A necropsy report presented to the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB) Aug. 27 at Del Mar tends to support trainers who complain that synthetic tracks lead to more hind limb injuries.

In 2008, 19 Thoroughbreds from a total of 111 that died on synthetic tracks in the state succumbed to catastrophic hind limb injuries, according to a preliminary CHRB/University of California-Davis report.

The Racing Officials Accreditation Program (ROAP) has developed an On Call Stewards Program so that a designated racing official will be available during telecasts of major racing events to explain the rules of racing if an unusual event occurs in a race.

“The On Call steward will be non-judgmental, meaning he or she is not there to make a determination one way or the other on any

More than 600 readers of TheHorse.com responded to a poll asking, “How often do you utilize fecal egg count exams?”

Ericka Caslin will serve as the Director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition (UHC), the American Horse Council announced today.

Caslin is a graduate of Virginia Tech’s Animal Sciences program and has been an active member of the hunter/jumper community for more than 10 years, competing at shows throughout the country.

For the past four years, she served as the Administrative Director of

A new trail training course at the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center in the Kentucky Horse Park will allow off-the-track Thoroughbreds to be schooled over natural trails. The training course, developed by the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center, the Equine Land Conservation Resource, and the Central Kentucky Back Country Horsemen, will include wooded trails, natural obstacles, and stream crossings.

Horses being transported to Mexico are not required to be microchipped, said Jim Barrett, public affairs specialist with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency within the USDA.

Clarification on the requirements took place the week of Aug. 17, after misinterpretation of the wording in

Federal Horse Protection Act (HPA) compliance inspectors will be out in force during this year’s Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, said Rachel Cezar, DVM, coordinator for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s Horse Protection Program. The Horse Protection Act forbids soring, the deliberate injury to a horse’s legs to achieve an exaggerated “big lick” gait.

Common variable immunodeficiency is a rare, but serious disease in adult horses that often leads to hospitalization, said Maria Julia Bevilaqua Felippe Flaminio, DVM, MS, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, who presented research on the topic at the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine Forum, held June 3-6 in Montréal, Quebec.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a humoral (in the

Wildlife Services, a program within the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, will distribute oral rabies vaccine baits beginning on or about Aug. 28 to prevent the spread of raccoon rabies in portions of western and northern New York. Another baiting program is under way in 14 western Pennsylvania counties.

In cooperation with the New York State Department of Health and key

The long list of diseases that humans could potentially contract after being bitten by a horse gives new meaning to the old adage, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

According to the report, “That Horse Bit Me: Zoonotic Infections of Equines to Consider After Exposure Through the Bite or the Oral/Nasal Secretions,” more than 100,000 emergency room visits per year are due t

Brazilian researchers recently concluded that respiratory rate (RR), heart rate (HR), and rectal temperature (RT) are the most useful parameters for distinguishing equine adaptation to elevated temperatures.

The diverse world of veterinary medicine and an expanded Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) will be on public display from October 1 to 4 during Vetavision, a four-day open house at the veterinary college on the University of Saskatchewan campus.

This year’s Vetavision offers a variety of educational displays, speakers, demonstrations and animals that will appeal to peopl

Biosecurity Queensland has euthanized a horse at a Cawarral horse nursery property that tested positive for Hendra virus infection. Euthanasia is the national policy for horses confirmed as being infected with the virus, which can affect both horses and humans.

Horses can have the virus in their system and recover, but there is an ongoing risk of the virus remaining dormant and

The Aug. 29 Shadwell Travers Stakes lost some of its luster hours before entries were taken Aug. 26 when it was announced that Mine That Bird, winner of the Kentucky Derby, would not run in the “Mid-Summer Derby” at Saratoga Racecourse