Latest News – The Horse

Blood-Horse Publications announces its second annual book warehouse clearance sale will be held Friday, May 9 and Saturday, May 10 at 349 Virginia Avenue in Lexington, Kentucky.

If your horse does more than walk around his pasture eating grass, he is at risk for ulcers. The equine life of leisure–grazing in the sun on lush grass, no worries about when that ambitious owner will appear to ride or train–isn’t reality for most horses. The demands of training can precipitate a pain in the gut–also known as equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS). Give a horse a job–be it

One of the most complex and least-studied subjects involving the horse is heritability of behavior. Do horses truly inherit behavioral traits, or do these traits simply come into being as the result of environmental factors and influences? There are a couple of reasons why there are few learned answers to this question. First, it is a complex issue because a great many factors are involved in

What is your favorite color of horse? Is it the pitch black of Walter Farley’s Black Stallion? The whiteness of the Lone Ranger’s Silver? The sunshine gold of Roy Rogers’ Trigger? How does a breeder capitalize on the fancy colors that bring big bucks? Unfortunately, it’s not always as simple as breeding a black stallion to a black mare to get a black foal. The late Ann Bowling, PhD, author of

All of the cutting-edge hoof information presented at this symposium is very helpful to the fledgling field of equine podiatry. Equally valuable is the open, helpful atmosphere in which everyone is learning and helping each other understand new concepts.

New research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in the United Kingdom has advanced hoof balance from a farrier’s art form to a measurement of pressure inside the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint (coffin joint). Some day, a horse’s ideal balance might be determined by a pressure reading of this type.

Excess intra-articular pressure and/or joint fluid volume of the DIP joint is a

Of particular interest to horse owners was Johnson’s black-and-white linkage of the newly termed “Equine Metabolic Syndrome” (EMS) condition with laminitis and obesity. “Obesity-associated insulin refractory state” was Johnson’s precise description of EMS in these non-Cushing’s horses, many of which also suffer from recurrent laminitis.

Classes resumed March 10 at the University of Findlay’s James L. Child Jr. Equestrian Complex, which had been under quarantine since the weekend of Jan. 18 because of an outbreak of equine herpes virus type 1 (EHV-1). (For more on the outbreak, see article #4179 online.)

The University followed the guidelines and advice of George Allen, PhD, of the Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center

Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) was confirmed as the cause of illness in three Thoroughbreds stabled in a training barn at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky. The March 18 announcement of this fact followed treatment of EHV-1 outbreaks in Ohio and Pennsylvania since January. (See article #32 online for more on EHV.) All three Kentucky horses had fevers, and two of the horses developed neurologic

Maureen Long, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, of the University of Florida (UF), spoke about West Nile virus (WNV) protective strategies for horse owners and veterinarians at a March 7 meeting in Lexington, Ky. Veterinarians and public officials gathered at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center for a workshop designed to educate local practitioners about the disease.

Long and

Colorado State University (CSU) researchers released results March 25 from a study that examined the characteristics of 2002’s West Nile virus (WNV) equine outbreaks in Colorado and Nebraska. The study was a collaborative effort between the state veterinarians in Colorado and Nebraska, the Veterinary Diagnostic Center in Nebraska, and CSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical

Rob Keene, DVM, field veterinarian for Fort Dodge Animal Health, talked about the West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine at the West Nile Virus Workshop held March 7 at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center. Keene explained plans for packaging and marketing the vaccine–which received a full license from the USDA on Feb. 6–and described the efforts already underway to combine the

A package containing West Nile virus (WNV) exploded on March 18 at a Federal Express building in Columbus, Ohio, near the Port Columbus International Airport, the Associated Press reported. Fifty workers were evacuated.

The shoebox-size sealed package probably burst because of dry ice used to preserve tissue samples from a bird with the virus. The package was being sent from the Ohio

California is bracing for West Nile virus (WNV). N. James MacLachlan, BVSc, PhD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at 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 horse owners

Eight veterinary students have been selected to receive $2,500 scholarships from the American Live Stock Insurance Company (ALSIC) and the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP). The scholarships are presented annually to fourth-year veterinary students who plan to pursue a career in equine veterinary practice.

The scholarship recipients are: Lisa Baller, Colorado State

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) recently re-stated a policy that surgical correction of “genetic defects” for the purposes of concealing the defect is unethical. The policy states that if surgical correction is undertaken for the purpose of improving the health of the individual, then it should be accompanied by sterilization to prevent the perpetuation of the genetic flaw.