Veterinary science and horses encompass the study and application of medical, surgical, and therapeutic practices to maintain and improve the health and welfare of equines. This field addresses a wide range of topics, including disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as nutrition, reproduction, and behavior. Research in veterinary science for horses often involves understanding the pathophysiology of equine-specific diseases, developing advanced diagnostic techniques, and improving treatment protocols. This page gathers peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore various aspects of veterinary science related to horses, providing insights into the latest advancements and methodologies in equine healthcare.
Pereira GR, Lorenzo PL, Carneiro GF, Bilodeau-Goeseels S, Kastelic J, Liu IK.The objectives of this study were firstly to determine whether the stimulatory function of equine growth hormone (eGH) on equine oocyte maturation in vitro is mediated via cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP); and secondly if the addition of eGH in vitro influences oocyte nuclear maturation and if this effect is removed when GH inhibitors are added to the culture. Cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were recovered from follicles <25 mm in diameter and randomly allocated as follows: (i) control (no additives); and (ii) 400 ng/ml of eGH. A specific inhibitor against cyclic AMP-dependent protein ...
Scholz HC, Pearson T, Hornstra H, Projahn M, Terzioglu R, Wernery R, Georgi E, Riehm JM, Wagner DM, Keim PS, Joseph M, Johnson B, Kinne J, Jose S....Glanders, caused by the gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia mallei, is a highly infectious zoonotic disease of solipeds causing severe disease in animals and men. Although eradicated from many Western countries, it recently emerged in Asia, the Middle-East, Africa, and South America. Due to its rareness, little is known about outbreak dynamics of the disease and its epidemiology. Results: We investigated a recent outbreak of glanders in Bahrain by applying high resolution genotyping (multiple locus variable number of tandem repeats, MLVA) and comparative whole genome sequencing to B. mallei i...
Radcliffe RM, Manchester AC, Mohammed HO, Ortved K, Reesink HL, Schnabel LV, Lang HM, Scrivani PV, Fubini SL.To evaluate the veterinary student learning outcome of 2 methods of equine rectal examination training. Methods: Randomized prospective study. Methods: Veterinary students (3rd and 4th year; n = 40) and practicing equine veterinarians (n = 10). Methods: Year 1: Group 1 (n = 11) and Group 2 students (n = 10) received skilled instructor (SI) and laparoscopic-guidance (LG), respectively, during rectal exam instruction. All students were tested on rectal identification of 4 abdominal organs. Year 2: One group of students (n = 19) was trained and subsequently tested using each technique, first SI, ...
Lee SH, Lee SE, Seo MG, Goo YK, Cho KH, Cho GJ, Kwon OD, Kwak D, Lee WJ.The present study investigated the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) antibodies by ELISA in horses reared in Korea. Serum samples were collected from 2009 through 2013 from 816 horses reared in Korea. Analysis was performed using a commercial toxoplasmosis ELISA kit to detect anti-T. gondii antibodies. Overall, 24 out of 816 horses (2.9%) were seropositive for T. gondii. The result was analyzed by age, gender, breed and region. Significant differences were observed according to breed and region (P<0.05). This is the first nationwide serological investigation of T. gondii in ho...
Richard E, Simpson SE, Medill SA, McLoughlin PD.Individual-based study of natural populations allows for accurate and precise estimation of fitness components and the extent to which they might vary with ecological conditions. By tracking the fates of all 701 horses known to have lived on Sable Island, Canada, from 2009 to 2013 (where there is no predation, human interference, or interspecific competition for food), we present a detailed analysis of structured population dynamics with focus on interacting effects of intraspecific competition and weather on reproduction and survival. Annual survival of adult females (0.866 ± 0.107 [[Formu...
Pyörälä S, Taponen J, Katila T.Use of antimicrobials for veterinary indications related to reproduction in cattle and horses is reviewed. Antimicrobial compounds are widely used to treat and prevent infections of reproductive organs. Total amounts of antimicrobials for such purposes, estimated by weight, are low compared with major uses in food animals. The most common reproduction-related indication in cattle is mastitis. The number of intramammary products available for treatment of mastitis in the European Union is high. Metritis and endometritis also require antimicrobial treatment of cattle and specific products for in...
Smet A, Cools P, Krizova L, Maixnerova M, Sedo O, Haesebrouck F, Kempf M, Nemec A, Vaneechoutte M.We previously reported the presence of an OXA-23 carbapenemase in an undescribed species of the genus Acinetobacter isolated from horse dung at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium. Here we include six strains to corroborate the delineation of this taxon by phenotypic characterization, DNA-DNA hybridization, 16S rRNA gene and rpoB sequence analysis, % G+C determination, MALDI-TOF MS and fatty acid analysis. The nearly complete 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain UG 60467(T) showed the highest similarities with those of the type strains of Acinetobacter bouvetii (98.4 %)...
Gómez MD, Menéndez-Buxadera A, Valera M, Molina A.The performance results of Spanish Trotter Horses were merged with the information from the nearest official weather stations, to estimate the effects of temperature (T) on speed during the day of the race. The resulting data set included: 104 125 individual results from 7653 races with 3772 participant horses and driven by 1402 jockeys. After a classical repeatability animal model in which the effects of T were assumed null, a total of five different random regression models (RRM) with the same fixed part were applied in a parsimonious nested process in which the (co)variance components for ...
Collins GH, Petersen SL, Carr CA, Pielstick L.Effective and safe monitoring techniques are needed by U.S. land managers to understand free-roaming horse behavior and habitat use and to aid in making informed management decisions. Global positioning system (GPS) and very high frequency (VHF) radio collars can be used to provide high spatial and temporal resolution information for detecting free-roaming horse movement. GPS and VHF collars are a common tool used in wildlife management, but have rarely been used for free-roaming horse research and monitoring in the United States. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the design, safety, a...
Sengupta PP, Rudramurthy GR, Ligi M, Roy M, Balamurugan V, Krishnamoorthy P, Nagalingam M, Singh L, Rahman H.Trypanosoma evansi, a haemoflagellate, causes "surra" an important chronic wasting disease of a wide range of wild and domestic herbivorous and carnivorous animals including cattle, buffaloes, camels, horses, etc. The untreated recovered animal can act as a carrier without exhibiting the disease symptoms and can be a source of infection to healthy animals. The diagnosis and subsequent treatment of the carrier animals is helpful to curb the disease. As the parasitaemia in carrier animals is very scanty, the conventional blood smear examination, which is widely practiced in the field, cannot det...
Razmi GR, Abedi V, Yaghfoori S.Toxoplasmosis is an important zoonotic disease with worldwide distribution. The infection is observed in an unusually wide range of warm-blooded animals, including most of the livestock and humans. Many studies have shown high prevalence of toxoplasmosis in man and animals in Iran. The present study was conducted to investigate the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in Turkoman horses in the North Khorasan Province. During 2011-2012, 100 blood samples from horses were collected and tested for antibodies against toxoplasmosis using indirect fluorescent antibody test. The seroprevalence of toxoplas...
Al-Jaru A, Goodwin W, Skidmore J, Raudsepp T, Khazanehdari K.Chromosome configurations and chiasma frequency during the metaphase I stage of spermatogenesis in the male horse are characterized in this work. The genome-wide frequency and distribution of chiasmata was detected as 49.45 ± 2.07 for 14 fertile stallions. All X and Y chromosomes shared a single chiasma at their pseudoautosomal region, while 1-4 chiasmata were observed in autosomal chromosomes. The chiasma frequency and distribution were further studied for 8 different bivalents identified by FISH in 5 fertile stallions. Genetic length was calculated from chiasmata data for the whole genome a...
Brazil TJ, Dixon PM, Haslett C, Murray J, McGorum BC.The aim of this study was to characterise constitutive apoptosis in equine peripheral blood neutrophils, including assessment of factors that potentially modulate neutrophil survival through alteration of the rate of constitutive apoptosis. Cells underwent spontaneous time-dependent constitutive apoptosis when aged in culture for up to 36 h, developing the structural and functional features of apoptosis observed in many cell types, including human neutrophils. Neutrophils undergoing apoptosis also had diminished zymosan activated serum (ZAS)-stimulated chemiluminescence, but maintained respo...
Lashley MJ, Nauwelaerts S, Vernooij JC, Back W, Clayton HM.Among veterinary surgeons, interest has recently increased in the role of the horse's neck as a causative factor in complex locomotor disturbances. Specifically, controversy surrounds the trend for the head to be carried behind the vertical (BHV) in contravention of Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) rules. The aim of this study was to determine whether the head angulation of elite dressage horses has changed over the last 25 years, and whether head angulation correlates with the competition score awarded. Head angle was measured from videos recorded during the Grand Prix test at the 1...
Aguilar JJ, Cuervo-Arango J, Santa Juliana L.It is scientifically demonstrated that lunar cycles have important effects on several biological events. Controversy exists about the lunar influence on human and animal parturition. In addition, in the horse industry, especially in Polo Horse breeders of Argentina and around the world there is a higher demand for female offspring than for males. The objective of this study was to determine whether there is a significant association between the lunar phase at the time of mating and the sex ratio at birth in horses. The Argentinean Stud Book provided information related to all matings registere...
Mendez D, Buttner P, Speare R.Following the emergence of Hendra virus (HeV), private veterinarians have had to adopt additional infection control strategies to manage this zoonosis. Between 1994 and 2010, seven people became infected with HeV, four fatally. All infected people were at a higher risk of exposure from contact with horses as they were either veterinary personnel, assisting veterinarians, or working in the horse industry. The management of emerging zoonoses is best approached from a One Health perspective as it benefits biosecurity as well as a public health, including the health of those most at risk, in this ...
Yarnell K, Fleming J, Stratton TD, Brassington R.Infrared thermography (IRT) was used to assess surface temperature change as an indirect measure of muscle activity and exercise associated changes in blood flow in the working hind limb muscles of horses (n=7) undergoing water treadmill exercise. Three treatments were investigated including the treadmill ran dry (TD), water at the height of the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIP) and water at the height of the carpus (CP). Maximum skin surface temperature was recorded from the region of the semitendinosus muscle during exercise at each water height. There was a significant difference in surf...
Ilginis T, Clarke J, Patel PJ.The last two decades have seen a revolution in ophthalmic imaging. In this review we present an overview of the breadth of ophthalmic imaging modalities in use today and describe how the role of ophthalmic imaging has changed from documenting abnormalities visible on clinical examination to the detection of clinically silent abnormalities which can lead to an earlier and more precise diagnosis. Methods: This review is based on published literature in the fields of ophthalmic imaging and with focus on most commonly used imaging modalities. Results: New imaging techniques enable non-invasive eva...
Franke J, Abraham G.Altered airway cell proliferation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of human bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as the equine recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) with consistent changes, i.e. narrowing the airway wall, explained by proliferation and differentiation of fibroblasts. In permanent cell lines, it has been suggested that β2-adrenoceptor agonists and glucocorticoids regulate cell proliferation via the β2-adrenoceptor pathway; indeed, no study was carried out in fresh isolated primary equine bronchial fibroblasts (EBF). We characterize...
Dorey NR, Conover AM, Udell MA.The ability of many domesticated animals to follow human pointing gestures to locate hidden food has led to scientific debate on the relative importance of domestication and individual experience on the origins and development of this capacity. To further explore this question, we examined the influence of different prior training histories/methods on the ability of horses (Equus ferus caballus) to follow a momentary distal point. Ten horses previously trained using one of two methods (Parelli™ natural horsemanship or traditional horse training) were tested using a standard object choice tas...
Siniscalchi M, Padalino B, Lusito R, Quaranta A.Evidence for behavioural and brain lateralisation is now widespread among the animal kingdom; lateralisation of limb use (pawedness) occurs in several mammals including both feral and domestic horses. We investigated limb preferences in 14 Quarter Horse during different motor tasks (walking, stepping on and off a step, truck loading and unloading). Population lateralisation was observed in two tasks: horses preferentially used their left forelimb during truck loading and stepping off a step. The results also revealed that horses showed higher scores for anxious behaviours during truck loading ...
Kienapfel K, Link Y, König V Borstel U.Much controversy exists among riders, and in particular among those practicing dressage, regarding what can be considered an "appropriate" Head-Neck-Position (HNP). The objective was to assess the prevalence of different HNPs in the field, the behavioural reactions of horses during warm-up and competition rides in relation to HNP and the relation between HNP and marks achieved in the competition. Horses (n = 171) were selected during dressage competitions according to their HNP (3 categories based on the degree of flexion), and their behaviour was recorded during 3 minutes each of riding i...
Spaas J, Helsen WF, Adriaenssens M, Broeckx S, Duchateau L, Spaas JH.There is general agreement that horses have dichromatic colour vision with similar capabilities to human beings with red-green colour deficiencies. However, whether colour perception has an impact on equine jumping performance and how pronounced the colour stimulus might be for a horse is unknown. The present study investigated the relationship between the colour of the fences (blue or green) and the show jumping performance of 20 horses ridden by two riders using an indoor and outdoor set of green and blue fences. In the indoor arena, significantly more touches and faults were made on blue fe...
Jäderkvist K, Andersson LS, Johansson AM, Árnason T, Mikko S, Eriksson S, Andersson L, Lindgren G.In a previous study it was shown that a nonsense mutation in the DMRT3 gene alters the pattern of locomotion in horses and that this mutation has a strong positive impact on trotting performance of Standardbreds. One aim of this study was to test if racing performance and trotting technique in the Nordic (Coldblood) trotters are also influenced by the DMRT3 genotype. Another aim was to further investigate the effect of the mutation on performance in Standardbreds, by using a within-family analysis and genotype-phenotype correlations in a larger horse material than in the previous study. We gen...
Flaminio MJ, Yen A, Antczak DF.Observations in early equine pregnancy clearly reveal maternal immune recognition of and response to the presence of the conceptus. Nevertheless, both maternal cellular and humoral responses appear ineffective in destroying the developing placenta and fetus in early pregnancy. Our previous studies had shown that the pre-conditioned medium generated from the culture of equine invasive trophoblast inhibited mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation and the expression of cytokine messenger RNA in vitro. Those findings also suggested that lymphocytes might have been halted in the G0/G1 phase of the...
Matsui T, Sugino H, Miura M, Bousfield GR, Ward DN, Titani K, Mizuochi T.The glycoprotein hormones, equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG) and lutenizing hormone (eLH), possess a beta-subunit with an identical amino acid sequence. The Asn-linked oligosaccharide chains of eCG beta and eLH beta were quantitatively liberated as tritium-labeled oligosaccharides by hydrazinolysis followed by N-acetylation and NaB3H4-reduction. Paper electrophoresis in combination with sialidase digestion and solvolytic desulfation indicated that eCG beta contained neutral and sialylated oligosaccharides, while eLH beta contained neutral, sialylated, sulfated, and both sialylated and sulfat...
Dao S, Abdillahi AM, Bougoudogo F, Toure K, Simbe C.The district of Bamako is the political and economical capital city of Mali with 1,800,000 inhabitants. The goal of the present retrospective study was to determine the frequency of animal bites, human and animal rabies on the one hand and to determine the frequency and the nature of mad animals on the other hand from January 2000 to December 2003 (4 years). To achieve this goal, we have analysed registers and documents related to rabies in the department of prevention and fight against diseases, the central veterinary laboratory, and also at the lazaret clinic involved in caring for human rab...
Zhang S, Li Y, Bao Z, Sun N, Lin S.In this study, the effect of pulsed electric field (PEF) on apparent morphology and molecular structure of shell-like ferritin obtained from horse spleen was determined by circular dichroic (CD), fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, cold field emission scanning electron microscopy (CF-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and verified by molecule dynamics (MD) simulation. After PEF treatment, the α-helix content of the samples reached a minimum value at 10 kV/cm, which indicated that the ferritin structure has been partially unfolded. However, the α-helix content peaked ...
Domino M, Borowska M, Zdrojkowski Ł, Jasiński T, Sikorska U, Skibniewski M, Maśko M.As obesity is a serious problem in the human population, overloading of the horse's thoracolumbar region often affects sport and school horses. The advances in using infrared thermography (IRT) to assess the horse's back overload will shortly integrate the IRT-based rider-horse fit into everyday equine practice. This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of entropy measures to select the most informative measures and color components, and the accuracy of rider:horse bodyweight ratio detection. Twelve horses were ridden by each of the six riders assigned to the light, moderate, and heavy gr...
Fairbanks EL, Brennan ML, Mertens PPC, Tildesley MJ, Daly JM.African horse sickness (AHS) is a vector-borne disease transmitted by Culicoides spp., endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. There have been many examples of historic and recent outbreaks in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. However, not much is known about infection dynamics and outbreak potential in these naive populations. In order to better inform a previously published ordinary differential equation model, we performed a systematic literature search to identify studies documenting experimental infection of naive (control) equids in vaccination trials. Data on the time until the onset of viraemia...
Schrenzel MD, Watson JL, Ferrick DA.Genes encoding the horse (Equus caballus) T-cell receptor beta chain (TCRB) were cloned and characterized. Of 33 cDNA clones isolated from the mesenteric lymph node, 30 had functionally rearranged gene segments, and three contained germline sequences. Sixteen unique variable segments (TCRBV), 14 joining genes (TCRBJ), and two constant region genes (TCRBC) were identified. Horse TCRBV were grouped into nine families based on similarity to human sequences. TCRBV2 and TCRBV12 were the most commonly represented horse families. Analysis of predicted protein structure revealed the presence of conser...
Ammer H, Henschen A.The major stallion protamine was isolated from sperm cell nuclei by extraction with 6M guanidine/5% mercaptoethanol, alkylation with 4-vinylpyridine and subsequent reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The primary structure of stallion protamine was determined by N-terminal sequencing of the intact protein and of the fragments obtained from thermolysin cleavage of the S-pyridylethylated and from endoproteinase Lys-C cleavage of the S-aminoethylated protein. Stallion protamine consists of 49 amino-acid residues and shows 49% identity with all other sequenced mammalian type 1 pr...
Liu X, Seguin-Orlando A, Chauvey L, Tressières G, Schiavinato S, Tonasso-Calvière L, Aury JM, Perdereau A, Wagner S, Clavel P, Estrada O, Pan J....Age profiling of archaeological bone assemblages can inform on past animal management practices, but is limited by the fragmentary nature of the fossil record and the lack of universal skeletal markers for age. DNA methylation clocks offer new, albeit challenging, alternatives for estimating the age-at-death of ancient individuals. Here, we take advantage of the availability of a DNA methylation clock based on 31,836 CpG sites and dental age markers in horses to assess age predictions in 84 ancient remains. We evaluate our approach using whole-genome sequencing data and develop a capture assay...
Santos WB, Pereira CB, Maiorano AM, Arce CDS, Baldassini WA, Pereira GL, Chardulo LAL, Neto ORM, Oliveira HN, Curi RA.With the advent of genomics, significant progress has been made in the genetic improvement of livestock species, particularly through increased accuracy in predicting breeding values for selecting superior animals and the possibility of performing a high-resolution genetic scan throughout the genome of an individual. The main objectives of this study were to estimate the individual genomic inbreeding coefficient based on runs of homozygosity (F ), to identify and characterize runs of homozygosity and heterozygosity (ROH and ROHet, respectively; length and distribution) throughout the genome, a...
Goyache F, Alvarez I, Fernández I, Pérez-Pardal L, Royo LJ, Lorenzo L.Empirical evidence of the usefulness of different molecular-based methods to estimate the effective population size (N(e)) for conservation purposes in endangered livestock populations is reported. The black-coated Asturcón pony pedigree (1,981 individuals) was available. Additionally, a total of 267 Asturcón individuals born in 1998, 2002, and 2008 were typed for 15 microsatellites. These yearly cohorts (cohort(1998, 2002, 2008)) included almost all individuals kept for reproduction at the end of the corresponding foaling season. The genealogical realized N(e) was estimated for each cohort ...
Brazil TJ, Dixon PM, Haslett C, Murray J, McGorum BC.The aim of this study was to characterise constitutive apoptosis in equine peripheral blood neutrophils, including assessment of factors that potentially modulate neutrophil survival through alteration of the rate of constitutive apoptosis. Cells underwent spontaneous time-dependent constitutive apoptosis when aged in culture for up to 36 h, developing the structural and functional features of apoptosis observed in many cell types, including human neutrophils. Neutrophils undergoing apoptosis also had diminished zymosan activated serum (ZAS)-stimulated chemiluminescence, but maintained respo...
Cothran EG, Canelon JL, Luis C, Conant E, Juras R.Various horse populations in the Americas have an origin in Spain; they are remnants of the first livestock introduced to the continent early in the colonial period (16th and 17th centuries). We evaluated genetic variability within the Venezuelan Criollo horse and its relationship with other horse breeds. We observed high levels of genetic diversity within the Criollo breed. Significant population differentiation was observed between all South American breeds. The Venezuelan Criollo horse showed high levels of genetic diversity, and from a conservation standpoint, there is no immediate danger ...
Huntley NF, Naumann HD, Kenny AL, Kerley MS.The domestic horse is used as a nutritional model for rhinoceros maintained under human care. The validity of this model for browsing rhinoceros has been questioned due to high prevalence of iron overload disorder (IOD) in captive black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), which is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Iron chelators, such as tannins, are under investigation as dietary supplements to ameliorate or prevent IOD in prone species. Polyphenolic compounds variably affect microbial fermentation, so the first objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of grape seed ext...
Uniacke-Lowe T, Chevalier F, Hem S, Fox PF, Mulvihill DM.Rennet-induced coagulation of bovine milk is a complex mechanism in which chymosin specifically hydrolyzes κ-casein, the protein responsible for the stability of the casein micelle. In equine milk, this mechanism is still unclear, and the protein targets of chymosin are unknown. To reveal the proteins involved, the rennetability of equine milk by calf chymosin was examined using gel-free and gel-based proteomic analysis and compared to bovine milk. RP-HPLC analysis of bovine and equine milks showed the release of several peptides following chymosin incubation. The hydrolyses of equine and bov...
Yousefi-Mashouf N, Mehrabani-Yeganeh H, Nejati-Javaremi A, Bailey E, Petersen JL.The present research aimed to characterize the Persian Kurdish horse population relative to the Persian Arabian and American Thoroughbred populations using genome-wide SNP data. Fifty-eight Kurdish, 38 Persian Arabian and 83 Thoroughbred horses were genotyped across 670,796 markers. After quality control and pruning to eliminate linkage disequilibrium between loci which resulted in 13,554 SNPs in 52 Kurdish, 24 Persian Arabian and 58 Thoroughbred horses, the Kurdish horses were generally distinguished from the Persian Arabian samples by Principal Component Analyses, cluster analyses and calcul...
Verdegaal EJMM, Howarth GS, McWhorter TJ, Delesalle CJG.Hyperthermia is a performance and welfare issue for exercising horses. The thermoregulatory stressors associated with exercise have typically been estimated by responses in the laboratory. However, monitoring surface skin temperature (T ) coincident with core temperature (T ) has not previously been investigated in horses exercising in the field. We investigated the suitability of monitoring surface T as a metric of the thermoregulatory response, and simultaneously investigated its relationship with T using gastrointestinal (GI) temperature. We evaluated T in 13 endurance horses competing...
Almadhidi J, Seralini GE, Fresnel J, Silberzahn P, Gaillard JL.Estrogens are the major steroids produced by equine gonads. To identify the cells responsible for estrogen synthesis, an antiserum against purified equine testicular cytochrome P450 aromatase was produced in rabbits. The reactivity and specificity of the antiserum were assessed by ELISA, immunoblot analysis, and immunoneutralization studies. Immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that in the male gonad, cytochrome P450 aromatase (P450arom) was localized in the interstitial tissue, whereas, under the experimental conditions used, the Sertoli and germ cells did not show any specific staining...
Valentine BA.Gross and histopathologic evaluation of skeletal muscle was performed in 229 equids (217 horses, 8 ponies, 3 donkeys, and 1 mule) 1 year of age or older undergoing postmortem examination at Oregon State University in a 2.5-year period. Animals were evaluated for grossly evident muscle lesions, and muscle samples were fixed in formalin, processed routinely, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) for glycogen. Muscle lesions were detected in 149 animals (65%). Chronic myopathic change (excessive fiber size variation and internal nuclei) was evaluated in horses...
Lanovaz JL, Clayton HM, Watson LG.This study was designed to test the impact characteristics of the equine digit in vitro with the objective of providing a better understanding of the role of the digital structures in the attenuation of impact shock. Uni-axial accelerometers were mounted on cadaver digits on the distolateral hoof wall, the proximolateral hoof wall, the dorsal surface of the second phalanx, and the mid-lateral first phalanx. The hoof-mounted accelerometers were aligned with the hoof tubules while the bone-mounted accelerometers were oriented along the longitudinal axis of the bone. Each digit was mounted in a t...
Sanders RE, Kearney CM, Buckley CT, Jenner F, Brama PA.To evaluate knot security for 3 knot types created in 3 commonly used 5 metric suture materials incubated in physiological and pathological fluids. Methods: In vitro mechanical study. Methods: Knotted suture loops (n = 5/group). Methods: Loops of 3 different suture materials (glycolide/lactide copolymer; polyglactin 910; polydioxanone) were created around a 20 mm rod using 3 knot types (square [SQ], surgeon's [SK], and triple knot [TK]) and were tested to failure in distraction (6 mm/min) after tying (day 0) and after being incubated for 14 and 28 days in phosphate buffered saline (PBS...
Doube M, Firth EC, Boyde A.Combined backscattered electron scanning electron microscopy (BSE SEM) and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) have been used to put tissue mineralization data into the context of soft tissue histology and fluorescent label information. Mineralization density (Dm) and linear accretion rate (LAR) are quantifiable parameters associated with mineralizing fronts within calcified tissues. Quantitative BSE (qBSE) may be used to determine Dm, while CSLM may be used to detect label fluorescence from which LAR is calculated. Eighteen-month old Thoroughbred horses received single calcein injection...
Welsh CE, Parkin TDH, Marshall JF.As antimicrobial resistant bacterial strains continue to emerge and spread in human and animal populations, understanding prescription practices is key in benchmarking current performance and setting goals. Antimicrobial prescription (AP) in companion veterinary species is widespread, but is neither monitored nor restricted in the USA and Canada. The veterinary use of certain antimicrobial classes is discouraged in some countries, in the hope of preserving efficacy for serious human infections. Objective: The aim of this study was to ascertain the rate of prescription of a number of 'reserved'...
Holt D, St George LB, Clayton HM, Hobbs SJ.Previous studies have validated methods for determining kinematic gait events using threshold-based techniques. However, a simple method that can be successfully applied to walk, trot and canter is yet to be identified. Objective: To develop a simple kinematic method to identify the timing of hoof contact (hoof-on), peak vertical force and lift off (hoof-off), which can be applied in walk, trot and canter. Methods: In vivo method authentication study. Methods: Horses (n = 3) were ridden in walk, trot and canter down a runway on which four force plates were arranged linearly. Three-dimensional ...
Sluyter FJ.The accelerated speed of animal transport and the existence of complex and intricate movement systems have created an equine population in motion. This ease in the international movement of horses has an impact on the risk of introduction or spread of disease, specifically in relation to competition horses. Facilitating trade in Equidae, whilst simultaneously safeguarding the health status of the receiving country is a major challenge. To date, the international regulatory bodies are prepared to consider movement of registered horses as a relatively 'low risk' occurrence and thereby apply the ...
Nolte W, Alkhoder H, Wobbe M, Stock KF, Kalm E, Vosgerau S, Krattenmacher N, Thaller G, Tetens J, Kühn C.In horses, parentage control is currently performed based on an internationally standardized panel of 17 microsatellite (MS) markers comprising 12 mandatory and five optional markers. Unlike MS, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles support a wider portfolio of genomic applications, including parentage control. A transition to SNP-based parentage control is favorable, but requires additional efforts for ensuring generation-overlapping availability of marker genotypes of the same type. To avoid double genotyping of either parents or offspring for changing to SNP technology and enable ef...
Ohmura H, Hiraga A, Jones JH.There is no good method for measuring net anaerobic power in exercising horses to allow accurate estimates of total metabolic power. Objective: The increase in VO2max when breathing hyperoxic (HO) gas should be accompanied by a stoichiometrically equal (in terms of ATP turnover, i.e. energy equivalents) decrease in plasma lactate accumulation rate (Mlactate). Methods: Six 3-year-old Thoroughbreds were trained on an equine treadmill wearing a semi-open flow mask for measurement of VO2. After 4 months the horses ran with reproducible specific VO2max (VO2max/kg bwt). The mask design allowed mixin...
Frippiat T, Art T, Tosi I.Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and inflammation are both observed in human and equine asthma. The aim of this study was to assess the timeline and relationship of both features at the subclinical onset of severe equine asthma (SEA). First, the repeatability of the pulmonary function test (PFT) using impulse oscillometry system, and the methacholine bronchoprovocation test (BPT) were assessed at a 1-day interval on six SEA horses in clinical remission and six control horses. Then, clinical and ancillary tests were performed before and after a 1-week low-dust environmental challenge, including...
Scholler D, Zablotski Y, May A.Stress has a significant impact on equine welfare. There are some studies on the stress response in horses ridden with tight nosebands, but little is known about other stress parameters than cortisol, which potentially could address an emotional component. In this study, blood samples of a total of 74 warmblood horses were used to establish reference values for plasma substance P (SP) concentrations. Moreover, 16 of these warmblood horses were included in a stress model. Four different stress levels (level 1: horses ridden with loose noseband, level 2: tight noseband, level 3: loose noseband a...
Collinet A, Grimm P, Julliand S, Julliand V.In horses, abrupt changes from high-fiber (HF) to high-starch (HS) diets can affect the cecal and colonic microbiota. This study investigated modifications and recovery of fecal microbiota after two consecutive abrupt dietary changes. Twelve horses fed HF for 2 weeks were changed to HS for 5 days then returned to HF for 7 weeks. Six received lactic acid bacteria supplementation. Bacterial population diversity, structure, and activity, especially fibrolysis, were assessed to obtain an overview of alteration in hindgut microbiota. Two days after the abrupt change from HF to HS, the findings in f...
