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Department Of Agriculture Opens Applications For Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) has announced the opening of the fiscal year (FY) 2023 application cycle. NIFA anticipates that approximately $10 million in funding will be available in FY23 to help mitigate food animal veterinary service shortages in the United States.

VMLRP helps qualified veterinarians offset a significant portion of the debt incurred in pursuit of their veterinary medical degrees in return for their service in certain high-priority veterinary shortage areas.

The VMLRP supports NIFA's Animal Systems portfolio by facilitating professional workforce development in critical agricultural sectors related to animal health and well-being. The program contains two general categories of participation:

Mitigation of private veterinary practice shortage situations.
Mitigation of public veterinary practice and specialty veterinary discipline shortage situations.

VMLRP awardees commit to providing at least three years of food animal veterinary services in a designated veterinary shortage area in return for payments of up to $25,000 of student loan debt per year with a maximum of $75,000 for a three-year contract. VMLRP awardees are eligible to reapply to continue to serve their originally awarded shortage situation area in the last year of their contract or one year after their contract ends.

The VMLRP Request for Applications (RFA) and the 2023 veterinary shortage situations are now available. A new requirement this year is a Letter of Intent (LOI). Specific instructions are available in the VMLRP RFA. The deadline for LOI is April 3, 2023, and the application deadline is April 17, 2023.

NIFA encourages interested applicants to view the informational webinars before starting the application process. Informational webinars are provided below.

VMLRP staff will host two live FAQ sessions which will occur on:

March 16, 2023, from 4:00 – 5:00 PM EST

March 28, 2023, from 4:00 – 5:00 PM EST

Please refer to the VMLRP Annual Report for more information about the program.

Questions about the VMLRP application process may be sent by email to VMLRP.applications@USDA.gov

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Door In The Hoof? Hinged Plate Encourages Safety, Speeds Healing From Keratoma Removal

World Horse Welfare, an equine charity based in the United Kingdom, focuses on rescuing and rehoming horses in need of a soft place to land. One such horse was Joey, a 17.2-hand gelding who arrived at the shelter in December of 2022.

Staff at Hall Farm noticed that Joey was slightly lame in his left front; X-rays showed that his hoof had developed a keratoma, a benign tumor on the inner surface of a horse's hoof. A team of vets, farriers, and caretakers devised a plan to remove the keratoma and help Joey heal.

The keratoma was removed by John Blake of Breckland Farriers on Feb. 7, and a specially designed shoe he created was attached to Joey's hoof. The shoe has a special aluminum “door” that opens and can be locked shut, allowing access to the surgical site.

This allows the wound to stay clean and allows Joey's caretakers to treat the healing wound safely; the large horse doesn't have to pick up his hoof to have it treated. Iodine solution has to be applied to the hoof daily and the dressing is changed every few days.

The shoe has three screws in the hoof wall on the hinged side with acrylic to hold it in place. The opposite side has a small plate with a fly nut to keep it closed. The shoe wraps around the bottom of the hoof as well to keep the dressing in place.

See more images of the custom shoe on World Horse Welfare's Facebook page here.

Broodmare Mariastheboss Could Be Following Her Foals To The Thoroughbred Makeover

Last year, we brought you the story of two siblings competing at the Thoroughbred Makeover – two equine siblings, that is. Karyn Wittek, trainer of on- and off-track Thoroughbreds, hopes that this year her Makeover entry will continue a family tradition.

Wittek took Maria Rose and Spots Appeal, half siblings out of the Successful Appeal mare Mariastheboss, to last year's edition of the retraining competition. Maria Rose competed in the dressage discipline, while Spots Appeal contested the show jumpers. Wittek bred both horses, raised them, and was aboard them both in their appearances at the Kentucky Horse Park for the Makeover.

Last year, Wittek was starting to wonder about what she should do with the horses' mother, Mariastheboss. Wittek and her father bought the mare out of the 2009 Keeneland September Sale for $2,500 and named her in honor of Wittek's mother. Unfortunately, the mare's racing career was a brief one, as she picked up knee chips in her first and only start. Wittek had the chips taken out and decided to breed her, since she was a fan of the pedigree.

Mariastheboss had eight live foals in her broodmare career. Last year though, her filly was born with a gastrointestinal issue.

“She spent almost two weeks at Hagyard and they were able to fix the baby but I don't think I'll ever financially recover,” said Wittek. “The last time I bred her we were also having a lot of trouble getting her in foal because she was pooling urine in her uterus, So I was trying to decide if I retire her from breeding because it was just getting way too costly and I was also worried for her health.”

Just as Wittek was debating about what to do with “Maria,” who by then was 14, the Retired Racehorse Project announced that this year's Makeover will include the first-ever broodmare division.

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Previously, the training competition has focused on horses who have recently left the racetrack or race training, or who have completed rehabilitation for an injury sustained during racing or training. This year, recently-retired broodmares will also be eligible to compete. They may enter any of the existing disciplines alongside much younger competitors, but will have separate awards given to them, and will compete for a separate pot of $10,000.

“As soon as the article came out that RRP was opening a broodmare division I made my mind up about retiring her from breeding,” said Wittek.

Wittek said Maria had an intense and aggressive attitude on the track, often menacing her training partners.

“She loved being a racehorse,” said Wittek. “A great personality for a racehorse, but not one for someone who wants to cuddle on a pet.”

Horses may enter up to two disciplines at the Makeover. Wittek is hoping Maria may channel that boss mare vibe to the ranch work discipline, where she'll perform basic under-saddle work, face practical obstacles like gates, logs, and bridges, and will also deal with cattle. In the Makeover context, ranch work is designed to test a horse's propensity for the skills they'd need on a working cattle facility.

Wittek said that while she was a broodmare, Maria went out on trail rides a handful of times when she didn't have a foal by her side. Now, she's back in a working routine and seems to be enjoying the mental stimulation.

“Maria loves to work,” said Wittek. “She's been so excited to be put back into some kind of training … I've started jumping her a little too and she is really brave. I'm thinking I may do jumping or field hunters.

“I'm so excited they came out with this division! It is so hard to rehome broodmares. This is going to really help the breed, and I am so glad to be a part of it!”

The post Broodmare Mariastheboss Could Be Following Her Foals To The Thoroughbred Makeover appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Biologic Therapies For Management Of Equine Arthritis: What Are They, And How Do They Work?

In the last few years, a plethora of regenerative therapy options for horses suffering from osteoarthritis have come onto the market. Regenerative therapies focus on depositing new tissue with similar biomechanical function to the original tissue. It differs from tissue reparation, which involves scar tissue, explained Dr. Gustavo M. Zanotto, clinical associate professor of equine sports medicine at Texas A&M University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Limiting inflammation and scar tissue formation makes tissue more functional, reports The Horse. Many vets are now using biologic therapies in the joint, preferring them over corticosteroid joint injections for longer-term efficacy, though there are no studies regarding long-term benefit.

Regenerative medicine involves two proteins: interlekin-1 receptor antagonist protein (IRAP) and growth factors. IRAP is often used in joints; it blocks the cytokine's destructive effects on cartilage. Growth factors stimulate cell growth and survival, tissue repair, inflammation reduction, and cell differentiation.

The use of autologous conditioned serum (ACS) involves collecting blood from the affected horse and incubating it with borosilicate glass beads, which stimulate the white blood cells to release anti-inflammatory cytokines. This is then injected back into the affected joint, stimulating the body to produce more IRAP. The affected joint becomes less painful and the product slows cartilage breakdown.

ACS can also be used to improve healing in tendon injuries.

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is often used for equine tendon injuries. To get PRP, the vet collects blood from the affected horse, combines it with an anticoagulant and separates the cells into platelets and red and white blood cells. These are then injected into the affected tendon. PRP can also be used in joints affected by osteoarthritis (OA).

Autologous protein solution (APS) is derived from plasma and can also be used for horses with OA. It has shown to improve lameness in a small study.

Alpha-2 macroglobulin products (A2M) are used in joints; coagulants are added to blood drawn from an affected horse, put in a centrifuge and the platelet-poor plasma is injected into a concentration kit. The concentrated A2M plasma is then injected back into the horse. It's believed that this limits the breakdown of cartilage by trapping the metalloproteinases.

Zanotto emphasized that not every horse will heal the same way, no matter what biologic product is used, and that no one modality will work for every horse. He reminded vets that they cannot control the variance in horse's blood or the products derived from them.