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AAEP Publishes Contagious Equine Metritis Guidelines

Comprehensive guidelines to assist veterinarians with identification, diagnosis and control of Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM), a non-systemic venereal disease of equines that causes short-term infertility in mares and rare abortion, are now available on the AAEP's website.

Six outbreaks of CEM have occurred in the U.S. in the past 15 years, including a significant outbreak in 2008 to 2010 in which over 1,000 exposed horses in 48 states were required to be tested, resulting in 23 contaminated stallions and five infected mares ultimately identified and treated.

“Outbreaks in the U.S. have demonstrated the risk of incursions and the need for surveillance in the active breeding population to identify cases early and limit disease spread,” said guidelines co-author Dr. Abby Sage, Richmond staff veterinarian for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “Several of these outbreaks also demonstrated significant stallion-to-stallion spread of Taylor equigenitalis via fomites and inadequate biosecurity during semen collection and stallion handling.”

Dr. Sage and co-author Dr. Peter Timoney, the Frederick Van Lennep Chair in Equine Veterinary Science at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center, advise equine practitioners and stallion owners/managers to follow stringent biosecurity protocols when collecting and handling stallions and consider implementation of annual testing of active breeding stallions prior to breeding season as ongoing assurance of disease freedom.

CEM is an internationally reportable disease. When the carrier status of a stallion or infection of a mare is suspected, practitioners should contact their state and/or federal animal health official, who will provide current collection and response procedures for suspect cases.

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The CEM Guidelines were reviewed and approved by the AAEP's Infectious Disease Committee and board of directors. View the guidelines or save them to your mobile device for future reference here.

Besides CEM, AAEP guidelines for 22 additional equine infectious diseases are available here.

California Horseshoeing School Prevails In Constitutional Lawsuit

The Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School has prevailed in a years-long constitutional fight against the state of California, the American Farriers Journal revealed. The state's legislature repealed a law that required students without a high school diploma to complete an entrance exam before enrolling in a private postsecondary institution, essentially making it illegal to teach vocational job skills to students without that diploma.

PCHS owner Bob Smith, a member of the International Horseshoeing Hall of Fame, filed a lawsuit against the state of California in 2017 when the law required him to turn down the enrollment of prospective student Esteban Narez. Narez did not complete high school after suffering a tear in the medial collateral ligament of his knee, and had since been employed at a seven-days-a-week job at a horse farm.

Narez attempted to enroll in PCHS, since farriers are able to make more money than farm hands, but Smith was forced to turn down his application.

“It's legal in California for Esteban to try shoeing a horse on his own, but it's illegal for PCHS to teach Esteban how to horseshoe,” explained Keith Diggs, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented Esteban and PCHS. “Teaching and learning are protected by the First Amendment, and that doesn't change just because Esteban wants to pay PCHS to teach him.”

UCLA School of Law Professor Eugene Volokh filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief supporting Smith and PCHS on the grounds of constitutional free speech.

“For many vocations, including horseshoeing, a high school education and test-taking ability are not required for effective performance,” Volokh wrote. “Indeed, these are among the vocations that may often earn the best living for people without high school diplomas. And rough proxies for supposedly fraudulent speech that risk chilling free speech cannot pass the strict scrutiny required for content-based speech restrictions.”

On June 10, 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision that California likely violated Bob Smith's constitutional rights by prohibiting him from teaching students how to shoe horses.

The repeal of the law came on Sept. 28, 2021.

“These changes will permit students without a high school diploma or the equivalent to enroll in private post-secondary institutions without having to complete the admissions prerequisite of passing an alternate entrance examination,” according to the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). “As a result of the changes, which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2022, a student who is otherwise qualified and has a reasonable prospect of completing an instructional program, but lacks a high school diploma or the equivalent, will no longer have to pass an 'ability-to-benefit' examination in order to enroll in the program.”

“Our trade organizations can have educational requirements, as they are private industry,” Smith told the AFJ. “In a free society, each individual should have the right to try and succeed or try and fail, using their own money and their own time without government interference.”

Read more at the American Farriers Journal.

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Multiple Graded Stakes Winner Albert The Great Euthanized At 23

Multiple graded stakes winner Albert the Great was euthanized November 19 at Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement farm based in Georgetown, KY, where he has been pensioned since 2017.

According to attending veterinarian Dr. Bryan Waldridge, the 23-year-old stallion was euthanized due to chronic sinus infection.

Campaigned by owner Tracy Farmer and trainer Nick Zito, the son of Go for Gin had a short but very prestigious career. He earned his first graded stakes as a 3-year-old capturing the GR2 Dwyer Stakes in 2000 and, later that year, the GR1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. At Saratoga that summer he fell just a stride or two short of victory in the GR1 Travers Stakes.

At 4 he captured the Widener Handicap (G3) at Hialeah Park, the Suburban and Brooklyn Handicaps (G2) at Belmont Park, and ran second in four other GR1 contests, including the GR1 Woodward and Whitney Stakes.

Albert the Great retired from racing in 2001 following a third place finish in the Breeders' Cup Classic with a 8-6-4 record from 22 starts, 15 of which were made in graded stakes. His lifetime earnings totaled $3,012,490. He entered stud in 2002 at Three Chimneys Farm before relocating to Pin Oak Lane in 2008.

He sired such GR1 winners as Moonshine Mullin, Albertus Maximus, and Nobiz Like Shobiz, who is currently retired at Old Friends.

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“Albert the Great was aptly named,” said Old Friends founder and President Michael Blowen. “He was the master and everyone else was just a serf. He didn't need you to be his friend, just his servant. He was certainly a unique iconoclast and he'll be missed. Our thanks to Three Chimneys, Tracy and Carol Farmer, and Nick Zito,” Blowen added. “They raised a great one.”

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Do Fatty Acids Benefit Foals In Utero?

Omega-3 fatty acids have many favorable health effects on horses, including joint, respiratory, and reproductive benefits. Supplementing pregnant mares with omega-3s late in gestation has advantages for their developing foals. However, not all types of omega-3 supplements fed to mares have the same effectiveness.

The two major sources of omega-3 fatty acids for horses are:

Plant-derived short-chain omega-3 fatty acids, primarily alpha linoleic acid (ALA). High levels of ALA are found in flaxseed, canola oil, and other feedstuffs, but ALA must be converted by the horse to long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) for optimal use by horses.

Marine-derived omega-3s rich in the specific omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA. Providing a direct source of these omega-3 fatty acids may be preferred, as the conversion of ALA to long-chain fatty acids is limited in horses.

No study has determined if the omega-3s offered in a mare's diet actually reaches her unborn foal.

To fill this knowledge gap, researchers recently designed a study to measure omega-3 fatty acid levels in foals from supplemented mares. Three diets that provided a similar total amount of omega-3 fatty acids from two different sources were used. The first was a control diet, the second was the control diet plus a commercial flaxseed supplement, and the third was the control diet with a commercial marine-derived omega-3 supplement.

When mares were offered each of these supplements during the last 30 days of gestation, only marine-derived supplementation resulted in a significant increase in DHA levels in foals.

The DHA measured in blood samples from foals born to mares offered only the control diet was 0.6 g/100 g of lipid (fat). In the foals from mares supplemented with the marine-derived omega-3, the DHA was significantly higher at 1.9 g/100 g lipid.

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“No difference in foal DHA blood levels was observed between the control and flaxseed diets, which means these results support the recommendation to provide a direct source of DHA and EPA due to the low conversion rate of ALA to DHA,” relayed Catherine Whitehouse, M.S., a nutritionist for Kentucky Equine Research.

Even though mares were supplemented during the first five days after foaling and foals were nursing those mares, DHA levels declined rapidly. By day five, DHA levels were similar across all diets. On day 30, which was 25 days after the mares were no longer supplemented, the DHA blood level of the foals was only 0.1 g/100 g lipid.

“Continuing to supplement mares throughout nursing until weaning may help maintain higher DHA levels in foals after foaling, providing long-term advantages to growth and development,” suggested Whitehouse.

EO-3, a marine-derived omega-3 supplement developed by Kentucky Equine Research, provides research-proven levels of DHA and EPA, can be top-dressed onto feed easily.

*Snyder, J. N. Shost, R. Miller, K. Fikes, R. Smith, B. Corl, A. Wagner, I. Girard, and J. Suagee-Bedore 2021. Late gestation supplementation of long-chain fatty acids increases foal docosahexaenoic acid concentrations at birth. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 100:103522.

Article reprinted courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research (KER). Visit equinews.com for the latest in equine nutrition and management, and subscribe to The Weekly Feed to receive these articles directly (equinews.com/newsletters).

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