Older mares produced fewer foals after colic surgery than did younger mares, but the researchers concluded that age at the time of surgery—not the surgery itself—impacted how long mares continued to produce foals. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

Each year the American Association of Equine Practitioners convention kicks off with a rapid-fire run through some of the most important surgery, medicine, and reproduction studies of the previous 12 months. The 2018 edition, held at the Dec. 1-5 meeting in San Francisco, California, featured Regina Turner, VMD, PhD, Dipl. ACT, chief of the Section of Reproduction and Behavior at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, in Kennett Square, presenting reproduction research. Here were her top selections:

How Ceftiofur Sodium Affects Pregnant Mares

In this study researchers from Florida, Georgia, and Kentucky evaluated the pharmacokinetics (how drugs are processed and maintained in the body) of the broad-spectrum antibiotic ceftiofur sodium (Naxcel) in pregnant mares to see if this drug might be an effective placentitis (inflammation of the placenta) treatment.

“It makes great intuitive sense because most placentitis cases are caused by Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus, and ceftiofur sodium is very effective against (that pathogen),” said Turner