infectious disease | Horse Racing Free Tips

Hagyard First Private Practice To Offer Rotavirus B Testing

Edited Press Release

Hagyard Equine Medical Institute announced that they are now offering PCR testing for Rotavirus B. The Rotavirus PCR test is available as a single test or as part of Hagyard's Neonatal Panel or Foal Diarrhea Panel.

Rotaviruses are serious, life-threatening diseases that are highly contagious in foals. Rotavirus B was a novel strain discovered in Central Kentucky during the 2021 foaling season. It was quickly identified as a new strain, responsible for a wave of neonatal foals that presented with severe diarrhea between one and four days of age. Some farms even felt the effects of a 100% morbidity rate.

“This new strain caused considerable concern for our industry in the 2021 foaling season. To be able to offer testing moving into the 2022 foaling season is a great relief for our clients,” said Nathan Slovis, DVM, DACVIM, CHT of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. His credentials also include Director of the McGee Medicine Center and he is considered a world leader in equine infectious disease response.

As with all Rotaviruses, biosecurity precautionary measures should be taken to reduce the risk of infection to other horse:

1) Ensure that other horses do not come in contact with the infected foal;

2) Utilize separate or disinfected tools to clean their stall or paddock, and;

3) Wear disposable gloves when working with the foal. Wash your hands when you are finished.

Bleach is ineffective against rotavirus, so disinfects such as Tek-Trol, Biophene, Environ, Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (Rescue) and Stroke-1 are examples of disinfectants that can be used.

Research is being conducted to better understand the virus and to develop a vaccine for young, susceptible horses. Current vaccines for Rotavirus A do not protect against the new B strain. To that end, Hagyard's testing and Laboratory can differentiate Rotavirus B from Rotavirus A strains.

“Being on the forefront of challenging our industry's problems is what has set us apart for the last 145 years”, Slovis continued. “Hagyard has always championed innovation to improve the care and wellbeing of these amazing animals.”

“We felt it was important that veterinarians both within and outside of the Hagyard practice have access to a lab like ours,” added Luke Fallon, DVM, who is the Medical Director of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute. “It's a crucial component of any comprehensive wellness plan.”

Hagyard's Laboratory offers its services to all veterinarians. Testing is available in blood bank, chemistry, Coggins, cytology, endocrinology, hematology, microbiology, PCR and serology. It has also won awards for its Laboratory Information System and is accredited by the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute.

Additional information about Hagyard's Laboratory can be found here.

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New Arrangements For Equine Infectious Disease Surveillance In England

The Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) has announced the implementation of key steps towards re-establishing on a long-term basis the essential equine infectious disease surveillance provision that had been performed by the Animal Health Trust (AHT) until its closure in July 2020.

Acting on the recommendations of an industry-wide committee set up to assess options for the future, HBLB has concluded an agreement from August 2021 with Rossdales Ltd to provide the diagnostic microbiology testing capacity, arrangements that will work in conjunction with the epidemiological surveillance and monitoring unit that will now be based at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School.

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Since the closure of the AHT, the surveillance services have been provided by the former AHT team headed by Dr. Richard Newton on a temporary basis under contract to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). This team will be employed by Cambridge University under the new agreement and will continue to respond to disease outbreak incidents and to produce daily updates on infectious disease reports worldwide for the benefit of the health of all horses, Thoroughbred and non-Thoroughbred.

Over the past year, diagnostics have been available to Dr. Newton's team on an ad hoc basis from Rossdales Ltd, and funded by HBLB. Full coverage has therefore been maintained, meaning that the team was able to respond promptly and effectively to any incidents of disease.

The new arrangements will span an interim period of at least two years while options for the longer term are considered and developed.

Funding will be provided, as previously, by HBLB, racehorse owners and the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association (TBA). Discussions are also being held with the sport and leisure horse interests regarding potential contributions in the future.

In addition, HBLB has formed a representative oversight committee, with HBLB Government Appointed Member Anne Lambert as its chair. The membership will include representatives from HBLB's Veterinary Advisory Committee, the TBA, the Racehorse Owners Association, the BHA and the non-Thoroughbred sport and leisure sectors. This committee will have responsibility for monitoring the service in its initial phase and for designing plans for future, with the paramount objective of safeguarding the national herd. Full engagement between the Thoroughbred and non-Thoroughbred sectors in respect of infectious disease management will underpin the work which includes the development of an epidemic risk management plan.

Alan Delmonte, Chief Executive of HBLB, said: “This is an important milestone in putting in place successor arrangements to the services that had been carried out by the Animal Health Trust for a long time. A full evaluation of the current situation and the equine sector's requirements took place including through a tender process that was announced by BHA in 2020. Substantial work has been done by Stephen Atkin, who was retained to act as project manager of this complex area that has taken many months to consider. As well as now engaging the widely recognized expertise of Rossdales, it will be welcomed that it has been possible to retain the previous AHT team headed by Dr. Richard Newton. All in the equine sector are grateful to them for continuing to provide disease monitoring coverage and reaction to outbreaks given the challenging circumstances of the past year.”

Dr. Alastair Foote, director of Rossdales Laboratories, added: “We are delighted to have been awarded the tender, and to be able to provide continuity of the former AHT services that were critical to the equine industry, maintaining essential diagnostic testing and surveillance work. Our recent major investment in new laboratory facilities at our Newmarket site has meant we have been able to rapidly accommodate the required testing requirements, with new tissue culture and virus isolation facilities, and we look forward to working alongside the surveillance and research team at Cambridge.”

Vet School Receives Grant To Invest In The Power Of Pathology And Genomics

A $2 million grant from the Mass Life Sciences Center has helped launch the Comparative Pathology and Genomics Shared Resource at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, a shared resource with state-of-the-art equipment that fills newly renovated laboratory space. For Cheryl London, a veterinary oncologist and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education, it represents a long-time vision becoming reality.

“Understanding the pathology of infectious diseases is more critical than ever,” said London, who added that the resource will lead to improvements in the treatment and prevention of diseases in humans through detailed genetic characterization of model systems and the associated pathology across species.

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London tapped two Cummings School faculty members to lead the effort: assistant professor Amanda Martinot, a veterinary pathologist who focuses on infectious diseases such as SARS CoV-2 and tuberculosis, and assistant research professor Heather Gardner, GBS20, a veterinary oncologist and geneticist.

Cummings School has been investing in this goal for quite some time. In 2020, the 7,500-square-foot Peabody Pavilion was renovated into modern, flexible lab space designed to support multidisciplinary teams. In addition, the resource will leverage Tufts resources such as the New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory (RBL).

“When fully operational, this resource will offer advanced capacities for credentialling and analyzing animal models of disease that will help to grow collaborative opportunities among regional academic and industry entities; provide training opportunities for students, fellows, scientists and clinicians; and ultimately support job growth through expansion of the research enterprise in Central Massachusetts,” said London.

Projects in the Pipeline

Martinot's research has focused on tuberculosis (TB). When the Martinot Lab and her collaborators—Cummings School assistant professor Gillian Beamer, Tufts University School of Medicine associate professor Bree Aldridge, and Harvard University professor Peter Sorger, head of the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Sciences—identified some rare lung biopsies and archived lung specimens from tuberculosis patients that were taken during autopsies many years ago, Martinot thought they were a natural pilot project for the Comparative Pathology and Genomics Shared Resource.

“We're trying to understand the biology of tuberculosis in human tissue, what helps the body clear TB, and what fuels TB progression,” said Martinot. “We use a lot of animal models to try to understand these processes, but there's no animal model that perfectly mimics human TB disease.”

The resource's new technology can extract meaningful genetic information from the immune cells surrounding and within granulomas, a hallmark pathologic feature of tuberculosis—something they haven't been able to do before. This technology also will allow them to obtain similar information from a variety of pathology samples.

Another pilot project aims to advance research by London and Gardner in canine osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer that affects more than 25,000 dogs each year. In 2019, they published findings of a study that detailed the landscape of genetic mutations in canine osteosarcoma, and more recently completed a clinical trial to test a new immunotherapy treatment on dogs diagnosed with this type of cancer. The Clinical Trials Office at Cummings School has treated a number of canine osteosarcoma patients, allowing banking of associated biologic samples for further investigation. With these tissue samples, investigators can ask questions about the molecular and genomic features of cancer over time and identify clinical and pathologic correlates.

“Animals get a lot of the same diseases that people do, and the information we learn from animals with these diseases can inform investigation of novel research opportunities across species,” said Gardner.

“We can start to interrogate the combination of pathology with genetics and follow how the cancer is mutating,” Martinot said. “And we can look at where these cancer cells live to try to understand how the microenvironment might be supporting the progression of the cancer. That information could lead to potential treatment options.”

Paul Mathew, an oncologist at Tufts Medical Center and an associate professor at Tufts School of Medicine, is interested in using the resource's technology to ask similar questions about prostate cancer using biopsies from human patients. He wants to understand the tumor and how the microenvironment changes over time in prostate cancer patients. The School of Medicine is one of many potential users of the resource—others include UMass Medical School and Medical Center, which has plans for a new Veterans Administration outpatient clinic and Institute for Human Genetics.

The Technology Inside

The resource is home to “cutting edge new technology that integrates pathology and genomics,” said Martinot. “With the help of this grant, we can do whole genome sequencing for genetic analysis of pathogens, tumors, and anything imaginable where the DNA sequence might make a difference.”

The goal is to help drive discovery, adds Gardner. “We have equipment to support next generation sequencing projects, such as a liquid handler robot to help automate sample processing and an Illumina sequencer. We also have a suite of NanoString equipment, which is a platform that will allow increased use of samples historically considered difficult to work with, including formalin-fixed samples, which are often very degraded.”

The new technology that will power this effort falls into two main categories:

Highly multiplexed immunofluorescence imaging, which combines the microscopic study of tissue samples with high-dimensionality analysis tools. Martinot's lab members are currently training in the Sorger Laboratory at Harvard to apply a specific form of this technology, tissue cyclic immunofluorescence (t-CyCIF), to animal models of infectious disease.
Next Generation Sequencing and Nanostring Technology, which includes short-read sequencing, single-cell sequencing, and digital spatial profiling capabilities.

Everyone involved with the shared resource is excited about its future potential and the opportunity to see it grow. As Gardner said, “The opportunities to impact research, in all areas, are limited by the investigators' imagination.”

AAEP Publishes Epizootic Lymphangitis Guidelines

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) has published on its website comprehensive guidelines to assist practitioners and regulatory agencies with identification, diagnosis and control of epizootic lymphangitis, a contagious, chronic granulomatous disease of the skin, lymphatic vessels and nodes of the limbs, neck and chest of horses and other equid species.

Although epizootic lymphangitis is not known to occur in horses in the United States, the disease is common in parts of Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Asia, where it is responsible for significant morbidity with chronic weight loss and progressive debility in affected animals.

“While epizootic lymphangitis has not been recorded in the United States, its importance as a transboundary/foreign animal disease needs to be emphasized because of its similarity to several domestic diseases with which it can be clinically mistaken, including ulcerative lymphangitis and streptothricosis,” said guidelines author Peter Timoney, MVB, MS, Ph.D., FRCCVS, the Frederick Van Lennep Chair in Equine Veterinary Science at the University of Kentucky's Gluck Equine Research Center. “Were it to be introduced, the causal agent can survive in dust and soil for an extended interval under conditions of heat and humidity, making it virtually impossible to eliminate.”

Epizootic lymphangitis is an OIE non-listed disease even though it is of significant socioeconomic importance in countries in which it is endemic, some of which engage in international trade of animals and animal products. Any suspicion of the disease in the United States is immediately reportable to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and State Animal Health Officials in all 50 states and territories.

The Epizootic Lymphangitis Guidelines were edited and reviewed by Abby Sage, VMD, DACVIM, chair of the Infectious Disease Guidelines Subcommittee of the AAEP's Infectious Disease Committee.

View the Epizootic Lymphangitis Guidelines or save them to your mobile device as a PDF file here. Besides epizootic lymphangitis, AAEP guidelines for two other foreign animal diseases are available here. In addition, AAEP guidelines for 22 other equine infectious diseases are available here.