Elite sport horses that fly from continent to continent are at a particularly high risk of being exposed to infectious disease and contracting one could sideline them indefinitely. | Photo: John Stroud/FEI

So Marc Oertly, DVM, of the Swiss Institute of Equine Medicine, in Berne, set out to determine whether serum amyloid A (SAA) concentrations could suggest inflammation sooner than a rectal thermometer in traveling horses. He presented his results at the 2017 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Nov. 17-21 in San Antonio, Texas.

Serum amyloid A is a protein present in undetectable to low levels in healthy horses. In response to inflammation, the liver releases SAA into the bloodstream, causing levels to rise 1,000-fold or more. Veterinarians can measure these levels to detect infection and monitor treatment response.

In a study funded by StableLab, a company that developed a stall-side blood test to measure SAA in horses, Oertly evaluated the optimum time point for measuring SAA after horses travel. He followed 121 high-level Warmblood show jumpers, ranging in age from 8 to 17, along three stops of the Longines Global Champions Tour