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Study: Can Adoption Combat Wild Horse Overpopulation?

In March of 2020, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) estimated that there were about 95,000 wild horses and burros living on federal land, with an additional 50,000 being kept in holding facilities – more than triple the number of animals for appropriate land management, reports The Horse.

The BLM says that private adoptions of these wild animals are key to controlling the overpopulation problem. Dr. Jill Stowe, a University of Kentucky associate professor of agricultural economics, and Hannah White, Stowe's student, created a survey to determine what horse owners thought about this solution to overpopulation. The team created a survey that was shared on social media to try to determine if enough people were willing to adopt one of these animals to eliminate the excess of animals.

The survey received 2,247 responses from horse owners who were over 18 years old. The research team found that more than 90 percent of those surveyed would be receptive to adopting a wild horse or burro in some capacity.

The scientists also found that “ … respondents are willing to pay an average of $282.03 more for a horse that has received training for basic ground manners and $539.21 more for a horse that has been started under saddle as compared with a completely unhandled horse,” reports Stowe.

Additionally, previous wild horse and burro adopters are willing to pay more, indicating that their first adoption experience was positive.

The team found that the two biggest barriers to adopting a wild horse or burro was accessibility to appropriate facilities and lack of experience, skills and time to start an unhandled horse.

Stowe concluded that if 4 to 5 percent of horse-owning households in the United State adopted one wild horse or burro, the 70,000-animal surplus could be eliminated. She suggested that education of horse owners on adoption requirements, training of horses and targeted information dissemination could help place more wild horses and burros.

Britain Removes EHV Quarantine Requirements

British Equestrian, the national governing body for horse sports in the UK, has lifted its EHV-1 quarantine requirements. Horses can now return to the country without being isolated from other horses.

The quarantine was put in place in March after EHV-1 cases were linked to competitions in the Iberian Peninsula in Spain. All horses that had competed in the shows or those that had been exposed to horses that competed in the shows have shown no clinical signs of EHV since returning home.

British Equestrian's Equine Infectious Disease Advisory Group (EIDAG) has concluded that the possibility of an EHV-associated disease outbreak has returned to its typical level. They note that there will continue to be infrequent outbreaks of EHV in Europe and the UK.

EIDAG officials encourage horse owners to continue to use stringent biosecurity measures to minimize the risk of the spread of disease.

Transferable Toxin? Study Finds Atypical Myopathy Can Pass In Mare’s Milk

Atypical myopathy is a disorder that affects a horse's muscles and is caused by ingestion of seeds, seedlings, or leaves of some plants in the Acer family. Not all trees in the Acer family contain the toxin, but horse owners and caretakers should be cognizant that the disease is fatal to nearly three quarters of horses that become affected. Some horses are more susceptible to the toxin than others.

If a mare becomes affected by atypical myopathy she may transfer the toxin to her foal. This also places humans who drink mare's milk at risk of contracting the disease. Some Central Asian cultures prefer mare's milk to cow's milk.

In a study published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine, Dr. Johannes Sander investigated a case of atypical myopathy that affected both a mare and newborn foal in Germany. The mare had been grazing in a field next to Acer pseudoplatanus trees (known in the United Kingdom and Europe as a “sycamore” or “sycamore maple” in the States). Upon testing, Sander found that the mare's milk contained hypoglycin A, the toxin implicated in atypical myopathy, as well as significant metabolites.

The research team also examined samples of six different brands of frozen mare's milk available for human consumption across Germany. One of the samples contained metabolites of the toxin. The authors concluded that the toxins can pass through mare's milk to foals or to humans who ingest it. They caution that the same toxins can be found in seeds and unripe fruit from the ackee or lychee, which could potentially harm breast-fed children, and suggest more investigation into the human health implications.

Read the study here.

Does Inadequate Sleep Affect Equine Memory?

As a prey species, horses have evolved to sleep in unique ways that will allow them to be nearly constantly vigilant about predators. One way they can stay on alert is dozing while standing up. Though they don't enter the necessary rapid eye movement (REM) phase in this position, they are able to fulfill some sleep requirements. To get deep REM sleep, the horse must lie down.

Though horses can cope with short periods of REM sleep, it's imperative that they are able to enter this regenerative sleep phase. Dr. Linda Greening and colleagues from Aberystwyth University created a study to determine the cognitive effects on horses if environmental factors precluded them from entering the REM sleep cycle.

The researchers tested environmental effects on equine sleep patterns using two light regimes and two different depths of straw bedding. The team then tested each horse to see if his cognitive performance was affected by sleep patterns.

The team placed 10 adult horses into two groups for the five-week experiment. Each group had either the lights on or off overnight and straw bedding at nearly two inches or nearly six inches for six days. The horse then measured the horse's response to a cognitive test.

The team found that the horse's sleep stages were affected by both the lighting and the depth of bedding. Horses that were bedded more shallowly spend more time standing, meaning they didn't enter the REM sleep cycle.

The lighting and bedding did not have a significant impact on the memory test, which included placing four buckets around the arena and asking the horse to remember which one contained feed.

Read the full study here.