The first International Workshop on Equine Chronic Airway Disease was held June 16-18 at Michigan State University. Thirty of the world’s leading investigators of equine airway disease met, along with representatives of pharmaceutical companies.

The meeting was sponsored by the Matilda R. Wilson Fund and Boehringer-Ingelheim Animal Health USA.

The participants reached agreement on several important issues during the conference: terminology, criteria for defining research populations, and methodology for obtaining samples.

“Because there isn’t a lot of money for this kind of research, it doesn’t make sense for us to duplicate each other’s laboratories, some of which have very specialized technology,” said Edward Robinson, BVetMed, MRCVS, PhD, Matilda R. Wilson Professor of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at MSU, and organizer of the workshop. “It’s much better for us each to build on our strengths and to share the research material around the world