Top Equine Medical Studies of 2017
- Topics: AAEP Convention, AAEP Convention 2017, Article, Basic Care, Breeding and Reproduction, Deworming & Internal Parasites, Diseases and Conditions, Equine Care Professions, Equine Herpesvirus (EHV), Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalitis (EPM), Horse Care, Mare Care and Problems, Neurologic Disease, Recovering from Injury & Surgery, Vet and Professional, Vet Convention Reports, Veterinary Practice
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SAA, Equine Asthma, and Respiratory Infection
Serum amyloid A (SAA), a protein the body produces in response to inflammation, is undetectable in healthy horses but increases within six to 12 hours of inflammation onset. That means an SAA blood test could potentially indicate a horse is sick even before he shows significant clinical signs of disease. Veterinarians might also use SAA to differentiate horses with infectious respiratory diseases from those with allergy-related equine asthma (which is not contagious). This could help veterinarians monitor equine populations at shows, rodeos, races, or other events to help prevent or track disease outbreaks.
To test this theory, a University of California, Davis (UC Davis), research team set out to measure SAA in both healthy horses and horses with equine asthma, equine herpesvirus-4 (EHV-4), equine influenza (EI), and strangles.
The scientists evaluated 207 horses using a commercial horse-side assay with a recommended cutoff of 50 μg/mL to distinguish between infectious and noninfectious inflammatory conditions
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