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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.
Reproductive efficiency of Flatrace and National Hunt Thoroughbred mares and stallions in England. Previous surveys of reproductive efficiency in British Thoroughbreds included only mares and stallions standing on studfarms in and around Newmarket. The present study was widened to compare Flatrace (FR) (Group A) and National Hunt (NH) (Group B) mares and stallions on studfarms throughout England. Objective: To assess the influences of mare type, status and age, and veterinary manipulations on reproductive efficiency parameters. To compare the inherent fertility of stallions, based on singleton and twin pregnancy rates and pregnancy loss rates, in Groups A and B Thoroughbred breeding stock. ...
Preliminary study of mucosal IgA in the equine small intestine: specific IgA in cases of acute grass sickness and controls. There is much evidence to suggest that group III Clostridium botulinum (types C and D) are involved in the aetiology of equine grass sickness (EGS). Antibodies have been detected previously in the blood and high levels associated with resistance to disease. Specific mucosal antibodies in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are likely to be important in protection, and this study was performed to ascertain if such antibodies could be detected and if their levels were related to disease state. Objective: To develop a method for quantifying IgA antibodies to C. botulinum types C and D in the GI tract...
Risk factors for Thoroughbred racehorse fatality in jump starts in Victoria, Australia (1989-2004). The risk of fatality is greater in jump than in flat racing in Victoria, Australia. This is the first study to identify risk factors specific to jump starts in Victoria. Objective: To identify risk factors for fatality of Thoroughbred racehorses in jump starts on all racecourses in Victoria, Australia between 1989 and 2004. Methods: Fatalities comprised all horses that died during or immediately after a jump (hurdle or steeplechase) race or official jump trial and all horses that were subjected to euthanasia within 24 h of an event in which an injury was sustained. The retrospective study invo...
Electromyographic activity of the palatinus and palatopharyngeus muscles in exercising horses. Determining the respiratory related activity of the palatinus and palatopharyngeus muscles in exercising horses is relevant because dysfunction of these muscles has been implicated in the pathogenesis of dorsal displacement of the soft palate. Objective: To determine if the palatinus and palatopharyngeus muscles have respiratory activity that increases with intensity in exercising horses. Methods: Electromyographic activity was measured in the palatinus and palatopharyngeus muscles using bipolar fine-wire electrodes while the horses completed an incremental exercise treadmill protocol. Results...
Equine influenza vaccine containing older H3N8 strains offers protection against A/eq/South Africa/4/03 (H3N8) strain in a short-term vaccine efficacy study. Surveillance of equine influenza viruses has suggested that strains included in currently licensed vaccines are a poor match for those predominantly circulating in the field. Objective: To assess the ability of Duvaxyn IE-T Plus to provide cross protection against the newly evolved South Africa/4/03 (H3N8) strain of equine influenza virus. Methods: The vaccine efficacy was evaluated by challenge infection with influenza strain A/eq/South Africa/4/03 (H3N8) 2 weeks after a primary course of 2 vaccinations with Duvaxyn IE-T Plus given at a 4-week interval. The outcome of challenge in vaccinated ...
The prevalence of cardiac dysrhthmias in Khozestan-Arab horses. An observational field study was performed on a well-know purebred horses in Iran (Khozestan-Arab horse). The study was conducted on 105 apparently healthy horses. To find the prevalence of cardiac dysrhythmias in different sexes and ages, the horses were divided into 2 sexes (63 females and 42 males) and three age groups (0-4, 4-8, > 8 years old). After taking the history and performing clinical examination, ECG was obtained on a base apex lead system with the paper speed of 25 mm sec(-1) and sensitivity of 10 or 5 mm mv(-1) at rest. The electrocardiograms were evaluated according to the c...
Detection of Helicobacter-like DNA in the gastric mucosa of Thoroughbred horses. To assess the presence of Helicobacter DNA in the gastric mucosa Thoroughbred horses. Results: Squamous and glandular mucosa samples were collected from 20 Thoroughbreds. None of these horses had shown any clinical symptoms of gastrointestinal disease. Necropsy tissues were analysed using histopathological techniques and a Helicobacter genus-specific PCR assay followed by sequencing of the amplicons. Seven horses were diagnosed with gastric ulceration, five with gastritis and six with both pathologies. Only two horses had a healthy gastric mucosa. Helicobacter-like DNA was detected in two out ...
Sequence analysis of the equine SLC26A2 gene locus on chromosome 14q15–>q21. The solute carrier family 26, member 2 (SLC26A2) gene belongs to a family of multifunctional anion exchangers. Mutations in the human SLC26A2 gene are associated with autosomal recessively inherited chondrodysplasias. Hence, we postulate that the equine SLC26A2 could be a candidate gene for conformational traits in horses. An equine BAC clone harboring the SLC26A2 gene was isolated. The complete 142,625 bp insert sequence of this clone was determined by transposon sequencing. Together with the SLC26A2 gene the BAC clone contains four genes, i.e. the macrophage colony stimulating factor 1 recep...
Focal increased radiopharmaceutical uptake in the dorsoproximal diaphyseal region of the equine proximal phalanx. The aims of this study were to establish the frequency of occurrence, intensity and symmetry of focal increased radiopharmaceutical uptake in the dorsoproximal aspect of the diaphysis of the proximal phalanx; to determine if this focal increased radiopharmaceutical uptake was related to age, height, gender, breed, bodyweight, or discipline of the horse, and if there was any relationship with lameness. Scintigraphic images from 690 horses were analyzed subjectively and objectively. Age, breed, discipline, height, weight, gender, and lame limb(s) or reasons for presentation were recorded for all...
Molecular diagnosis of equid summer sores. Equine cutaneous habronemosis, also known as "summer sores", is a parasitic infection caused by larvae of Habronema microstoma and Habronema muscae (Nematoda, Spirurida) released by dung-inhabiting fly vectors on abraded skin, skin wounds or muco-cutaneous transition sites. Larvae induce a local inflammatory reaction characterised by itching, granulomatous, ulcerated and, often non-healing, lesions. The diagnosis of summer sores may be unreliable mainly because of the limits of clinical and microscopic examination. The applicability of a semi-nested PCR assay developed for the diagnosis of gas...
Genome-wide search for markers associated with osteochondrosis in Hanoverian warmblood horses. A genome-wide scan was performed to detect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for osteochondrosis (OC) and osteochondrosis dissecans (OCD) in horses. The marker set comprised 260 microsatellites. We collected data from 211 Hanoverian warmblood horses consisting of 14 paternal half-sib families. Traits used were OC (fetlock and/or hock joints affected), OCD (fetlock and/or hock joints affected), fetlock OC, fetlock OCD, hock OC, and hock OCD. The first genome scan included 172 microsatellite markers. In a second step 88 additional markers were chosen to refine putative QTLs found in the first scan....
Effect of ultrasound beam angle on equine articular cartilage thickness measurement. The purpose of this study was to determine if variation in the ultrasound beam angle would affect cartilage thickness measurement performed with B-mode ultrasonography. Transverse sections of six fresh equine middle phalanges were obtained from necropsy. Ultrasonographic images of the proximal articular cartilage were obtained in a water bath, in a plane parallel and adjacent to the section plane using a 5-10 MHz linear transducer. Static images were acquired for all six bone specimens with an ultrasound beam angle of 0 degree, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, and 60 degrees. Proximal articular cartila...
Electrolyte distribution and yolk sac morphology in frozen hydrated equine conceptuses during the second week of pregnancy. To investigate how equine conceptuses expand rapidly despite the hypo-osmolality of their yolk sac fluid, 18 conceptuses, aged 8-12 days and 0.8-10.0 mm in diameter, were examined by cryoscanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis to determine the distribution of Na, Cl and K in their fluids. No osmotic gradient was found between central and peripheral yolk sac fluid. In conceptuses > or = 6 mm in diameter, the concentrations of both Na and K in the subtrophectodermal compartments were higher than those determined previously in uterine fluid, supporting the concep...
Outbreak of Q fever associated with a horse-boarding ranch, Colorado, 2005. Coxiella burnetii is a bacterium located worldwide that can cause Q fever when inhaled. We describe an outbreak of Q fever associated with a horse-boarding ranch that had acquired two herds of goats. We conducted case finding and cohort studies among persons who boarded horses on the ranch and ranchers and among residents in the surrounding community, and conducted sampling of the goats and environment, to determine risk factors for infection and guide public health interventions. Sixty-six ranchers and persons who boarded horses on the ranch were interviewed; 62 (94%) were not professional ra...
Flow cytometric probing of mitochondrial function in equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The morphopathological picture of a subset of equine myopathies is compatible with a primary mitochondrial disease, but functional confirmation in vivo is still pending. The cationic dye JC-1 exhibits potential-dependent accumulation in mitochondria that is detectable by a fluorescence shift from green to orange. As a consequence, mitochondrial membrane potential can be optically measured by the orange/green fluorescence intensity ratio. A flow cytometric standardized analytic procedure of the mitochondrial function of equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells is proposed along with a critical...
A new view on dam lines in Polish Arabian horses based on mtDNA analysis. Polish Arabian horses are one of the oldest and the most important Arab populations in the world. The Polish Arabian Stud Book and the Genealogical Charts by Skorkowski are the main sources of information on the ancestors of Polish Arabs. Both publications were viewed as credible sources of information until the 1990s when the data regarding one of the dam lines was questioned. The aim of the current study was to check the accuracy of the pedigree data of Polish dam lines using mtDNA analysis. The analyses of a 458 bp mtDNA D-loop fragment from representatives of 15 Polish Arabian dam lines re...
Genetic parameters of biokinematic variables of the trot in Spanish Purebred horses under experimental treadmill conditions. The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters of biokinematic variables in Spanish Purebred (SPB) horses in order to select those of sufficient interest to be measured in the pre-selection of the animals for possible inclusion in the breeding programme. Kinematic analysis of 130 SPB horses 4.6+/-1.5 years old were recorded at the trot (4m/s) on a treadmill. Genetic parameters were estimated using VCE software and a bivariate mixed animal model including age and stud as fixed effects and animal additive genetic effect and residual error as random effects. In general, heritabi...
The oxidant/antioxidant equilibrium in horses. Since "free radical research" started in 1954, understanding the role of oxidants and antioxidants in physiological and pathological conditions has increased continuously. Oxidants are essentially generated by metabolic enzymes, inflammatory cells and mitochondrial electron leakage; they are indispensable for the cellular redox regulation and may, under certain conditions, have a pro-inflammatory stimulatory role. Endogenous and exogenous antioxidants counterbalance the oxidative processes and so maintain the oxidant/antioxidant equilibrium. Excessive oxidant generation or antioxidant insuffic...
Membrane transport properties of equine and macaque ovarian tissues frozen in mixtures of dimethylsulfoxide and ethylene glycol. The rate at which equine and macaque ovarian tissue sections are first cooled from +25 degrees C to +4 degrees C has a significant effect on the measured water transport when the tissues are subsequently frozen in 0.85 M solutions of glycerol, dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), or ethylene glycol (EG). To determine whether the response of ovarian tissues is altered if they are suspended in mixtures of cryoprotective agents (CPAs), rather than in solutions of a single CPA, we have now measured the subzero water transport from ovarian tissues that were suspended in mixtures of DMSO and EG. Sections of fr...
A hidden Markov model-based stride segmentation technique applied to equine inertial sensor trunk movement data. Inertial sensors are now sufficiently small and lightweight to be used for the collection of large datasets of both humans and animals. However, processing of these large datasets requires a certain degree of automation to achieve realistic workloads. Hidden Markov models (HMMs) are widely used stochastic pattern recognition tools and enable classification of non-stationary data. Here we apply HMMs to identify and segment into strides, data collected from a trunk-mounted six degrees of freedom inertial sensor in galloping Thoroughbred racehorses. A data set comprising mixed gait sequences from...
Comparison of the diagnosis and management of unilaterally castrated and cryptorchid horses at a referral hospital: 60 cases (2002-2006). To determine the incidence of unilaterally castrated horses among horses admitted to the hospital for castration and to compare horses that underwent previous unilateral castration with horses that had cryptorchism. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: 16 unilaterally castrated horses and 44 cryptorchid horses. Methods: Medical records of horses that were admitted to the veterinary medical teaching hospital for castration, including cryptorchid and unilaterally castrated horses, between January 2002 and December 2006 were reviewed. Medical records of unilaterally castrated horses and c...
Genetic parameters for the prevalence of osteochondrosis in the limb joints of South German Coldblood horses. Heritabilities were estimated for osteochondrosis (OC) in fetlock and hock joints and palmar/plantar osseous fragments in fetlock joints of South German Coldblood (SGC) horses using Residual Maximum Likelihood (REML) under a linear animal model. The analyses were based on the results of a standardized radiographic examination of 167 SGC horses with a mean age of 14 months. The heritabilities linearly estimated and transformed onto the liability scale were for OC in fetlock joints 0.16 and for OC in hock joints 0.04. Considering fetlock and hock OC together, results in a heritability of 0.17. P...
Estimation of genetic parameters and prediction of breeding values for multivariate threshold and continuous data in a simulated horse population using Gibbs sampling and residual maximum likelihood. Simulated horse data were used to compare multivariate estimation of genetic parameters and prediction of breeding values (BV) for categorical, continuous and molecular genetic data using linear animal models via residual maximum likelihood (REML) and best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and mixed linear-threshold animal models via Gibbs sampling (GS). Simulation included additive genetic values, residuals and fixed effects for one continuous trait, liabilities of four binary traits, and quantitative trait locus (QTL) effects and genetic markers with different recombination rates and polymor...
Application of arm-specific painting probes of horse X chromosome for karyotype analysis in an infertile Hutsul mare with 64,XX/65,XX+Xp karyotype: case report. A 5-year-old infertile Hutsul mare was subjected to cytogenetic analysis. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) using the equine Xp and Xq chromosome painting probes was carried out on chromosome preparations obtained after blood lymphocyte culture. These probes were generated by chromosome microdissection and a large number of spreads was analysed (525). The karyotype formula of the analysed mare was 64,XX/65,XX+Xp with the ratio of the two lines being 99.4 and 0.6, respectively. The goal of the study was to apply chromosome microdissection and the FISH technique for cytogenetic diagnosti...
A comparison between freezing methods for the cryopreservation of stallion spermatozoa. The effects of sperm freezing concentration (40 x 10(6)mL(-1) vs. 400 x 10(6)mL(-1)), straw size (0.25 mL vs. 0.5 mL) and freezing method (liquid nitrogen vapour in a Styrofoam box vs. programmable freezing machine) were evaluated in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial experimental design using 3 split ejaculates from each of 4 stallions. Immediately after thawing, the total motility and forward progressive motility of spermatozoa frozen at a concentration of 40 x 10(6)mL(-1) was higher than for spermatozoa frozen at 400 x 10(6)mL(-1). No significant differences were observed in the semen parameters assesse...
Risk factors for strap-related lesions in working donkeys at the World Heritage Site of Petra in Jordan. A risk analysis was undertaken in an attempt to improve improvised rump straps on donkeys carrying tourists at the World Heritage Site at Petra, Jordan. Tail-base lesions were identified in 63 of the 86 donkeys. Observations and questionnaires were used to collect data relating to the straps, donkey health and human attitudes. The worse lesions were associated with padded rather than unpadded straps, if tightly fitted. Padding could be a cause of, or a response to lesions, but results suggest that it did not effectively aid healing. Significantly worse lesions occurred with unclean than with c...
Determination of glucosamine in horse plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Glucosamine is an amino sugar involved in the biosynthesis of glycosylated proteins and lipids. Recently, with increased public interest in natural products medicine, glucosamine has been widely used to treat osteoarthritis, even though demonstrations of its actual efficacy remain relatively unknown. Information related to the pharmcokinetics of glucosamine is sparse. A recent analytical method published used 13C-glucosamine as an internal standard to analyse study samples. The method lacked accuracy owing to an important natural isotopic contribution of glucosamine to 13C-glucosamine ion abun...
Gap junction protein expression and cellularity: comparison of immature and adult equine digital tendons. Injury to the energy-storing superficial digital flexor tendon is common in equine athletes and is age-related. Tenocytes in the superficial digital flexor tendon of adult horses appear to have limited ability to respond adaptively to exercise or prevent the accumulation of strain-induced microdamage. It has been suggested that conditioning exercise should be introduced during the growth period, when tenocytes may be more responsive to increased quantities or intensities of mechanical strain. Tenocytes are linked into networks by gap junctions that allow coordination of synthetic activity and ...
Serum concentration of copper, zinc, iron, and cobalt and the copper/zinc ratio in horses with equine herpesvirus-1. The serum concentrations of copper, zinc, iron, and cobalt and copper/zinc ratio were investigated in horses infected with equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1). Nine horses were naturally infected with the virus and nine healthy horses served as controls. The concentrations of copper, zinc, iron, and cobalt were determined spectrophotometrically in the blood serum of all horses. The results were (expressed in micrograms per deciliters) copper 2.80 +/- 0.34 vs 1.12 +/- 0.44, zinc 3.05 +/- 0.18 vs 0.83 +/- 0.06, iron 2.76 +/- 0.17 vs 3.71 +/- 0.69, cobalt 0.19 +/- 0.37 vs 0.22 +/- 0.45, and copper/zinc ...
