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Topic:Veterinary Research
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.
In vitro biomechanical comparison of equine proximal interphalangeal joint arthrodesis techniques: prototype equine spoon plate versus axially positioned dynamic compression plate and two abaxial transarticular cortical screws inserted in lag fashion. To compare in vitro monotonic biomechanical properties of an equine spoon plate (ESP) with an axial 3-hole, 4.5 mm narrow dynamic compression plate (DCP) using 5.5 mm cortical screws in conjunction with 2 abaxial transarticular 5.5 mm cortical screws (DCP-TLS) inserted in lag fashion for equine proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint arthrodesis. Methods: Paired in vitro biomechanical testing of 2 methods of stabilizing cadaveric adult equine forelimb PIP joints. Methods: Cadaveric adult equine forelimbs (n=18 pairs). Methods: For each forelimb pair, 1 PIP joint was stabilized with an ESP (8 hole...
Congenital anomalies of the equine urinary tract. Congenital anomalies of the urinary tract in horses may be difficult to diagnose and treat. Presenting complaints are variable and include weight loss, depression, dysuria, hematuria, and mild colic. Although the most severe abnormalities are diagnosed in the neonate, some diseases, such as ectopic ureter(s), may be identified in older horses. In human medicine, the fetus is examined in the prenatal period for evidence of urinary tract dysfunction, but this is not yet common practice in equine medicine. As a result, urinary tract anomalies are diagnosed after birth using a wide variety of diag...
Equine renal tubular disorders. Renal tubular disorders have been sporadically reported in horses. Only three types of tubular defects have been recognized: (1) nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, attributable to unresponsiveness of the renal tubules to antidiuretic hormone; (2) distal renal tubular acidosis (RTA; type I); and (3) proximal RTA (type II). The following review focuses on RTA and nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.
Polyuria and polydipsia in horses. Polyuria and polydipsia provide a diagnostic challenge for the equine clinician. This article describes the various known causes of polyuria and polydipsia in horses and provides a description of a systematic diagnostic approach for assessing horses with polyuria and polydipsia to delineate the underlying cause. Treatment and management strategies for addressing polyuria and polydipsia in horses are also described.
Toxins affecting the urinary system. Many different substances can induce toxic damage to various structural components of the equine kidney, and most lack pathognomonic signs. Some of these agents have specific treatments, although many do not. Supportive and symptomatic therapy is an important aspect of treatment of most cases of equine nephrotoxicosis. Regardless of cause, if the toxic substance is removed or neutralized before significant renal damage, full recovery of renal function may occur. Many horses already have significant renal damage before a definitive diagnosis is made, and the prognosis for full recovery thus rem...
Chronic renal failure in horses. Chronic renal failure is a syndrome of progressive loss of renal function that results in loss of urinary concentrating ability, retention of nitrogenous and other metabolic end products, alterations in electrolyte and acid-base status, and dysfunction of several hormone systems. This article describes the prevalence, causes, clinical signs, diagnostic evaluation, and management of horses afflicted with chronic renal failure. It is hoped that this article illustrates that chronic renal failure, when detected in the earlier stages of disease, can be managed successfully in the short-term allowi...
Phosphodiesterase isoenzymes in equine platelets and their influence on platelet adhesion. To determine the phosphodiesterase (PDE) isoenzymes in equine platelets and evaluate their influence on platelet adhesion. Methods: Platelets obtained from healthy New Forest Pony geldings that ranged from 12 to 20 years of age (mean +/- SEM, 17.3 +/- 1.1 years). Methods: PDE isoenzyme activity in equine platelets was determined by use of a 2-step radioactive assay. Functional importance of PDE isoenzymes was established by use of selective inhibitors in a colorimetric adhesion assay. Results: PDE1, PDE2, PDE3, and PDE5 and small amounts of PDE4 were found in equine platelets. Inhibition of PD...
Essentials of equine renal and urinary tract physiology. Knowledge of urinary tract anatomy and the numerous functions of the kidney in regulating fluids, electrolytes, acid-base balance, and waste products improves the ability of the clinician to diagnose, treat, and make appropriate recommendations for the management of the horse with renal disease. Several conditions can directly or indirectly affect renal function on a temporary or permanent basis. Endogenous and exogenous compounds (eg, drugs, toxins, hemoglobin) alone or in combination with inappropriate renal blood flow can promote or exacerbate renal disease.
Hematuria and pigmenturia of horses. Hematuria and pigmenturia of horses are discussed in this article. Equine urine is normally straw colored. Discolored urine can be caused by contamination with red blood cells, hemoglobin, myoglobin, oxidizing agents normally found in urine, and plant-derived pigments.
Construction of a recombinant plasmid as reaction control in routine PCR for detection of contagious equine metritis (CEM-PCR). Contagious equine metritis (CEM) is a highly contagious bacterial venereal disease of horses caused by Taylorella equigenitalis. CEM-PCR is a semi-nested PCR method for detecting this bacterium. Although this technique is regarded as a sensitive diagnostic method for CEM, there are risks of it generating false positive and false negative results. In this study, we constructed a recombinant plasmid (CEM-POS) as reaction control to assure adequate PCR reaction and prevent false positive results caused by contamination of the reaction control in routine CEM-PCR examinations. CEM-POS was construct...
Factors associated with West Nile virus disease fatalities in horses. In 2003, the occurrence and location of horses with clinical signs of West Nile virus infection were identified in the southern portion of Saskatchewan with the help of veterinarians, owners, and the regional laboratory. A total of 133 clinical cases were reported between July 30 and September 19, 2003; however, postseason surveillance suggests that the number of cases was underestimated. The case fatality rate was 43.8% (95% CI 35.2, 52.4). Factors associated with fatality in clinical cases included sex, week of onset of clinical signs, and coat color. Reported clinical cases clustered within...
Equine urolithiasis. The prevalence of equine urolithiasis has been estimated to be low. In horses with clinical signs of urolithiasis, uroliths are most commonly encountered in the urinary bladder, but it is not uncommon to detect uroliths in more than one location. The most common clinical signs for cystic calculi are urine scalding of the hind limbs, hematuria, tenesmus and dysuria. Numerous surgical techniques and approaches have been described for the treatment of urolithiasis in horses; however, independent of which approach is chosen, the goal should be to remove all calculi completely from the urinary trac...
Epidemiologic characteristics of catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses. To determine characteristics, incidence rate, and possible associations with selected demographic characteristics of catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries (CMIs) in Thoroughbred racehorses. Methods: 76 Thoroughbreds with CMIs. Methods: Incidence rates of CMIs during racing or training were calculated with number of CMIs as the numerator and overall numbers of races or training events during 2004 and 2005 as the denominators. Exact 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Associations between incidence and dichotomous exposure factors, nominal factors, and ordinal factors were determined. Only...
Effects of in vitro exposure to hay dust on expression of interleukin-17, -23, -8, and -1beta and chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 2 by pulmonary mononuclear cells isolated from horses chronically affected with recurrent airway disease. To examine effects of in vitro exposure to solutions of hay dust, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or beta-glucan on cytokine expression in pulmonary mononuclear cells isolated from healthy horses and horses with recurrent airway obstruction (RAO). Methods: 8 RAO-affected and 7 control horses (experiment 1) and 6 of the RAO-affected and 5 of the control horses (experiment 2). Methods: Bronchoalveolar lavage cells were isolated from horses that had been stabled and fed dusty hay for 14 days. Pulmonary mononuclear cells were incubated for 24 (experiment 1) or 6 (experiment 2) hours with PBS solution or...
The horse genome project–sequence based insights into male reproductive mechanisms. The growing knowledge on physiology, cell biology and biochemistry of the reproductive organs has provided many insights into molecular mechanisms that are required for successful reproduction. Research directed at the investigation of reproduction physiology in domestic animals was hampered in the past by a lack of species-specific genomic information. The genome sequences of dog, cattle and horse have become publicly available in 2005, 2006 and 2007 respectively. Although the gene content of mammalian genomes is generally very similar, genes involved in reproduction tend to be less conserved...
Equine coronavirus induces apoptosis in cultured cells. Equine coronavirus (ECoV) was first isolated from a diarrheic foal and was found genetically similar to group II coronaviruses. However, its pathological characteristics were not adequately investigated. In our preliminary in vitro investigation, ECoV-induced cell death was observed in bovine kidney-derived MDBK cells. Based on this finding, we investigated whether the ECoV-induced CPE was apoptosis. Following ECoV infection, MDBK cells showed morphological changes such as cell rounding and detachment from the culture surface. Moreover, syncytium formation was observed as the other type of cyt...
Equine infectious anemia virus entry occurs through clathrin-mediated endocytosis. Entry of wild-type lentivirus equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) into cells requires a low-pH step. This low-pH constraint implicates endocytosis in EIAV entry. To identify the endocytic pathway involved in EIAV entry, we examined the entry requirements for EIAV into two different cells: equine dermal (ED) cells and primary equine endothelial cells. We investigated the entry mechanism of several strains of EIAV and found that both macrophage-tropic and tissue culture-adapted strains utilize clathrin-coated pits for entry. In contrast, a superinfecting strain of EIAV, EIAV(vMA-1c), utilizes ...
Modeling trophoblast differentiation using equine chorionic girdle vesicles. The chorionic girdle of the equine conceptus is comprised of specialized trophoblast cells which, at day 36-38 of equine pregnancy, gain an invasive phenotype and invade the endometrium to form endometrial cups. Studies of equine endometrial cups remain difficult to perform because of the invasive techniques required to obtain cup tissue and because sampling requires termination of the pregnancy. In this study we developed a system to model trophoblast differentiation and trophoblast-immune interactions in vitro and in vivo. We utilized a method of culturing chorionic girdle pieces in serum-fr...
Transverse and dorso-ventral changes in thoracic dimension during equine locomotion. Changes in shape of the equine thorax during locomotion are not well defined, although it has been shown recently that the transverse hemi-diameter changes its dimension by up to 80mm on the side of the trailing forelimb during gallop, despite minimal change in thoracic circumference. The aim of this project was to analyse transverse and dorso-ventral changes in shape of the thorax simultaneously, and to determine if leading limb, treadmill slope and speed have an effect on these shape changes. Reflective markers were placed on the horse's hemi-thorax and movement of the markers was recorded u...
Changes in gas composition and acid-base values of venous blood samples stored under different conditions in 4 domestic species. The effect of storage temperature and time on blood gas and acid-base values has been investigated intensively in cattle and dogs; however, data are lacking in other species. Objective: The aim of our study was to evaluate changes in gas composition and acid-base values in venous blood stored at different temperatures and for different times in 4 domestic species in Italy. Methods: Blood samples from Comisana sheep (n = 10), Maltese goats (n = 10), Ragusana donkeys (n = 10), and Thoroughbred horses (n = 10) were analyzed after storage at 23 degrees C (room temperature) for 15 minutes (group I)...
Equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis: a newly recognized herpesvirus-associated fibrotic lung disease. Pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease are poorly understood in horses; the causes of such conditions are rarely identified. Equine herpesvirus 5 (EHV-5) is a gamma-herpesvirus of horses that has not been associated with disease in horses. Pathologic and virologic findings from 24 horses with progressive nodular fibrotic lung disease associated with EHV-5 infection are described and compared with 23 age-matched control animals. Gross lesions consisted of multiple nodules of fibrosis throughout the lungs. Histologically, there was marked interstitial fibrosis, often with preservation ...
Comparison of five real-time PCR assays for detecting virulence genes in isolates of Escherichia coli from septicaemic neonatal foals. Fifty-five isolates of Escherichia coli from septicaemic neonatal foals were used to validate five real-time pcr assays targeting different known virulence factor genes: curli fibre (csgD), ferric hydroxamate uptake (fhuA), type 1A pilin (fimA), aerobactin (lutA) and yersiniabactin (fyuA). A pcr assay targeting a universal sequence of the bacterial 16S rrna gene served as quality control. The pcr assays showed good analytical specificity and sensitivity on the basis of sequencing the pcr products, their lack of cross-reactivity with non-E coli organisms, high amplification efficiency and a lim...
Tissue engineering: chondrocyte culture on type 1 collagen support. Cytohistological and immunohistochemical study. The scope of our study is to evaluate the possibility of cultivating and expanding human chondrocytes and seeding them on pure equine type I collagen support. Our results show that human articular cartilaginous cells can multiply and grow on type I collagen substrate with production of extracellular matrix. This type of chondrocyte culture on a support can be used for repairing cartilaginous lesions since they show a correct morphology (evaluated by cytological and histological methods) and a suitable differentiation and phenotype as shown by Alcian PAS staining to indicate the presence of muc...
Commercial semen freezing: individual male variation in cryosurvival and the response of stallion sperm to customized freezing protocols. One of the challenges for those attempting to cryopreserve stallion spermatozoa is dealing with the stallion to stallion variability in the cryosurvival of their semen. In the dairy industry, each bull stud, essentially utilizes a single cryopreservation technique, and bulls that produce sperm that do not cryopreserve well using that technique are replaced by other bulls. However, replacing stallions is unlikely to prove acceptable to the equine industry, where specific genotypes are desired. Instead, to increase the number of stallions that can be effectively utilized for cryopreserved semen ...
Expression of progesterone and oestrogen receptors by early intrauterine equine conceptuses. Progesterone and oestrogen play essential roles in the maintenance of pregnancy in eutherian mammals and are thought to exert their effects on the developing conceptus indirectly, via the endometrium. In some species, early embryos have themselves been shown to express steroid receptors, thereby suggesting that reproductive steroids may also influence embryonic development directly. The aim of this study was to determine whether early intrauterine equine conceptuses express either the classical intracellular progesterone (PR) and oestrogen receptors (ERalpha and ERbeta) or the more recently ch...
Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide concentration in warmblood horses with heart valve regurgitations. This study measured plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) concentration in horses with heart valve regurgitations (HVR) with and without atrial and ventricular dilatation. Background: In humans and small animals, plasma ANP concentration is increased in heart disease and correlates with the severity of clinical signs and heart enlargement. Methods: Ten healthy horses (control) and 36 horses with HVR were evaluated by auscultation, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and determination of plasma ANP. Results: Control horses demonstrated mean plasma ANP concentration of 21+/-5.4 pg/mL. Of th...
Evaluation of autologous chondrocyte transplantation via a collagen membrane in equine articular defects: results at 12 and 18 months. To evaluate a technique of autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) similar to the other techniques using cell-seeded resorbable collagen membranes in large articular defects. Methods: Autologous cartilage was harvested arthroscopically from the lateral trochlear ridge of the femur in fifteen 3-year-old horses. After culture and expansion of chondrocytes the newly created ACI construct (autologous chondrocytes cultured expanded, seeded on a collagen membrane, porcine small intestine submucosa) was implanted into 15mm defects on the medial trochlear ridge of the femur in the opposite femoropat...
Development of an in vitro three dimensional loading-measurement system for long bone fixation under multiple loading conditions: a technical description. The purpose of this investigation was to design and verify the capabilities of an in vitro loading-measurement system that mimics in vivo unconstrained three dimensional (3D) relative motion between long bone ends, applies uniform load components over the entire length of a test specimen, and measures 3D relative motion between test segment ends to directly determine test segment construct stiffness free of errors due to potting-fixture-test machine finite stiffness.Intact equine cadaveric radius bones, which were subsequently osteotomized/ostectomized and instrumented with bone plates were su...
Glanders: off to the races with Burkholderia mallei. Burkholderia mallei, the etiologic agent of the disease known as glanders, is primarily a disease affecting horses and is transmitted to humans by direct contact with infected animals. The use of B. mallei as a biological weapon has been reported and currently, there is no vaccine available for either humans or animals. Despite the history and highly infective nature of B. mallei, as well as its potential use as a bio-weapon, B. mallei research to understand the pathogenesis and the host responses to infection remains limited. Therefore, this minireview will focus on current efforts to elucida...
Cloning and structural analysis of equine platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM, CD31) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1, CD106). Platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM, CD31) and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1, CD106) are essential for leukocyte emigration and diapedesis. PECAM is an essential histologic marker of endothelial cells; VCAM-1 is a prototype marker for endothelial cell activation. In this study, equine PECAM and VCAM mRNA were cloned and sequenced. Both genes are highly conserved amongst several species. This study also revealed conserved structural and regulatory motifs, emphasizing the importance of these genes' physiological roles in immunological responses.
