Science-in-brief: Clinical highlights from 50th Congress of the South African Equine Veterinary Association 2017.

This article summarizes the clinical learnings from the 50th Congress of the South African Equine Veterinary Association that took place in 2017. The conference covered a broad range of topics in equine veterinary medicine, including orthopedics, surgery, infectious diseases, cardiology, nutrition, and podiatry.

Orthopaedics

• Professor Wayne McIlwraith discussed advances in the diagnosis of osteoarthritis in equines, focusing on computed tomography (CT) for predicting early changes and determining bone density.
• Diagnostic needle arthroscopy, combined with stifle ultrasonography, was described as a minimally invasive procedure useful in the diagnosis and management of joint disease.
• The potential for using serum biomarkers to predict early osteoarthritis and injuries was also discussed. This could allow for the adjustment of training regimes and point to relevant diagnostic imaging modalities.
• The use of intra-articular stem cell therapy, especially for treating osteoarthritis and regenerating damaged menisci was highlighted.

Surgery

• Presentations focused on reducing risks associated with surgery and anaesthetics.
• There was discussion on the usage of isoflurane to reduce risk in certain age groups of horses and to minimize risks of cardiac arrest.
• The concept of “balanced anaesthesia” was introduced, with a focus on enhancing both pre-operative and intra-operative analgesia.
• The presentation highlighted the growing trend in performing more procedures on standing horses to lessen anesthetic risk.

Infectious diseases

• The presentations highlighted the need for appropriate and careful use of antimicrobials given the global travel of horses.
• New diagnostic tools such as polymerase chain reaction assays have revolutionized disease monitoring and improved quarantine policies.
• The discussions also acknowledged the potential of genomic studies in changing the approach to treating infectious diseases in the future.

Tendinopathy

• The use of off-incidence views and Doppler ultrasonography was highlighted for better understanding tendon injuries and detecting small lesions.
• Stem cell therapy, specifically using bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, was discussed as a potential treatment for tendinopathy.

Reproduction

• The use of color Doppler imaging in ultrasonography to predict future success of embryos and predict when ovulation will occur was examined.
• There were discussions around the multiple factors that influence early embryonic death, a significant concern in the equine breeding industry.
• The potential for stem cell therapy in treating endometrosis, a chronic degenerative process in the endometrium, was introduced.

Cardiology

• Discussions centered around the associations between different types of valvular regurgitation and race performance.
• Emerging echocardiographic techniques were discussed for assessing a wide range of cardiac functions.

Nutrition

• The influence of nutrition on the equine athletes performance was discussed.
• The concept of nutrigenetics and nutrigenomics was introduced as promising future areas of equine nutritional research.

Medicine

• Treatment approaches for sarcoids and melanomas were discussed.
• The importance of early and aggressive sarcoid treatment was emphasized.

Podiatry

• The session advocated for farriery (equine hoof care) to be based on scientific principles, not tradition.
• The importance of the veterinarian-farrier partnership in ensuring the best hoof care for each horse was emphasized.