Much like asthma in humans, equine heaves is a chronic, often debilitating disease in horses. The clinical signs can range from coughing and work intolerance to labored breathing, even at rest.

Virginia Buechner-Maxwell, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, is working at the molecular level to learn more about what causes this vexing disease.

“My goal is to find a more natural and cost effective treatment for horses which will eventually translate into better and safer treatments for people with asthma.”
–Dr. Virginia Buechner-Maxwell
The results of these studies might be helpful to both horses and humans, since horses are one of the few animals that naturally develop an asthma-like syndrome

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