between energy requirement and body ...
Kojima K, Taniguchi K, Kobayashi N.We have sequenced gene 5 encoding NSP1 for three human, two porcine, two bovine, one feline, and five equine rotavirus strains, and compared the nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences with the published sequences for other various strains. Subgroup I human strains L26, 69M, and DS-1 were found to have a similar NSP1 sequence despite their different G serotypes, VP4 genotypes, and RNA patterns. The NSP1 sequence of the human strain K8 showed a high degree of homology to those of porcine strains OSU and YM. A high degree of homology was found among three equine strains (H2, FI-14, and FI23)...
Alzan HF, Knowles DP, Suarez CE.Apicomplexa tick-borne hemoparasites, including Babesia bovis, Babesia microti, and Theileria equi are responsible for bovine and human babesiosis and equine theileriosis, respectively. These parasites of vast medical, epidemiological, and economic impact have complex life cycles in their vertebrate and tick hosts. Large gaps in knowledge concerning the mechanisms used by these parasites for gene regulation remain. Regulatory genes coding for DNA binding proteins such as members of the Api-AP2, HMG, and Myb families are known to play crucial roles as transcription factors. Although the reperto...
Wieser B, Tichy A, Nell B.Guinea pigs have a very low threshold of corneal sensitivity and at the same time nearly no reflex tearing compared to dogs, cats, and horses. The question arose whether there is a general correlation between corneal sensitivity and the quantity of reflex tearing. Methods: Totally 160 animals of 8 different species (20 animals per species) were investigated. Methods: The corneal touch threshold (CTT) was measured with a Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer. The palpebral fissure length (PFL) was measured with a calliper ruler. The Schirmer tear test (STT) was modified by adapting the width of the STT s...
Kacskovics I.Many of the receptors for the Fc domain of immunoglobulins in cattle, sheep, pigs and horses have been cloned and characterized recently. This review summarises recent developments and relates them to the current understanding of the primary structure, cellular specificity and binding properties of Fc receptors (FcRs). Although there is an obvious overall similarity to their human and mouse counterparts, some Fc receptors in domestic animals are unusual, perhaps most notably the bovine Fcgamma2R, which although related to other mammalian FcgammaRs, belongs to a novel gene family and the porcin...
Vandewege MW, Platt RN, Ray DA, Hoffmann FG.PIWI proteins and PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) are part of a cellular pathway that has evolved to protect genomes against the proliferation of transposable elements (TEs). PIWIs and piRNAs assemble into complexes that are involved in epigenetic and post-transcriptional repression of TEs. Most of our understanding of the mechanisms of piRNA-mediated TE silencing comes from fruit fly and mouse models. However, even in these well-studied animals it is unclear how piRNA responses relate to variable TE expression and whether the strength of the piRNA response affects TE content over time. Here, w...
Stock KF, Reents R.Technical advances and development in the market for genomic tools have facilitated access to whole-genome data across species. Building-up on the acquired knowledge of the genome sequences, large-scale genotyping has been optimized for broad use, so genotype information can be routinely used to predict genetic merit. Genomic selection (GS) refers to the use of aggregates of estimated marker effects as predictors which allow improved individual differentiation at young age. Realizable benefits of GS are influenced by several factors and vary in quantity and quality between species. General cha...
Li F, Su J, Chahan B, Guo Q, Wang T, Yu Z, Guo Y, Li N, Feng Y, Xiao L.Few studies have been conducted on the distribution of Cryptosporidium species and subtypes in equine animals. In this study, 878 stool specimens were collected during 2015-2019 from 551 donkeys and 327 horses in Shandong, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, China and screened for Cryptosporidium spp. by PCR analysis of the small subunit rRNA gene. The Cryptosporidium species presented were identified by sequence analysis of the PCR products and subtyped by sequence analysis of the 60 kDa glycoprotein gene. The infection rates of Cryptosporidium spp. in horses and donkeys were 3.1% (10/327) and 14...
Shin EK, Rijkers T, Pastink A, Meek K.We reported previously that the genetic SCID disease observed in Arabian foals is explained by a defect in V(D)J recombination that profoundly affects both coding and signal end joining. As in C.B-17 SCID mice, the molecular defect in SCID foals is in the catalytic subunit of the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PKCS); however, in SCID mice, signal end resolution remains relatively intact. Moreover, recent reports indicate that mice that completely lack DNA-PKCS also generate signal joints at levels that are indistinguishable from those observed in C.B-17 SCID mice, eliminating the possibilit...
Oreff GL, Fenu M, Vogl C, Ribitsch I, Jenner F.For research on tendon injury, many different animal models are utilized; however, the extent to which these species simulate the clinical condition and disease pathophysiology has not yet been critically evaluated. Considering the importance of inflammation in tendon disease, this study compared the cellular and molecular features of inflammation in tenocytes of humans and four common model species (mouse, rat, sheep, and horse). While mouse and rat tenocytes most closely equalled human tenocytes' low proliferation capacity and the negligible effect of inflammation on proliferation, the wound...
Kurachi K, Schmer G, Hermodson MA, Teller DC, Davie EW.A comparison of the physical-chemical properties of human, bovine, and horse antithrombin III has been made. These three plasma proteins are strong inhibitors of bovine factor Xa and form a 1:1 molar complex with this coagulation enzyme. Human, bovine, and horse antithrombin III are glycoproteins containing hexose, hexosamine, and neuraminic acid. The total carbohydrate was 9, 12, and 16% for human, bovine, and horse antithrombin III, respectively. These proteins have a similar amino acid composition, although some monor variations were noted. Each antithrombin III is composed of a single poly...
