Mary Utter, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVO, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania veterinary school, continued the discussion on eyes at the In-Depth session on Ophthalmology held during the 2007 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 1-5 in Orlando, Fla. She underscored the observation made by other presenters that equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is the leading cause of blindness in horses. The prevalence of uveitis in the United States horse population is about 8% based on a 2005 study-this means there could be 736,000 horses with moon blindness in the United States even as you read this!

Utter pointed out that this is a syndrome of many subsets rather than a single disease. She compared it to laminitis, in that both are inflammatory processes involving multiple tissues in key functional areas, and both occur due to a variety of triggers. She noted, "Both of these diseases are poorly understood, both have a variable response to therapy, and both are bad for the horse."

 

Eyeball of horse with uveitis

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