Successful treatment of equine sarcoids by topical aciclovir application.

The research paper investigates the potential of aciclovir cream in treating sarcoid disease in horses, with the study indicating that all subjects showed positive responses to the treatment, including full regression of the tumor in around 68% of cases.

Research Context

• Sarcoid disease is a common type of skin tumor that affects horses and can lead to severe health issues.
• Up until now, the disease has been primarily treated through surgical methods, but anecdotal evidence has suggested that aciclovir, an antiviral cream often used in humans for herpes, might be effective in treating it.
• The research sought to test aciclovir’s effectiveness on a larger scale, involving 22 sarcoid-affected horses treated at the Equine Clinic Tillysburg in Austria from 2006 to 2009.

Research Methodology

• The sarcoid disease was first diagnosed through clinical examinations and by identifying bovine papillomavirus types 1 and 2 from both intact skin and tumor tissue.
• Daily topical application of aciclovir 5 per cent cream was carried out for a period of two to six months. Nine horses had more than one lesion, and a total of 47 sarcoids were treated.
• In the case of four horses, surgical tumor ablation was performed before the aciclovir treatment commenced.
• The researchers recorded disease parameters such as the tumor type, number, location, and size, before and after the aciclovir therapy.

Research Findings

• All 47 lesions responded to the aciclovir treatment and saw either complete or partial tumor regression.
• Complete regression was observed in 32 lesions, which makes up 68% of the total lesions treated. No cases of recurrence have been reported so far.
• However, 15 lesions, roughly 32%, saw incomplete resolution, which could be attributed to the thickness of the lesions.

Conclusion and Implications of the Research

• Given the study’s results, the researchers propose the routine use of aciclovir for treating mild-type sarcoids in horses.
• The study also suggests using aciclovir as an additional therapeutic agent in combination with surgery for more severe cases.
• These conclusions point to significant potential benefits of this treatment method, such as possibly making surgeries less extensive, reducing complications, recovery time, and costs. Nonetheless, further research is recommended to substantiate these findings.