Statistical analysis in equine research involves the application of mathematical techniques to collect, review, and interpret data related to horse health, behavior, and performance. This field encompasses a variety of methods, including descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and multivariate analysis, to identify patterns, test hypotheses, and draw conclusions from equine data. Statistical analysis aids in understanding various aspects of equine science, such as disease prevalence, treatment efficacy, genetic traits, and performance metrics. This page aggregates peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the methodologies, applications, and outcomes of statistical analysis in the context of equine studies.
Main SC, Ivey JLZ, Strickland LG, Rhinehart JD, Sun X.Land-Grant Institutions and Cooperative Extension Services seek to disseminate information to the public; however, Extension agents differ in areas of expertise, leaving some counties with minimal ability to provide 4-H horse project members with sufficient content knowledge while agents in other counties are more well versed in equine-specific areas. Results from the 2021 and 2023 Tennessee regional and 2022 Eastern National 4-H Hippology contests were used to determine areas of knowledge deficiency. Nutrition, tack, selection, health, and breeds were categories identified as areas in which 4...
Gazzano V, Curadi MC, Capsoni S, Baragli P, Kêdzierski W, Cecchi F, Gazzano A.In humans, aging is often accompanied by cognitive decline, as seen in Alzheimer's disease. In contrast, the aging process in horses remains poorly characterized. This study aims to explore the presence of blood-based biomarkers associated with cognitive degeneration in this species. Twenty-three Arabian horses were enrolled, and 5 mL of blood was collected from each to measure serum levels of β-amyloid peptides (Aβ40 and Aβ42) and phosphorylated tau protein (pTau181), both considered reliable indicators of cognitive impairment in other species. Aβ42 was undetectable in all samples, while ...
Toishimanov M, Zhanten O, Kanat R, Beishova I, Ulyanov V, Assanbayev T, Sharapatov T, Daurov D, Daurova A, Sapakhova Z, Nametov A, Shamekova M.This study aimed to evaluate the chemical composition of milk from Kazakh mares kept under free-grazing conditions on natural pasture without supplementary feeding. Fifty Kazakh mares were aged 3 to 13 years, kept in herds, and categorized by age, number of foalings, and lactation stage for statistical analysis. Milk samples were collected, chilled, and analyzed on the same day using a Milkoscan FT2. The composition of fat, protein, lactose, total solids, casein, and other components was examined. Statistical analyses, including ANOVA, PCA, CDA, and Pearson correlation analysis, were performed...
Walz KR, McCormick ME, Fedorka CE.Breed bias exists within many of the top disciplines of equestrian sport. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of breed on performance at the CCI5*-L level of eventing. To do so, the results of all CCI5*-L events from 2014 to 2024 were assessed. Initially, Thoroughbreds were compared to all non-Thoroughbreds, and this was followed by assessing the ten primary breeds. Data included penalties accrued in dressage, cross country, show jumping, and overall. Additionally, the likelihood of completing each phase was assessed. It was found that Thoroughbreds accrued mor...
Liedtke AM, Meijer H, Horstmann S, von Reitzenstein C, Rump I, Kirsch K.Eventing is an Olympic equestrian discipline comprising dressage, cross-country, and show jumping, with the cross-country phase imposing the greatest physical demands on horses. This study presents a composite model to estimate energy expenditure during the cross-country phase, integrating physiological data (heart rate-derived VO2 and lactate-based anaerobic estimates) with external workload indicators (GPS-derived speed, elevation, and course complexity). Model development was based on 691 rides from 256 horses across 232 events at 2-star to 5-star competition levels. The analysis showed tha...
Firdausy LW, Fikri F, Wicaksono AP, Çalışkan H, Purnama MTE.Equine infectious anemia (EIA) is a lentiviral disease affecting members of the Equidae family, with global distribution and significant implications for animal health and biosecurity. Despite numerous individual reports, a comprehensive synthesis of its global prevalence and risk factors remains lacking. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the global prevalence of EIA, identify diagnostic trends, and evaluate factors associated with heterogeneity across studies. Unassigned: A systematic search was conducted in six major databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web ...
Aragona F, Giannetto C, Piccione G, Arfuso F, Arrigo F, Costa A, De Caro S, Cannuli A, Fazio F.The present study aimed to investigate the effect of time of day and physical exercise on some inflammatory biomarkers (white blood cell count-WBCs, leukocyte subpopulation CD4 + and CD8 + cells, total proteins, Interleukins IL-6, IL-1β and Tumor Necrosis Factor TNFα) in trained saddle horses. Unassigned: Blood samples were collected from 10 horses before, immediately (following 5 min) and 1 h after the training session in the morning (am) and afternoon (pm). Unassigned: Statistical analysis showed increasing value of WBCs immediately and 1 h after exercise ( < 0.01: <...
Donovan K, Torres J, Zhu D, Herrington WG, Staplin N.Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of disease progression are vulnerable to collider bias caused by selection of participants with disease at study entry. This bias introduces spurious associations between disease progression and genetic variants that are truly only associated with disease incidence. Methods of statistical adjustment to reduce this bias have been published, but rely on assumptions regarding the genetic correlation of disease incidence and disease progression which are likely to be violated in many human diseases. MR-Horse is a recently published Bayesian method to estimate...
Elte Y, Wolframm I, Vernooij H, Nielen M, van Weeren R.Equine veterinarians play a crucial role in maintaining equine health and ensuring client satisfaction. Understanding their perspectives on key aspects of veterinary care is essential for optimising outcomes for both clients and horses. Objective: To identify and compare the importance equine veterinarians place on seven key aspects of client satisfaction in equine veterinary practice (quality of care, quality of service, horsemanship, interpersonal skills, transfer of knowledge, financial aspects and professionalism) across four different scenarios. Methods: A cross-sectional survey-based stu...
Ren X, Xue Y, Shen Z, Liu X, Chang X, Meng J, Ren W, Wang J, Yao X, Zeng Y.Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) play a crucial role in regulating nutritional metabolism in lactating animals. However, limited research has been conducted on BCAAs in equines. This study aimed to investigate the effects of different doses of BCAA supplementation on plasma and milk amino acid profiles in Yili mares, as well as the growth performance of their suckling foals, thereby providing a scientific basis for optimizing feeding management practices. Eighteen pairs of Yili mares and their sucklings were randomly assigned to four groups: a control group (Group D, no BCAA supplementation)...
Pipereau K, Trably E, Santa-Catalina G, García-Bernet D, Carrere H.Horse manure is a lignocellulosic biomass found in significant quantities with a vast indigenous flora, not yet fully valorized apart from anaerobic digestion. Its use in the fermentation process can lead to the production of higher-value metabolites. This study investigates three inoculation strategies coupled with five pretreatment conditions for horse manure fermentation. Two microwave pretreatments (200W and 1000W) were compared with a conventional thermal pretreatment, a thermo-acid pretreatment, and an unpretreated condition. The sole horse manure indigenous microorganisms were used in f...
Hernández-Avilés C, Ramírez-Agámez L, Love CC.In vitro production of equine embryos by Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is commonly utilized to maximize the availability of stallion sperm, particularly from stallions with limited semen supply. The relationship between standard measures of sperm quality in frozen/thawed semen (i.e., sperm motility, normal morphology, DNA quality) and embryo production after ICSI of in vitro-matured equine oocytes has not been thoroughly studied. In this study, frozen/thawed semen from 47 stallions utilized in a commercial ICSI program was analyzed for post-thaw sperm total and progressive motility (...
Ding W, Gong W, Bou T, Shi L, Lin Y, Shi X, Li Z, Wu H, Dugarjaviin M, Bai D.Copy number variation (CNV) is an important source of genetic variation. However, studies utilizing whole-genome sequencing to investigate CNVs in horse populations and their effects on traits remain relatively limited. This study aims to address the lack of research on the impact of copy number variation (CNV) on racing performance in horse populations, providing new insights for locally bred racing breeds. We analyzed 60 offspring derived from the crossbreeding of Thoroughbred horses and Xilingol horses. These horses were temporarily named "Grassland-Thoroughbred" and were divided into two g...
Barsi B, Oláh J, Posta J.The Hungarian Coldblood horse was developed in the 1920s by crossing local mares with draft horses imported from Belgium and France, and was approved as an official horse breed in 1954. The aim of the study was to analyze the quality of the pedigree, generation interval, gene origin, and inbreeding. The pedigree information was received from the Hungarian Coldblood Horse Breeding Association. The studbook data of the registered animals up to 2023 were evaluated. Two reference populations were chosen: horses having offspring in 1989 and 2023. The final database contained 21,699 horses. Pedigree...
Ziadi C, Valera M, Laseca N, Perdomo-González D, Demyda-Peyrás S, de Los Terreros AR, Molina A. By simultaneously integrating both genotyped and non-genotyped animals into genetic evaluation, the single-step genomic BLUP method enhanced the accuracy of genetic assessments. This study aimed to compare the increase in prediction reliability (R) between restricted maximum likelihood (REML) and single-step genomic REML (ssGREML) in the Pura Raza Española (PRE) horse breed. The dataset comprised reproductive records for seven fertility traits from 47,502 females, with a total of 57,316 animals represented in the pedigree. A total of 4009 animals were genotyped using the EQUIGENE 90K SNP ar...
Bouquet A, Nicol C, Knowles EJ, Schofield I, Menzies-Gow NJ.Clinical signs of pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID) are frequently mistaken for 'normal' ageing and may not be optimally assessed. Objective quality of life (QoL) assessment could improve clinical decision-making. Objective: To develop an owner-reported health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) assessment tool for equines with PPID. To assess factors associated with HRQoL scores. Methods: Quantitative, cross-sectional study. Methods: HRQoL tool development followed a standard psychometric process of item (any aspect of PPID and its management that could impact QoL) identification (foll...
Vychodilova L, Plasil M, Futas J, Kopecka A, Molinkova D, Wijacki T, Jahn P, Knoll A, Horin P.Although the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) has been repeatedly associated with susceptibility to equine sarcoid, a disease associated with bovine papillomavirus infection, the role of the MHC in the mechanisms of the disease is not fully understood. The objectives of our work were to analyze associations between polymorphic markers of the MHC genomic subregions and of the Natural Killer Complex (NKC) genomic region and the presence of sarcoid in Arabian horses. Microsatellite loci located in the MHC class I, II and III subregions and two MHC class II genes (DRA, DQA1), along with a se...
Zhang X, Abdusuli N.The horse industry constitutes a vital economic sector in Xinjiang, China. This study quantitatively assesses the sector's sustainable development through eco-efficiency analysis across northern Xinjiang counties from 2001 to 2021. The research employs four analytical methods: the S-SBM model for efficiency measurement, kernel density estimation for distribution analysis, Moran's index for spatial autocorrelation examination, and convergence tests for long-term trend assessment. Results demonstrate a consistent decline in eco-efficiency, decreasing from 0.821 in 2001 to 0.444 in 2021, with an ...
Aragona F, Rizzo M, Arrigo F, Arfuso F, Fazio F, Giudice E, Pugliatti P, Piccione G, Giannetto C.Among physiological parameters, total locomotor activity (TLA) and heart rate (HR) are used as physiological indicators in animal welfare evaluations. The present study aimed to simultaneously record for 24 h the TLA and HR of ten clinically healthy horses housed in conventional individual boxes subjected to a natural photoperiod and temperature. An actigraphy-based data logger was placed on the headstall, and an equine HR monitor was placed around the chest to monitor TLA and HR, respectively. Activity was monitored with 5 min sampling intervals and HR with 5 s intervals. To make the data poi...
de Chiara M, Montano C, De Matteis A, Guidi L, Buono F, Auletta L, Del Prete C, Pasolini MP.Subjective evaluation of gait by official endurance veterinarians (OEVs) is used to determine 'fitness-to-compete' in horses participating in endurance competitions. Objective gait analysis systems could aid in quick and verifiable judgements. Objective: To assess the agreement between objective analysis of head and pelvis vertical movement asymmetry performed with a markerless artificial intelligence motion tracking system (AI-MTS) and subjective lameness assessment performed by an accredited FEI OEV to judge horse gaits. Methods: Cross-sectional. Methods: During three endurance competitions,...
The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of daily rhythms on the immune and inflammatory systems in horses, considering white blood cell count (WBCs), leukocyte subpopulations (neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes), CD4+, and CD8+ lymphocyte populations, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Ten Italian Saddle horses (7-12 years old, body weight 480 ± 30 kg) underwent blood sampling every 4 h over a 24-h period. The COSINOR method was used to identify rhythms and their parameters. A one-way ...
Gueguen L, Palme R, Jego P, Henry S, Hausberger M.Many studies focus on animal welfare in terms of specific, either behavioural or physiological, indicators or on the impact of a particular management factor. However, an animal's welfare state results from the individual's perception of its general environment, which has consequences at both behavioural and physiological levels. Previous research on horses has shown that different riding schools could be characterised by different emotional/cognitive profiles of horses, in relation sometimes with one single management factor. In the present study, we aimed at determining if such facility-spec...
Szabó L, Pollard D, Nagy A.There are no published reference ranges on computed tomographic (CT) hoof wall and sole measurements. Objective: To establish reference ranges for CT measurements of the hoof wall and sole in non-lame horses, and to investigate associations between measurements and signalment, laterality, and medial or lateral sides. Methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study. Methods: Soft tissue reconstructions of fan-beam CT studies of 110 front feet of 56 non-lame horses (30 Thoroughbred racehorses, 26 Warmblood showjumpers), performed in non- to semi-weightbearing positions, were analysed. Hoof wall th...
Levasseur A, Paré J, Aubry P, Iwasawa S, Leung D, Arsenault J.Vaccination is the most efficient tool for preventing West Nile virus (WNV) disease in horses. The objectives of this retrospective study were to: i) estimate the provincial and national horse population in Canada; ii) estimate the annual vaccination coverage for WNV in each province; and iii) compare estimates of provincial annual vaccination coverage. Horse population data (2006-2023) and the number of vaccine doses sold in Canada (2016-2020) were obtained by province. Based on these data and expert consultations, the annual number of vaccine doses administered, and provincial horse populati...
Abah KO, Ligocka-Kowalczyk Z, Itodo JI, Ameh G, Partyka A, Nizanski W.Accurately predicting male fertility is crucial for the animal breeding industry due to its significant economic implications. Existing literature suggests that mammalian fertility is partially dependent on sperm DNA integrity. However, routine semen analysis often fails to detect DNA damage and does not consistently correlate with field fertility outcomes. While assessing sperm DNA integrity provides valuable biological insights, its role in diagnosing animal infertility remains uncertain. Results: This meta-analysis evaluated the association between sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF) and fertilit...
Brito LFC.Semen analysis is an important laboratory diagnostic test for stallions. Evaluation of sperm motility is integral to basic semen analysis and results are important for breeding management and clinical practice. Computer-assisted sperm analysis (CASA) allows objective sperm motility evaluation and increases analytical precision. The objective of the present study was to validate a portable CASA system (AndroScope). Fresh/cooled semen samples (33 ejaculates, 18 stallions) and frozen semen (40 ejaculates and one epididymal flush, 27 stallions) were evaluated using the AndroScope and the IVOS II C...
Agbani A, Aminou O, Machmoum M, Germot A, Badaoui B, Petit D, Piro M.This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) consolidates current research on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis in horses, focusing on genetic variation, maternal lineage tracing, and haplogroup identification. The article selection process screened 1380 articles, with 76 fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Data extraction covered sampling techniques, studied mtDNA regions, sequencing methods, and haplogroup identification. Following the methodology of the PRISMA guidelines, this review encompasses studies published since 2012, obtained from Scopus, PubMed, Research4Life, Web of Science, and Scienc...
Choi Y, Parkin T.Superficial digital flexor (SDF) tendinopathy is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases in Thoroughbreds and a major cause of retirement from racing among racehorses in South Korea. However, there are no previous epidemiological studies on SDF tendinopathy-related risk factors for racehorses in South Korea. The interventions derived from such a study could reduce the occurrence of SDF tendinopathy and, therefore, extend horses' racing careers. Objective: To identify the risk factors associated with SDF tendinopathy for Thoroughbreds in South Korea. Methods: Retrospective case-control ...
Martins AS, Romanowski TNA, Campos JS, Vieira RC, Silva TA, Borsanelli AC.Brucellosis is a zoonosis caused by bacteria of Brucella genus, which affects domestic and wild animals and humans. In horses, the infection can be caused by Brucella canis, Brucella suis or Brucella abortus, through the ingestion of contaminated food, contact of bacteria with skin wounds or through the respiratory tract, manifesting with signs such as fistulous withers and reduced performance. The present study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of Brucella abortus infection in equids in the state of Goiás. Sampling was carried out on 299 farms across 132 municipalities, with a total of 89...
Czycholl I, Klingbeil P, Krieter J.Objective tools for the assessment of animal welfare are needed. The present study analyzed the interobserver reliability of the Animal Welfare Indicators (AWIN) welfare assessment protocol for horses to further enhance knowledge concerning reliability. Therefore, two trained observers conducted 18 assessments on farm at the same time and on the same animals. The results were compared at individual level by calculation of Cohen's kappa (κ), weighted kappa (κ), and prevalence-adjusted, bias-adjusted kappa (PABAK). Spearman rank correlation coefficient (RS), intraclass correlation coefficient ...
Lightbody KL, Davis PJ, Austin CJ.Tapeworm infections pose a significant threat to equine health as they are associated with clinical cases of colic. Diagnosis of tapeworm burden using fecal egg counts (FECs) is unreliable, and, although a commercial serologic ELISA for anti-tapeworm antibodies is available, it requires a veterinarian to collect the blood sample. A reliable diagnostic test using an owner-accessible sample such as saliva could provide a cost-effective alternative for tapeworm testing in horses, and allow targeted deworming strategies. Objective: The purpose of the study was to statistically validate a saliva ta...
Langlois B, Blouin C.Declarations of matings (535,746) and 308,549 consecutive declarations of birth from 1989 to 1999 were analysed by logistic regression in order to determine the effects of year, breed and age of parents on numerical productivity (the number of foals declared per mated mare per year). For the years 1994 to 1999, the status of the mare, type of mating and month of first mating, were also available. The effect of inbreeding and, for warm-blooded horses, the effect of the level of performances or the effect of the level of breeding value estimation were also analysed. The main results are the foll...
Capomaccio S, Cappelli K, Barrey E, Felicetti M, Silvestrelli M, Verini-Supplizi A.It is known that moderate physical activity may have beneficial effects on health, whereas strenuous effort induces a state resembling inflammation. The molecular mechanisms underlying the cellular response to exercise remain unclear, although it is clear that the immune system plays a key role. It has been hypothesized that the physio-pathological condition that develops in athletes subjected to heavy training is caused by derangement of cellular immune regulation. The purpose of the present study was to obtain information on endurance horse gene transcription under strenuous conditions and t...
Hinchcliff KW, Morley PS, Jackson MA, Brown JA, Dredge AF, O'Callaghan PA, McCaffrey JP, Slocombe RF, Clarke AF.Risk factors for occult exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH) are poorly defined or quantified. Objective: To investigate the importance of putative risk factors for EIPH amongst Thoroughbred racehorses in Australia. Methods: Tracheobronchoscopy was used to determine EIPH status of 744 Thoroughbred racehorses after flat racing in Melbourne, Australia. Horses were identified for study before racing, and over 50% of horses racing during the study period were examined. Statistical analysis included use of bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis to account for simultaneous ...
Martin G, Yanez-Arenas C, Plowright RK, Chen C, Roberts B, Skerratt LF.Understanding environmental factors driving spatiotemporal patterns of disease can improve risk mitigation strategies. Hendra virus (HeV), discovered in Australia in 1994, spills over from bats (Pteropus sp.) to horses and thence to humans. Below latitude - 22°, almost all spillover events to horses occur during winter, and above this latitude spillover is aseasonal. We generated a statistical model of environmental drivers of HeV spillover per month. The model reproduced the spatiotemporal pattern of spillover risk between 1994 and 2015. The model was generated with an ensemble of methods f...
Gmel AI, Druml T, Portele K, von Niederhäusern R, Neuditschko M.Linear description (LD) of conformation traits was introduced in horse breeding to minimise subjectivity in scoring. However, recent studies have shown that LD traits show essentially the same problems as traditionally scored traits, such as data converging around the mean value with very small standard deviations. To improve the assessment of conformation traits of horses, we investigated the application of the recently described horse shape space model based upon 403 digitised photographs of 243 Franches-Montagnes (FM) stallions and extracted joint angles based on specific landmark triplets....
Fazio E, Medica P, Cravana C, Ferlazzo A.In order to determine whether therapeutic riding could result in higher levels of stress than recreational riding, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response was evaluated in six horses by monitoring circulating β-endorphin, ACTH and cortisol concentrations. Horses were already accustomed to be trained both for therapy and riding school activity since 2004. Intervention consisted of 60-minute therapeutic sessions, two times per week for 6weeks with different riders: disabled and recreational riders (session A and B respectively). The therapeutic riders' group (A) consisted of six chil...
A human-animal relationship can be developed through subsequent interactions, affected by the positive or negative emotional valence of the proceeding one. Horses implement a process of categorization to classify humans with whom they interact as positive, negative, or neutral stimuli by evaluating the kind of approach and the nature of the contact. In these terms, human-animal interactions are emotionally charged events, eliciting specific emotional states in both subjects involved. Although the human-horse relationship has been mainly investigated through behavioral analysis, physiological i...
Raphel CF, Soma LR.Thoroughbred horses (n = 191) were examined with a flexible fiberoptic endoscope within 2 hours of racing on a dirt track; 147 (75.4%) had evidence of exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), and 13 (9.0%) had blood at the nostrils. Of 107 Thoroughbreds examined within the same period after breezing, 41 (38.3%) had evidence of EIPH. One horse (2.4%) of this group had blood at the nostrils. Statistical analysis of frequency data showed that a relationship existed between EIPH and the horse's age or distance raced or breezed. Relationship did not exist between EIPH and sex or finishing posi...
Dai F, Dalla Costa E, Murray LM, Canali E, Minero M.This paper is a baseline study to present the initial outcomes of data collected in a sample of EU donkey farms using the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for donkeys, comprehensive of 22 valid, reliable and feasible animal-based indicators. A total of 20 donkey facilities (N = 12 in Italy and N = 8 in United Kingdom) were visited and 278 donkeys of different breed, aged 2-45 years, were assessed. Three assessors underwent a common training period to learn how to perform and score all the indicators included in the protocol. Data was collected using digitalized systems and downloaded to a data...
Henley WE, Rogers K, Harkins L, Wood JL.Survival analysis was used to assess risk factors for fatal injuries on UK race courses. This allowed assessment of variation due to temporal horse-level effects, including previous racing intensity and historical distribution of race types, as well as race-level factors. Comparisons were made between measuring survival time as number of days and as number of races to injury from the first race. Two related models were presented for time as number of races to injury: a Cox regression model fitted using partial likelihood, with the Efron approximation to handling ties, and a discrete-time logit...
Mouloodi S, Rahmanpanah H, Gohari S, Burvill C, Tse KM, Davies HMS.Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are fascinating interdisciplinary scientific domains where machines are provided with an approximation of human intelligence. The conjecture is that machines are able to learn from existing examples, and employ this accumulated knowledge to fulfil challenging tasks such as regression analysis, pattern classification, and prediction. The horse biomechanical models have been identified as an alternative tool to investigate the effects of mechanical loading and induced deformations on the tissues and structures in humans. Many reported invest...
Denwood MJ, Reid SW, Love S, Nielsen MK, Matthews L, McKendrick IJ, Innocent GT.The Faecal Egg Count Reduction Test (FECRT) is the most widely used method of assessing the efficacy of anthelmintics, and is the only in vivo technique currently approved for use with horses. Equine Faecal Egg Count (FEC) data are frequently characterised by a low mean, high variability, small sample size and frequent zero count observations. Accurate analysis of the data therefore depends on the use of an appropriate statistical technique. Analyses of simulated FECRT data by methods based on calculation of the empirical mean and variance, non-parametric bootstrapping, and Markov chain Monte ...
Evans KE, McGreevy PD.There is a lack of an established method for quantifying equine skull morphology. This study proposes a method that is valid for use on both live and deceased horses. A total of nine head measurements (skull length, cranial length, nasal length, ratio of cranial:nasal length, cranial width, zygomatic width, mandibular depth, nasal profile area, cranial profile area) and six indices (skull index, cranial index, nasal index, mandibular index, nasal profile index, cranial profile index) were recorded from 30 horses from a variety of breeds whilst the soft tissues of the head were intact. A line w...
Bártová E, Sedlák K, Kobédová K, Budíková M, Joel Atuman Y, Kamani J.Neospora spp. and Toxoplasma gondii are considered to be a globally distributed parasites affecting wide range of warm-blooded animals. Neosporosis has caused clinical illness in horses and consumption of horse meat has been epidemiologically linked to clinical toxoplasmosis in humans. This study was conducted to determine Neospora spp. and T. gondii antibodies and risk factors of infection in horses and donkeys from three states of Nigeria. A total of 144 samples were collected from clinically healthy animals (120 horses and 24 donkeys). The sera were tested for antibodies to Neospora spp. an...
Malik CL, Stover SM, Martin RB, Gibeling JC.Previous studies of the fracture properties of cortical bone have suggested that the fracture toughness increases with crack length, which is indicative of rising R-curve behavior. Based on this indirect evidence and the similarity of bone to ceramic matrix composites, we hypothesized that bone would exhibit rising R-curve behavior in the transverse orientation and that the characteristics of the R-curves would be regionally dependent within the cortex due to variations in bone microstructure and toughening mechanisms. To test these hypotheses, we conducted R-curve experiments on specimens fro...
Luck MM, Le Moyec L, Barrey E, Triba MN, Bouchemal N, Savarin P, Robert C.Long-term endurance exercise severely affects metabolism in both human and animal athletes resulting in serious risk of metabolic disorders during or after competition. Young horses (up to 6 years old) can compete in races up to 90 km despite limited scientific knowledge of energetic metabolism responses to long distance exercise in these animals. The hypothesis of this study was that there would be a strong effect of endurance exercise on the metabolomic profiles of young horses and that the energetic metabolism response in young horses would be different from that of more experienced horses....
Moraes CR, Runcan EE, Blawut B, Coutinho da Silva MA.The iSperm is a newly released semen analysis tool from Aidmics Biotechnology Co. LTD, which allows an iPad Mini to be transformed into a handheld microscope with objective semen analysis software for equine available through the Apple Store (version 4.5.2). The aim of this study was to compare iSperm values for sperm motility and sperm concentration to current acceptable methods for semen analysis and to determine the agreement with these methods using statistical methods. Two ejaculates from each of five Standardbred stallions were used to compare sperm motility (computer-assisted semen anal...
Votion DM, Linden A, Delguste C, Amory H, Thiry E, Engels P, van Galen G, Navet R, Sluse F, Serteyn D, Saegerman C.Over the last decade, atypical myopathy (AM) in grazing horses has emerged in several European countries. An exploratory analysis was conducted to determine horse- and pasture-level indicators or factors associated with AM in Belgium. Belgian cases of AM confirmed by histology (n=57) were compared to their healthy co-grazing horses (n=77) and to pastured horses not involved with AM as controls (n=386). The pastures where confirmed cases were grazing (42 pastures; 38 sites; 44 incidences of AM) were compared with those of the controls (216 pastures; 96 sites; no incidence of AM). Statistically ...
Hidalgo M, Rodríguez I, Dorado J, Soler C.This work used semen samples collected from 12 stallions and assessed for sperm morphometry by the Sperm Class Analyzer (SCA) computer-assisted system. A discriminant analysis was performed on the morphometric data from that sperm to obtain a classification matrix for sperm head shape. Thereafter, we defined six types of sperm head shape. Classification of sperm head by this method obtained a globally correct assignment of 90.1%. Moreover, significant differences (p<0.05) were found between animals for all the sperm head morphometric parameters assessed.
Vidyashankar AN, Kaplan RM, Chan S.Resistance to anthelmintics in gastrointestinal nematodes of livestock is a serious problem and appropriate methods are required to identify and quantify resistance. However, quantification and assessment of resistance depend on an accurate measure of treatment efficacy, and current methodologies fail to properly address the issue. The fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) is the practical gold standard for measuring anthelmintic efficacy on farms, but these types of data are fraught with high variability that greatly impacts the accuracy of inference on efficacy. This paper develops a statis...
Fabiani JV, Lyons ET, Nielsen MK.Parasite control in foals is of utmost importance due to the high susceptibility to parasitic infection and disease in this age group. Foals are commonly co-infected with strongyle and ascarid parasites, which complicate parasite control strategies. The present study retrospectively investigated necropsy records of foals born into a university herd kept without anthelmintic treatment since 1979. The aims were to statistically analyze the relationship between fecal egg counts, worm burdens, foal age, sex, and season with specific focus on Parascaris and Strongylus spp. A total of 83 foals born ...
Machová K, Daďová K, Chaloupková H, Svobodová I.Many studies have shown that having a dog has an impact on the increase in physical activity (PA) of people. However, what is often not taken into account in many such studies is owning of other pets. The aim of this study was to compare PA levels between animal owners and non-owners and to research potential differences between owners of different kinds of animals. Methods: 111 young females of mean age 21 ± 1.2 years enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Czech version of short International physical activity questionnaire (IPAQ) was used to assess PA level, supplemented with a quest...
Vidyashankar AN, Hanlon BM, Kaplan RM.Anthelmintic resistance (AR) is a serious problem for the control of equine gastrointestinal nematodes, particularly in the cyathostomins. The fecal egg count reduction test (FECRT) is the most common method for diagnosing AR and serves as the practical gold standard. However, accurate quantification of resistance and especially accurate diagnosis of emerging resistance to avermectin/milbemycin (A/M) drugs, is hampered by a lack of accepted standards for study design, data analysis, and data interpretation. In order to develop rational evidence-based standards for diagnosis of resistance, one ...
Dordas-Perpinyà M, Yanez-Ortiz I, Sergeant N, Mevel V, Bruyas JF, Catalán J, Delehedde M, Briand-Amirat L, Miró J.ProAKAP4 is the precursor of AKAP4 (A-kinase Anchor protein 4), the main structural protein of the fibrous sheath of sperm. The amount of proAKAP4 reflects the ability of spermatozoa to maintain the flagellum activity and functionality up to the site of fertilization and is positively correlated with progressive motility in several mammalian species. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between proAKAP4 concentration with horse sperm motility descriptors and spermatic motile subpopulations. For this purpose, a total of 48 ejaculates from 13 different stallions were analyze...
Dugdale AH, Obhrai J, Cripps PJ.To determine the mortality rates associated with equine anaesthesia for elective and emergency (colic and non-colic) cases in one equine, university teaching hospital and to investigate the effect of several horse- and anaesthetic-related variables on anaesthetic recovery quality. Methods: Retrospective data analysis. Unassigned: In total, 1416 horses undergoing anaesthesia between May 2010 and December 2013. Methods: Patient information and details of the anaesthetic, recovery period and immediate complications were extracted from an archiving database. Statistical evaluation of factors affec...
Visser EK, VanDierendonck M, Ellis AD, Rijksen C, Van Reenen CG.In 'sympathetic horsemanship' the importance of the natural behaviour of the horse and the use of body language in communication is emphasised. However, it is unclear what effect sympathetic horsemanship has on the welfare of horses. During a 5-week starting period the effect of a sympathetic (ST) versus a conventional (CT) training method was studied using 28 young Warmblood horses. Behavioural observations during the starting period as well as during a standardised final riding test were performed by trained observers. A Wilcoxon matched-pair test was used to detect differences within groups...
Ji Z, Zhang J, Deng C, Hu Z, Du Q, Guo T, Wang J, Fan R, Han R, Yang Y.Mare milk(MM)production is lower than that of cow milk (CM), making it a premium product. Unfortunately, sellers adulterate MM with cheap CM to unscrupulously gain more profits. This study aimed to analyze MM adulteration with CM using proteomics and metabolomics. Using univariate and multivariate statistical analysis, the relative abundances of certain proteins of caseins and secretoglobin family 1D member were found to be higher with a higher CM admixture percentage. In addition, several metabolites, such as orotic and 4-aminonicotinic acids, increased in the mare-cow milk mixture with an in...
