asthma | Horse Racing Free Tips

Study Shows Possible Link Between Equine Obesity And Asthma

It's been proven that carrying extra pounds can cause humans to develop asthma, and researchers are now attempting to find a link between obesity and breathing issues in horses.

Texas A&M and the Morris Animal Foundation are funding research on the debilitating condition. Currently, the main treatment option for asthmatic horses is the use of corticosteroids, which can cause laminitis in overweight equines.

Texas A&M researcher Dr. Michelle Coleman intends to use 60 horses brought to the University's veterinary teaching hospital for the study. The research team will assess each horse's body condition, identify if they have insulin issues, and determine their asthmatic state by listening to their lungs and taking fluid samples from their lower airways. The horses will be divided into four groups of 15: Obese and asthmatic, non-obese and asthmatic, obese and healthy, and non-obese and healthy.

Each group will be examined for inflammation markers, including cytokine levels. The cytokine levels in humans differ between obese asthmatic people and non-obese asthmatic people. The study will also look at each horse's lung microbiota to see if there is a difference in obese asthmatic horses and non-obese asthmatic horses.

Researchers hope the results from the study will allow horse owners and veterinarians to identify horses at higher asthmatic risk and assist in preventing asthma or intervening in such situations earlier.

Cornell Equine Seminar Series Presents ‘The Ins And Outs Of Equine Asthma’

Equine asthma affects many horses to varying degrees and can ultimately inhibit performance and cause quality of life concerns. This month the signs, causes, diagnostic and treatment options for equine asthma will be presented during the College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Seminar Series, on Tuesday, April 20, from 6 to 7 p.m. via Zoom.

WHAT: Joy Tomlinson, DVM, DACVIM Large Animal Internal Medicine Specialists and Research Associate will talk about the signs and causes of equine asthma along with diagnostic and treatment options.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 20, 2021, 6 – 7 p.m.

WHERE: Via zoom, register here.

Presenter Dr. Tomlinson received her DVM from Cornell University in 2010 and completed a large animal internal medicine residency at New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania in 2014. She has been a clinician at Cornell's Equine Hospital since 2014. Dr. Tomlinson is also a Research Associate at the Baker Institute for Animal Health in the Van de Walle lab.

Her current research focuses on the characterization of two recently discovered equine hepatitis viruses: equine parvovirus-hepatitis, the suspected cause of Theiler's disease in horses, and equine hepacivirus, a cause of chronic hepatitis. Her clinical research includes investigation of Equine multinodular pulmonary fibrosis (EMPF), which can be mistaken for asthma.

The Cornell Equine Seminar Series is presented by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Hospital, the New York State 4-H Horse Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Held on the second Tuesday of most months, equine experts present on important equine health and management topics. The event is free and open to the public.

Inhaled Human Medication Helpful For Asthmatic Horses

The British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) has reported that inhaled ciclesonide can assist in controlling severe asthma in horses. Horses with severe asthma often cough, have a runny nose and have difficulty forcing air into their lungs.

Corticosteroids have been shown to calm inflammation in the respiratory tract. These medications can be administered multiple ways, but inhaled therapy is considered ideal as it gets the drug directly into the lungs. Ciclesonide is used in human medicine and has been shown to be effective in horses that become asthmatic when exposed to certain conditions like moldy hay. The drug had not been studied in the field.

Researchers used 220 severely asthmatic horses from 24 clinics in Germany, France and Switzerland for a study to test inhaled ciclesonide efficacy. The horses either received an inhalation solution containing ciclesonide or a placebo inhalation.

To test their hypothesis, the horses were given ciclesonide through an equine inhaler at eight actuations twice daily and then 12 actuations once daily for five days. The horses receiving the placebo received the same number of treatments, but they did not contain ciclesonide.

The study team found that 73 percent of the horses receiving ciclesonide showed improvement in their asthma after the 10-day study. Horses with more severe asthma showed the most improvement. Horse owners reported an improved quality of life in nearly 70 percent of the ciclesonide-treated horses.

Read the full article here.

Does Asthma Play A Role in DDSP?

Dorsal displacement of the soft palate (DDSP) is a relatively common, performance-limiting condition in horses where the soft palate shifts to obstruct the horse's airway, usually while the horse is working. Once the soft palate has moved, the horse generally must swallow and slow down to move it back.

Much research has been done on upper respiratory tract conditions that may cause DDSP, but little attention has been paid to the possible role lower-airway conditions like asthma might play.

Drs. Kinga Joó, ÁgnesPovázsai, Zsófia Nyerges-Bohák, Ottó Szenci and Orsolya Kutasi completed endoscopic examinations of 53 pleasure and sport horses at rest and while exercising. Twenty-two of the horses had mild or moderate asthma while 31 horses were severely asthmatic. They also collected mucus from the trachea and lower airways using a tracheal wash and bronchoalveolar lavage.

The scientists used a nasal occlusion test on resting horses. This test mimics pressure changes that might occur while the horse is working. This test caused the soft palate to displace in many of the horses.

The team found that 65 percent of the horses with mild asthma had soft palates that displaced during the nasal occlusion test; 79 percent of horses with severe asthma displaced their palate during the nasal occlusion test. All of the horses with severe asthma had DDSP while exercising.

Horses that had DDSP coughed, but didn't make the typical gurgling sound heard in racehorses when their soft palate slips. The research team suggests that this may be because the horses have a lower rate of airflow than racehorses.

The team recommends that veterinarians treat the upper and lower respiratory tracts as one unit since lower respiratory tract disease, including asthma, can cause upper-respiratory dysfunction and upper-respiratory obstructions can be a factor in lower-respiratory issues.