Allen Page, DVM, a PhD student at the University of Kentucky Gluck Equine Research Center, is conducting a study on Lawsonia intracellularis involving 14 Thoroughbred farms and 600 Thoroughbreds in Central Kentucky.

L. intracellularis is a bacterium that causes equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE), an emerging intestinal disease of horses that primarily affects weanling foals 4 to 7 months old.

Page began the L. intracellularis study in January 2012 with a goal of determining maternal antibodies’ role in L. intracellularis infection and immunity. The study will be complete in February 2013.

The participating farms collect blood samples from the mares and foals at the time of the foal’s birth. After that period, they collect blood samples from the foals monthly to monitor the decline in maternal antibodies in the foal’s circulation