Nielsen and colleagues confirmed that transabdominal ultrasonography is useful and cost effective for identifying ascarid burdens in foals. | Photo: Courtesy Dr. Martin Nielsen

The first paper, “Non-strangulating intestinal infarction associated with Strongylus vulgaris in referred Danish equine patients,” evaluated the role of the equine bloodworm, Strongylus vulgaris, in various types of colic in referred Danish equine patients.

“We used our serum ELISA specific for S. vulgaris on several hundreds of samples taken from horses admitted to the veterinary teaching hospital at the University of Copenhagen veterinary school,” Nielsen said. “We found a significant association with a certain type of colic involving non-strangulating intestinal infarction. That is dead (necrotic) sections of the intestine, which can be caused by the parasite due to the blood clotting triggered by the migrating bloodworm larvae.”

Denmark was chosen as the study site because the bloodworm parasite has been found to be endemic in the horse population there. Nielsen said this is the first study to document this relationship in an epidemiological study