Latest News – The Horse

Though testing for the blood-doping agent erythropoietin (EPO) remains in its infant stages, a view into the prevalence of the drug on North America’s backstretches is beginning to come into focus.
Since a test to identify EPO antibodies was introduced to racing jurisdictions late last year, horses have tested positive in Texas, New York, and Louisiana. This week it was revealed tests on

California is bracing for an onslaught of West Nile virus (WNV) in horses this year. N. James MacLachlan, BVSc, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, said that he and his colleagues expect to see the first dead birds infected with WNV in April, followed by the first horse and human cases in June and July. To help California horsemen prepare, the U.C. Davis Center for Equine Health (CEH

Classes resumed today at the the University of Findlay’s James L. Child Jr. Equestrian Complex, which has been under quarantine since the weekend of Jan. 18 because of an outbreak of equine herpes virus type 1 (EHV-1).

The University has followed the guidelines and advice of George Allen, PhD, of the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center at the University of Kentucky, a leading

Reported equine abortions in Central Kentucky are down for the third week in a row and overall abortions for 2003 are drawing even with the 2002 numbers. According to figures from the University of Kentucky’s Livestock Disease Diagnostic Center on Tuesday, 20 fetuses were brought to the lab in week nine of this year. Last year, during the same week, 33 fetuses were turned in for research. Las

Lady’s Secret, 1986 Horse of the Year and the richest female at one time, died March 4 from complications from foaling a General Meeting colt at Jack Liebau and Tom Capehart’s Valley Creek Farm near Valley Center, Calif. The Thoroughbred mare’s colt is fine and healthy, according to John Glenney, who owned the 21-year-old Secretariat mare with his wife, Kim.

Oklahoma-bred Lady’s Secre

(Updated 3/07/03) Ohio and Pennsylvania have confirmed or reported cases of the neurologic form of equine herpesvirus type 1. But the worst problems reported thus far have occurred in Ohio, where 12 horses died in an outbreak at the University of Findlay (see article #4127) and three other Ohio horses died from exposure t

Two additional positive tests for equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) virus Feb. 26 were reported at Penn National Race Course. That prompted Philadelphia Park Racetrack to extend its ban on shipping into and out of the Grantville, Penn., track to March 19. Racetracks in neighboring West Virginia have also decided to implement the shipping restriction as a precaution.

The total

The racing Thoroughbred is trapped between a rock and a hard place. The rock is speed, which evolved slowly by natural selection for 50 million years, then rapidly by human hand the last 500. The hard place is where we find our ward today, beset by vulnerable feet, a grain-bothered gut, hot behavior, bleeding lungs, a sloping vulva, gastric ulcers, tying-up, crooked legs, and developmental

A bill to ban the slaughter of horses in the United States as well as the transportation of horses to slaughter has been re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, only this time there is a new player in the game. The New York Racing Association (NYRA) has gone on record as being in full support of the bill.

Officially, the bill is The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act

New research is leading veterinarians one step closer to being able to detect the first stages of cartilage damage in joints, which could lead to crippling osteoarthritis. Researchers eventually want to analyze joint fluid or blood samples and assess the concentration of specific biochemical markers thought to be involved in the degradation process of cartilage to predict actual damage i

“One of the most frequent sites of lameness is the hock joint,” said Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS, Mary Anne McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine at Michigan State University (MSU), in her presentation “A New Look at the Hock Joint” at the 2003 Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium in Louisville, Ky. “Various shoeing modifications are used with the objective of modifying hock motion

The first presentation on the agenda of the 16th annual Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium, held January 16-18 in Louisville, Ky., was a discussion of the club foot–a problem seen in all places and breeds. While probably all of those present had seen and worked on affected horses before, they were all interested in improving their understanding and treatment success with this problem. Ric Redden,

Many equine skin problems have not been fully elucidated (analyzed and explained) yet, but experienced veterinarians often will recognize a problem and confirm a tentative diagnosis, if possible, with an appropriate test. Owners need to realize that many disorders of the equine skin have not been subjected to close clinical or scientific scrutiny, and although the clinical features are known

Probably the foremost biomechanics researcher in the country, Hilary Clayton, BVMS, PhD, MRCVS, McPhail Dressage Chair in Equine Sports Medicine, McPhail Equine Performance Center, discussed recent lower limb research during the 16th annual Bluegrass Laminitis Symposium. Some of the studies she described were performed in collaboration with researchers at California State Polytechnic

INFLUENZA

“Diseases like flu and herpesvirus are always going to be problems for horse owners, and they are not going away,” said Tom Chambers, PhD, of the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center. “The secret to effective vaccines for flu is effective surveillance,” which allows researchers and vaccine manufactures to stay abreast of