Veterinary research in horses encompasses the study of diseases, health management, and medical treatments specific to equine species. This field investigates various aspects of horse health, including infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, and musculoskeletal conditions. Researchers focus on understanding the pathophysiology of equine ailments, developing diagnostic tools, and evaluating therapeutic interventions. The study of horse health also involves examining preventive measures such as vaccination protocols and nutritional management to promote overall well-being. This page collects peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the diverse areas of veterinary science related to horses, providing insights into disease mechanisms, treatment strategies, and advancements in equine healthcare.
Lanata A, Guidi A, Valenza G, Baragli P, Scilingo EP.This study focuses on the analysis of human-horse dynamic interaction using cardiovascular information exclusively. Specifically, the Information Theoretic Learning (ITL) approach has been applied to a Human-Horse Interaction paradigm, therefore accounting for the nonlinear information of the heart-heart interplay between humans and horses. Heartbeat dynamics was gathered from humans and horses during three experimental conditions: absence of interaction, visual-olfactory interaction, and brooming. Cross Information Potential, Cross Correntropy, and Correntropy Coefficient were computed to qua...
Peachey LE, Pinchbeck GL, Matthews JB, Burden FA, Lespine A, von Samson-Himmelstjerna G, Krücken J, Hodgkinson JE.Anthelmintic resistance is a global problem that threatens sustainable control of the equine gastrointestinal cyathostomins (Phylum Nematoda; Superfamily Strongyloidea). Of the three novel anthelmintic classes that have reached the veterinary market in the last decade, none are currently licenced in horses, hence current control regimens focus on prolonging the useful lifespan of licenced anthelmintics. This approach would be facilitated by knowledge of the resistance mechanisms to the most widely used anthelmintics, the macrocyclic lactones (ML). There are no data regarding resistance mechani...
Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a zoonotic flaviviral infection that is a growing public health concern in European countries. The aims of this research were to detect and characterize tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) in Ixodes ricinus ticks at presumed natural foci in Serbia, and to determine seroprevalence of TBEV IgG antibodies in humans and animals. A total of 500 I. ricinus ticks were examined for the presence of TBEV by real-time RT-PCR, and conventional nested PCR and sequencing. To determine TBEV seroprevalence, 267 human sera samples were collected, as were 200 sera samples from ...
Di Salvo A, Giorgi M, Nannarone S, Lee HK, Corsalini J, Della Rocca G.NSAIDs are often used in horses with colic syndrome during the postoperative period, due to their ability to contrast endotoxemia and to promote an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect. As the pharmacokinetics of a drug are often modified in unhealthy animals compared to healthy subjects, the aim of this study was to evaluate the pharmacokinetic profile of meloxicam after i.v. administration in horses undergoing laparotomy for colic syndrome. Eight horses received 0.6 mg/kg of meloxicam i.v. towards the end of surgery. Blood samples were taken at scheduled time points during the following 2...
of surveillance testing, April to June 2017International disease occurrence in the second quarter of 2017These 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.
of surveillance testing, April to June 2017International disease occurrence in the second quarter of 2017These 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.
of surveillance testing, April to June 2017International disease occurrence in the second quarter of 2017These 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.
of surveillance testing, April to June 2017International disease occurrence in the second quarter of 2017These 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.
Miller FL, Bellaw JL, Lyons ET, Nielsen MK.Strongyloides westeri is a threadworm parasite found in the small intestine mainly in foals at up to about 4 months of age. This parasite is associated with small intestinal enteritis and diarrhea as well as skin irritation and a clinical syndrome called "frenzied behavior" due to percutaneous invasion. The aim of this study was to investigate S. westeri parasite burdens in age groups older than the initial lactogenic transmission phase. Secondary aims were to examine the impact of host age and gender on worm burden and egg output in naturally infected foals. Thirteen foals were enrolled in th...
Skaff NK, Armstrong PM, Andreadis TG, Cheruvelil KS.Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) is an expanding mosquito-borne threat to humans and domestic animal populations in the northeastern United States. Outbreaks of EEEV are challenging to predict due to spatial and temporal uncertainty in the abundance and viral infection of Cs. melanura, the principal enzootic vector. EEEV activity may be closely linked to wetlands because they provide essential habitat for mosquito vectors and avian reservoir hosts. However, wetlands are not homogeneous and can vary by vegetation, connectivity, size, and inundation patterns. Wetlands may also have diffe...
Larska M, Grochowska M, Lechowski L, Żmudziński JF.The aim of the study was to estimate and compare the distribution of Culicoides biting midges species at farms with different main hosts - cattle and horse. Culicoides spp. are known vectors of arboviruses including African horse sickness virus (AHSV), bluetongue virus (BTV) and Schmallenberg virus (SBV). The latter two have been already reported in Polish ruminants recently, while AHSV remains absent, however the risk of its emergence has been increasing in the recent years. In order to establish the activity of potential AHSV vector at vicinity of horses, an OVI midge trap has been placed at...
Lenoir A, Trachsel DS, Younes M, Barrey E, Robert C.Analysis of the heart rate variability (HRV) gains more and more importance in the assessment of training practice and welfare in equine industry. It relies on mathematical analyses of reliably and accurately measured variations in successive inter-beat intervals, measured as RR intervals. Nowadays, the RR intervals can be obtained through two different techniques: a heart rate meter (HRM) or an electrocardiogram (ECG). The agreement and reliability of these devices has not been fully assessed, especially for recordings during exercise. The purpose of this study was to assess the agreement of ...
Ruiz M, Sarriés MV, Beriain MJ, Crecente S, Domínguez R, Lorenzo JM.In order to improve foal carcass quality, it is necessary in particular to improve the carcass dressing percentage and tissue composition. Thus, it is important to establish relationships between grading systems and these parameters. This research was conducted to study the effect of slaughter age (13 v. 26 months) and finishing feed (standard v. linseed feed) on carcass characteristics such as subcutaneous fat colour plus classification of foals for the degree of fatness and conformation. For this study, 46 foals of crossbred genotype (Galician Mountain×Burguete) were used. Finishing feed di...
Bellaw JL, Krebs K, Reinemeyer CR, Norris JK, Scare JA, Pagano S, Nielsen MK.Cyathostomins are ubiquitous in grazing horses across the world, and anthelmintic resistance has been reported with increasing levels over past decades. The aims of the present study were (i) to investigate the efficacy against encysted larval stages of moxidectin (0.4 mg/kg) and fenbendazole (10 mg/kg daily for five consecutive days) and compare these regimens at 2 and 5 weeks post-treatment, (ii) to investigate individual cyathostomin species associated with shortened egg reappearance periods, and (iii) to document species exhibiting decreased susceptibility to the evaluated compounds....
Weatherman S, Feldmann H, de Wit E.The genus Henipavirus has expanded rapidly in geographic range, number of species, and host range. Hendra and Nipah virus are two henipaviruses known to cause severe disease in humans with a high case-fatality rate. Pteropid spp. bats are the natural reservoir of Hendra and Nipah virus. From these bats, virus can be transmitted to an amplifying host, horses and pigs, and from these hosts to humans, or the virus can be transmitted directly to humans. Although the main route of shedding varies between host species, close contact is required for transmission in all hosts. Understanding the transm...
Rivera-Páez FA, Labruna MB, Martins TF, Perez JE, Castaño-Villa GJ, Ossa-López PA, Gil CA, Sampieri BR, Aricapa-Giraldo HJ, Camargo-Mathias MI.The known tick fauna of Colombia includes 58 species (15 Argasidae and 43 Ixodidae). To add to the knowledge of the biology of ticks in Colombia, hard ticks (Ixodidae) were collected from domestic animals or vegetation during 2014-2016 in 10 of Colombia's Departments. Ticks were identified to species through morphological examinations. Taxonomic identification was confirmed for some specimens by molecular methods, including phylogenetic analyses inferred from three tick genes (cytochrome c oxidase, 16S rDNA, second internal transcribed spacer). A total of 1745 tick specimens encompassing 8 spe...
Pereira RCDF, De La Côrte FD, Brass KE, da Silva Azevedo M, Gallio M, Cantarelli C, Dau SL, Cezar AS, Inkelmann MA.Wounds localized on the distal limbs in horses are difficulty healing. No studies have been conducted to evaluate homologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in horses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect upon applying autologous PRP, homologous PRP, and autologous PRP gel on the wound healing process of wounds on the distal limb of horses. To study a possible correlation between the platelet count and wound healing time, four skin wounds of 4 cm2 were surgically created on the dorsolateral aspect of the third metacarpus in eight healthy adult horses. Each skin wound was randomly treate...
Rosanowski SM, Chang YM, Stirk AJ, Verheyen KLP.The incidence of race-day injuries in Great Britain (GB) is higher on all-weather (AW) surfaces than on turf. However, to date no studies have focused on identifying risk factors for injury specific to AW racing. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to determine risk factors for fatality, distal limb fracture (DLF) and episodes of epistaxis in flat racing Thoroughbreds racing on AW surfaces in GB. Data included all flat racing starts on AW surfaces (n=258,193) and race-day veterinary events recorded between 2000 and 2013. Information on additional course-level variables was gather...
Favaro PF, Fernandes WR, Reischak D, Brandão PE, Silva SOS, Richtzenhain LJ.Equine influenza is one of the major respiratory infectious diseases in horses. An equine influenza virus outbreak was identified in vaccinated and unvaccinated horses in a veterinary school hospital in São Paulo, SP, Brazil, in September 2015. The twelve equine influenza viruses isolated belonged to Florida Clade 1. The hemagglutinin and neuraminidase amino acid sequences were compared with the recent isolates from North and South America and the World Organisation for Animal Health recommended Florida Clade 1 vaccine strain. The hemagglutinin amino acid sequences had nine substitutions, com...
Smith AV, Wilson C, McComb K, Proops L.Signals of dominance and submissiveness are central to conspecific communication in many species. For domestic animals, sensitivities to these signals in humans may also be beneficial. We presented domestic horses with a free choice between two unfamiliar humans, one adopting a submissive and the other a dominant body posture, with vocal and facial cues absent. Horses had previously been given food rewards by both human demonstrators, adopting neutral postures, to encourage approach behaviour. Across four counterbalanced test trials, horses showed a significant preference for approaching the s...
Thu VT, Kim HK, Han J.Numerous animal cardiac exercise models using animal subjects have been established to uncover the cardiovascular physiological mechanism of exercise or to determine the effects of exercise on cardiovascular health and disease. In most cases, animal-based cardiovascular exercise modalities include treadmill running, swimming, and voluntary wheel running with a series of intensities, times, and durations. Those used animals include small rodents (e.g., mice and rats) and large animals (e.g., rabbits, dogs, goats, sheep, pigs, and horses). Depending on the research goal, each experimental protoc...
Chipangura JK, Chetty T, Kgoete M, Naidoo V.The continuous increase in prevalence of antimicrobial resistant bacteria presents a significant public health problem and is an indicator that antimicrobial prudent usage guidelines are not being followed, especially in developing countries. Despite trends being available from numerous countries, there is little published for South Africa. This study was aimed at estimating the prevalence and trends of antimicrobial resistance from bacterial isolates from equine clinical samples submitted for culture and susceptibility testing to the veterinary bacteriology laboratory of the University of Pre...
Scare JA, Slusarewicz P, Noel ML, Wielgus KM, Nielsen MK.Fecal egg counts are emphasized for guiding equine helminth parasite control regimens due to the rise of anthelmintic resistance. This, however, poses further challenges, since egg counting results are prone to issues such as operator dependency, method variability, equipment requirements, and time commitment. The use of image analysis software for performing fecal egg counts is promoted in recent studies to reduce the operator dependency associated with manual counts. In an attempt to remove operator dependency associated with current methods, we developed a diagnostic system that utilizes a ...
Angelone M, Conti V, Biacca C, Battaglia B, Pecorari L, Piana F, Gnudi G, Leonardi F, Ramoni R, Basini G, Dotti S, Renzi S, Ferrari M, Grolli S.Laminitis, a highly debilitating disease of the foot in ungulates, is characterized by pathological changes of the complex lamellar structures that maintain the appendicular skeleton within the hoof. Laminitis is a multifactorial disease that involves perturbation of the vascular, hematological, and inflammatory homeostasis of the foot. Interestingly, the pathogenesis of the disease resembles what is observed in metabolic syndromes and sepsis-induced organ failure in humans and animals. We hypothesized that local administration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) mi...
Jäderkvist Fegraeus K, Hirschberg I, Árnason T, Andersson L, Velie BD, Andersson LS, Lindgren G.The Icelandic horse is a breed known mainly for its ability to perform the ambling four-beat gait 'tölt' and the lateral two-beat gait pace. The natural ability of the breed to perform these alternative gaits is highly desired by breeders. Therefore, the discovery that a nonsense mutation (C>A) in the DMRT3 gene was the main genetic factor for horses' ability to perform gaits in addition to walk, trot and canter was of great interest. Although several studies have demonstrated that homozygosity for the DMRT3 mutation is important for the ability to pace, only about 70% of the homozygous mutan...
Sharav T, Konnai S, Ochirkhuu N, Ts EO, Mekata H, Sakoda Y, Umemura T, Murata S, Chultemdorj T, Ohashi K.The genetic characterization and actual prevalence of EIAV in Mongolian horse in the disease endemic region is currently unknown. Here, 11 of 776 horse serum samples from four Mongolian provinces tested positive on agar gel immunodiffusion test. Genomic DNA extracted from all seropositive samples was subjected to nested PCR assay. Among these, three samples tested positive with nested PCR assay and were identified by sequencing analysis based on long termination repeat and tat gene of the virus. Two of the three sequences were identical, with 94.0% identity with the third. These two independen...
Davies MR.Despite tight biosecurity measures, an outbreak of respiratory disease rapidly spread across the Icelandic equine population in 2010. Horse transportation was brought to a halt in order to contain the spread of the infectious agent. In a recent article, Björnsdóttir and colleagues (S. Björnsdóttir et al., mBio 8:e00826-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00826-17) employ the power and resolution of "genomic epidemiology," the combination of whole genomic sequencing and epidemiological approaches, to examine the source and spread of the outbreak. Intriguingly, the outbreak was not viral ...
Garrett D, Montesso F, Fougerolle S, Lopez-Alvarez MR, Birand I, De Bock M, Huang CM, Legrand L, Pronost S, Paillot R.Equine Influenza (EI) is an important respiratory disease of horses caused by H3N8 equine influenza viruses (EIV). Vaccination is a key strategy to prevent or control this disease. However, EIV undergoes continuous antigenic drift and whilst numerous EI vaccines are commercially available worldwide, an accurate evaluation of their efficacy is frequently required through clinical trials conducted in the natural host. Room nebulisation is one of the chosen methods to challenge horses during EI vaccine studies. A potential decreased pathogenicity observed with recent Florida Clade 2 (FC2) EIV iso...
Lloyd S, Soulsby EJ.This survey was performed to study the prevalence of infection with Onchocerca cervicalis in horses in the eastern United States. In the course of the survey, 121 horses, 1 mule and 1 donkey were examined. Microfilariae were recovered from 74 (61%) of the horses examined. All infected horses showed microfilariae of O cervicalis in the umbilical sample, 62 (84%) were infected in the eyelid and, in 36 (49%), microfilariae had invaded the eye. The mule was unifected and the donkey was infected with O cervicalis.
Cozzi MC, Strillacci MG, Valiati P, Rogliano E, Bagnato A, Longeri M.The Akhal-Teke horse (AKH) is native of the modern Turkmenistan area. It was introduced in Italy from 1991 to 2000 mainly as an endurance horse. This paper characterizes the genetic variability of the whole Italian AKH horse population and evaluates their inbreeding level by analyzing microsatellite markers and mitochondrial D-Loop sequences. Methods: Seventeen microsatellite marker loci were genotyped on 95 DNA samples from almost all the AKH horses bred in Italy in the last 20 years. Standard genetic variability measures (Ho, He, FIS) were compared against the same variables published on oth...
Mitchell S, Bull M, Muscatello G, Chapman B, Coleman NV.Antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens is a growing problem for both human and veterinary medicine. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids, transposons, and integrons enable the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) among bacteria, and the overuse of antibiotics drives this process by providing the selection pressure for resistance genes to establish and persist in bacterial populations. Because bacteria, MGEs, and resistance genes can readily spread between different ecological compartments (e.g. soil, plants, animals, humans, wastewater), a "One Health" approach is need...
Christie JL, Hewson CJ, Riley CB, Mcniven MA, Dohoo IR, Bate LA.There are no detailed, representative, horse-level data about equine management practices in different parts of Canada. To help address this, the demographics, management, and welfare of 312 nonracing horses in Prince Edward Island were examined in a randomized, horse-level survey during summer 2002. Owners completed a pretested questionnaire, and a veterinarian examined each horse. Owners were experienced caregivers and the horses were generally in good condition. Areas for improvement included parasite control, dental and hoof care, and tail docking. The mean fecal egg count was 428 eggs per...
Villalobos EM, Furman KE, Lara Mdo C, Cunha EM, Finger MA, Busch AP, de Barros Filho IR, Deconto I, Dornbusch PT, Biondo AW.Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite which affects dogs as definitive hosts and several mammalian species as intermediate hosts mainly causing abortions and central nervous system disorders. The reemerging population of cart horses for carrying recycling material in urban areas of major cities in Brazil may have an impact on disease spreading, and these animals may be used as sentinels for environmental surveillance. Thus, the present study investigated the frequency of Neospora sp. antibodies in cart horses from Curitiba and surrounding areas, Paraná State, Southern Brazil. IgG antibodie...
Hue ES, Fortier CI, Laurent AM, Quesnelle YF, Fortier GD, Legrand LJ, Pronost SL.The protocol describes a quantitative RT-PCR method for the detection and quantification of EHV-2 in equine respiratory fluids according to the NF U47-600 norm. After the development and first validation step, two distinct characterization steps were performed according to the AFNOR norm: (a) characterization of the qRT-PCR assay alone and (b) characterization of the whole analytical method. The validation of the whole analytical method included the portrayal of all steps between the extraction of nucleic acids and the final PCR analysis. Validation of the whole method is very important for vi...
Mitchell CW, Nykamp SG, Foster R, Cruz R, Montieth G.To determine the accuracy of magnetic resonance imaging for diagnosing cervical stenotic myelopathy in horses, 39 horses with spinal ataxia and 20 control horses underwent clinical and neurologic examinations, cervical radiographs, euthanasia, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the cervical spine and necropsy. Twenty-four horses were diagnosed with cervical stenotic myelopathy, 5 with cervical vertebral stenosis, 7 with idiopathic ataxia, 3 horses had other causes of ataxia, and 20 were controls. The MR images were assessed for spinal cord intensity changes, presence of spinal cord compression...
Nollet H, Vanschandevijl K, Van Ham L, Vanderstraeten G, Deprez P.Transcranial magnetic stimulation and measurement of the magnetic motor-evoked potentials (MMEPs) in the thoracic and pelvic limbs of four recumbent horses and one recumbent donkey were used to assess the integrity of the descending motor pathways, in order to confirm or exclude a descending motor tract lesion as the cause of the recumbency. In two of the animals abnormal MMEPs were recorded; in one of the horses a lesion along the cervical spinal cord due to a fracture of the fifth cervical vertebra was diagnosed and confirmed by radiography and postmortem examination; in another horse, damag...
Kon H, Tohei A, Hokao R, Shinoda M.The estrous cycle influence on the number of ovulated eggs after injection of pregnant mare serum gonadotropin (PMSG) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was investigated in 12, 18, and 24 weeks old adult female Wistar-Imamichi (WI) rats. PMSG (150 IU/kg) was injected at metestrus, diestrus, proestrus, or estrus, followed by hCG (75 IU/kg) 55 h later. Ovulation was induced at all ages and stages of the estrous cycle. The number of ovulated eggs was not affected by stage for similarly aged rats, however, the number of ovulated eggs obtained after treatment decreased with age. These results d...
Willingham-Lane JM, Coulson GB, Hondalus MK.Rhodococcus equi is a facultative intracellular bacterium of macrophages and is an important pathogen of animals and immunocompromised people wherein disease results in abcessation of the lungs and other sites. Prior work has shown that the presence of the major virulence determinant, VapA, encoded on the pVAPA-type plasmid, disrupts normal phagosome development and is essential for bacterial replication within macrophages. pVAPA- type plasmids are typical of R. equi strains derived from foals while strains from pigs carry plasmids of the pVAPB-type, lacking vapA, and those from humans harbor ...
Mendoza L, Marin G.Antigens and rabbit-antisera from holotypes of Pythium insidiosum and P. destruens were prepared to elucidate their antigenic relationship. The antigens and rabbit-antisera of P. insidiosum as well as P. destruens used as a reference system showed that both shared three precipitin bands in common. The antigen and rabbit-antisera of P. destruens and P. insidiosum used as a reference system against other strains isolated from humans and animals with pythiosis, also showed three precipitin bands in common. When we used sera taken from horses with proven pythiosis against antigens of P. insidiosum...
Nielsen MK, Scare J, Gravatte HS, Bellaw JL, Prado JC, Reinemeyer CR.Strongylus vulgaris is the most pathogenic nematode parasite of horses. Its extensive migration in the mesenteric blood vessels can lead to life-threatening intestinal infarctions. Recent work has shown that this parasite is still identified among managed horse populations. A serum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been developed for the detection of migrating larvae of S. vulgaris. Previous work has documented an increase in ELISA values following larvicidal treatment with ivermectin and suggested that the target parasite antigen is primarily produced by the later larval stages. T...
Erber M, Geisel O.The prevalence of Sarcocystis spp. in horses was investigated in a survey at the Munich abattoir during 1978/79. Muscle specimens (oesophagus, diaphragm, sublingual muscle, myocardium) were examined using tryptic digestion. Out of 200 horses 31 (15.5%) were found to be carriers of sarcocysts. No parasites were found in the myocardium. In three animals sarcocysts could be isolated and differentiated in fresh preparations. Cysts with 5 to 11 microns by less than 0.5 microns hairlike, unstable protrusions were classified as Sarcocystis equicanis, whereas those with 2.5 to 4.5 microns by 0.8 to 1....
MacDonald AA, Fowden AL, Silver M, Ousey J, Rossdale PD.Hearts from 24 foals were studied; 10 were from foetuses ranging in gestational age from 230 to 322 days and 14 were from newborn and young foals aged between birth and 17 days. The foramen ovale and associated vena caval and atrial structures were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Additional observations were made by light and transmission electron microscopy. A tube-like flap of tissue was observed, extending from the aperture in the caudal vena cava to the lumen of the left atrium. In the younger foetuses, the distal end of this tube was covered with a thread-like network of tissue....
Durham AE, Smitht KC, Newton JR, Hillyer MH, Hillyer LL, Smith MR, Marr CM.The study was designed to investigate the prognostic value of liver biopsy during investigation of cases of suspected liver disease in mature horses. Objective: That liver biopsy is the most prognostically useful technique in common usage in the investigation of suspected liver disease. Methods: This study examined the prognostic value of liver biopsy during the investigation of suspected liver disease in 73 mature horses. Histopathological variables comprising fibrosis, irreversible cytopathology, inflammatory infiltration, haemosiderin accumulation and biliary hyperplasia were found to be si...
Birks EK, Durando MM, McBride S.EIPH is a condition affecting virtually all horses during intense exercise worldwide. The hemorrhage originates from the pulmonary vasculature and is distributed predominantly bilaterally in the dorsocaudal lung lobes. As the condition progresses, the lung abnormalities extend cranially along the dorsal portions of the lung. An inflammatory response occurs in association with the hemorrhage and may contribute to the chronic sequela. Although conflicting opinions exist as to its affect on performance, it is a syndrome that is thought to increase in severity with age. The most commonly performed...
Angel-Velez D, De Coster T, Azari-Dolatabad N, Fernandez-Montoro A, Benedetti C, Bogado Pascottini O, Woelders H, Van Soom A, Smits K.Equine oocyte vitrification would benefit the growing in vitro embryo production programs, but further optimization of the protocol is necessary to reach clinical efficiency. Therefore, we aimed to perform a direct comparison of non-permeating and permeating cryoprotective agents (CPAs) during the vitrification and warming of equine immature oocytes. In the first experiment, cumulus oocytes complexes (COCs) were vitrified comparing sucrose, trehalose, and galactose in combination with ethylene glycol (EG) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). In the second experiment, the COCs were vitrified using th...
Kheder MH, Sillence MN, Bryant LM, de Laat MA.Metabolic disease is a significant problem that causes a range of species-specific comorbidities. Recently, a better understanding of glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) biology has led to the suggestion that inhibiting its action may attenuate obesity in several species. In horses, antagonism of GIP may also reduce hyperinsulinemia, which leads to insulin-associated laminitis, a painful comorbidity unique to this species. However, little is known about GIP in horses. The aims of this study were to examine the tissue distribution of equine GIP receptors (eGIPR), to determine whe...
Duesterdieck-Zellmer KF, Driscoll N, Ott JF.To determine concentration-dependent effects of tiludronate on cartilage explants incubated with or without recombinant equine interleukin-1β (rEq IL-1). Methods: Articular cartilage explants from the femorotibial joints of 3 young adult horses. Methods: Cartilage explants were incubated with 1 of 6 concentrations (0, 0.19, 1.9, 19, 190, or 1,900 mg/L) of tiludronate and with or without rEq IL-1 (0.01 ng/mL) for 96 hours. Prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) concentrations in culture medium and explant digests were analyzed via PGE(2) enzyme immunoassay. Sulfated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) concentration...
Alexander K, Dobson H.A study of the ultrasonographic appearance and size of the sciatic, tibial, peroneal, suprascapular, radial, median, and ulnar nerves and a comparison with the anatomic size and location of these nerves in the normal adult horse is reported. Cadavers and live horses were studied. Landmarks for localization and techniques for nerve identification are described. The depth and diameter of each nerve at various locations and the success rate in imaging each nerve are reported. Statistically significant correlations were found between anatomically and ultrasonographically measured nerve depths and ...
Boulanger P, Bannister GL, Carrier SP.An agar-gel immunodiffusion test recommended for the diagnosis of equine infectious anemia was evaluated. Our preliminary observations confirmed those of Coggins concerning the mechanism of the test and the results obtained. Furthermore, emphasis was put on the difficulties encountered in the production of spleen antigens with an optimum amount of reactivity. Acetone-ether extraction procedures for the preparation of a liquid antigen extract are described. This type of antigen was reactive in the complement-fixation test in 1:8 or greater dilution and it is proposed to use the complement-fixat...
Fedorka CE, Scoggin KE, El-Sheikh Ali H, Loux SC, Dini P, Troedsson MHT, Ball BA.Ascending placentitis is the leading cause of abortion in the horse. Interleukin (IL)-6 is considered predictive of placental infection in other species, but little is understood regarding its role in the pathophysiology of ascending placentitis. Sub-acute ascending placentitis was induced via trans-cervical inoculation of S zooepidemicus, and various fluids/serum/tissues collected 8 days later. Concentrations of IL-6 were detected within fetal fluids and serum in inoculated (n = 6) and control (n = 6) mares. RNASeq was performed on the placenta (endometrium and chorioallantois) to asses...
Olsen E, Pfau T, Ritz C.Over ground motion analysis in horses is limited by a small number of strides and restraints of the indoor gait laboratory. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) are transforming the knowledge of human motion and objective clinical assessment through the opportunity to obtain clinically relevant data under various conditions. When using IMUs on the limbs of horses to determine local position estimates, conditions with high dynamic range of both accelerations and rotational velocities prove particularly challenging. Here we apply traditional method agreement and suggest a novel method of functional...
Jandova V, Klukowska-Rötzler J, Dolf G, Janda J, Roosje P, Marti E, Koch C, Gerber V, Swinburne J.Despite the evidence for a genetic predisposition to develop equine sarcoids (ES), no whole genome scan for ES has been performed to date. The objective of this explorative study was to identify chromosome regions associated with ES. The studied population was comprised of two half-sibling sire families, involving a total of 222 horses. Twenty-six of these horses were affected with ES. All horses had been previously genotyped with 315 microsatellite markers. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) signals were suggested where the F statistic exceeded chromosome-wide significance at P < 0.05. The QTL...
Pennington MR, Curtis TM, Divers TJ, Wagner B, Ness SL, Tennant BC, Van de Walle GR.Adult equine hepatocytes have proven challenging to culture long term in vitro as they rapidly lose their morphology and functionality, thus limiting studies on liver function and response to disease. In this study, we describe for the first time the differentiation of equine mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) from a variety of sources into functional hepatocyte-like cells (HLC). First, we differentiated equine umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived MSC into HLC and found that these cells exhibited a distinct polygonal morphology, stored glycogen as visualized by periodic acid Schiff's reagent staini...
Laval K, Van Cleemput J, Poelaert KC, Brown IK, Nauwynck HJ.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is responsible for respiratory disorders, abortion and myeloencephalopathy (EHM) in horses. Two pathotypes of EHV-1 strains are circulating in the field: neurovirulent (N) and non-neurovirulent (NN). For both strains, CD172a monocytic cells are one of the main carrier cells of EHV-1 during primary infection, allowing the virus to invade the horse's body. Recently, we showed that EHV-1 NN strains showed a restricted and delayed replication in CD172a cells. Here we characterize the in vitro replication kinetics of two EHV-1N strains in CD172a cells and investiga...
Williams ZJ, Velez-Irizarry D, Petersen JL, Ochala J, Finno CJ, Valberg SJ.Myofibrillar myopathy (MFM) of unknown aetiology has recently been identified in Warmblood (WB) horses. In humans, 16 genes have been implicated in various MFM-like disorders. Objective: To identify variants in 16 MFM candidate genes and compare allele frequencies of all variants between MFM WB and non-MFM WB and coding variants with moderate or severe predicted effects in MFM WB with publicly available data of other breeds. To compare differential gene expression and muscle fibre contractile force between MFM and non-MFM WB. Methods: Case-control. Methods: 8 MFM WB, 8 non-MFM WB, 33 other WB,...
Soma LR, Uboh CE, Luo Y, Guan F, Moate PJ, Boston RC.A compartmental model was used to describe the pharmacokinetics of dexamethasone (DXM) and changes in the plasma concentration of endogenous cortisone (COR) and hydrocortisone (HYD) following intravenous (i.v.) administration of DXM (0.05 mg/kg) in horses. Quantification of DXM, COR and HYD in equine plasma was achieved using liquid chromatography interfaced with triple spray quadrupole quantum tandem mass spectrometry (LC/TSQ-MS/MS). The median alpha (t(1/2alpha)), beta (t(1/2beta)), and gamma (t(1/2gamma)) half-lives were 0.33, 2.2, and 10.7 h respectively. The area under the DXM plasma conc...
Day P, Collins L, Horan K, Weller R, Pfau T.Tungsten road nails are commonly used by farriers to increase grip between the hoof and the ground surface. There is limited evidence relating the use of road nails to the fundamental mechanics of movement. Grip is important for efficient deceleration on landing and subsequent propulsion, but this must be balanced against an amount of slip to divide the landing force into horizontal as well as vertical subcomponents. Here, we conducted an intervention study to quantify the effect of lateral heel road nail placement on weight bearing and propulsion in 10 horses trotting on tarmac. Wireless iner...
