The eyes of the international horse community will be on Kentucky in a few months, watching and awaiting the results of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG). On one day, for example, NBC reportedly plans to broadcast live from the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Wales, then switch to live coverage of the Games. The potential worldwide audience could reach 500 million.

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The recent insidious emergence of piroplasmosis, a tick-borne disease, is a striking reminder of the vigilance required to remain free of the class of infectious diseases that include persistence in their pathogenesis. Pathogen persistence is the ability of an infectious organism to remain in the host long-term, even for life, in the absence of easily detectable clinical disease. A critical

The application of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays to veterinary medicine has revolutionized the way diagnosticians detect infectious agents and genetic markers of non-infectious disease. Confusion frequently encircles this technology due to its novelty and complexity. This article will briefly review the underlying basis of PCR, describe interpretation of results, and discuss its ben

Whether breeding mares for business or pleasure, a variety of costs are associated with the venture. Many of these costs will be incurred whether or not the mare produces a live foal. Mare owners seek to minimize these costs while ensuring the general health of the mare and her ability to produce a live foal.

“Critical thinking” is the process of evaluating the merit and reliability of a stated fact and deciding whether the fact should be accepted or rejected. In other words, don’t believe everything you read. Be a critical thinker and a critical reader!

In doing some background research for a riding safety article, I came across a 1995 Emergency Radiology jour

Drug compounding can be defined as the art and science of mixing ingredients, which may be active, inactive or both, to create a specific dosage form to meet a specific patient’s needs. Compounding can be performed by a veterinarian or by a pharmacist upon receipt of a veterinarian’s prescription. A veterinarian must have a valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR ) to

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published 2008 data on 6,841 confirmed animal rabies cases in 49 states and Puerto Rico. (Hawaii is rabies-free.) Of these, 93 percent were confirmed in wildlife; 7 percent in domestic species. These represent a fraction of the total number of rabid animals in the US since many cases are not observed and are undetected.

All states (ex

The International Collating Center, Newmarket, England, and other sources reported the following disease outbreaks.

Contagious equine metritis (CEM) was reported in France (one case), Germany (two cases) and the United Arab Emirates that involved a non-breeding Thoroughbred stallion detected on pre-export testing.

Outbreaks of equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) related diseas

Neonatal isoerythrolysis (NI) is caused by an incompatibility of blood types between a mare and her foal. If a foal inherits from its sire a red cell factor (antigen) that the mare lacks, the mare may develop antibodies to that antigen. There is no harm to the foal in utero, as there is no comingling of the mare’s blood with that of the fetus. However, these antibodies will be present in

Disease monitoring is the ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and distribution of health-related information. Surveillance is a process that is specific for a particular disease within a defined monitoring system and implies that an intervention strategy will be initiated at some predetermined threshold level. For a disease like equine infectious anemia (EIA) or cases of a foreign anima

 The International Collating Centre, Newmarket, England, and other sources reported the following disease outbreaks.

Contagious equine metritis (CEM) was recorded in France, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom, and the USA. France confirmed three cases on one premises and one case on another premises. Switzerland reported Taylorella asinigenital