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So Scary: Handlers Can Help Horses Overcome Fear Of Novel Objects

Polish researchers recently completed a study designed to help determine why horses are afraid of other animal species. Dr. Anna Wiśniewska and her research team focused specifically on cattle, which many horses seem terrified of.

Cattle and horses have traditionally lived together and were familiar with each other. In many modern operations however, most cattle and horses live separately, so they very rarely encounter one another. Horses kept in suburban areas may go their whole lives without exposure to bovines or other hooved animals.

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When horses that are not used to cows are exposed to one outside of their familiar barn, they may act fearful and try to avoid the cow. The research team from the University of Life Sciences in Lublin, the University of Chester in England, and the Polish Academy of Sciences created a study to determine if horses were more fearful of cows than other novel objects.

They created an experiment using 20 healthy riding horses; they put each horse individually in an arena familiar to them and exposed them to two different cows tethered in the space and a box on wheels. They also exposed them to nothing so they had a control.

The arena was marked off in sections, with section one being closest to the cow and section three being furthest away. The researchers then measured how much time the horses spent at different distances from the cow, as well as the horse's heart rate. The horse's reactions were also recorded.

Two months later, each horse was led either toward one of the cows or toward the box. The horse's heart rate was monitored. While loose, the horses avoided the area closest to the cow and the box; horses that were led became more fearful the closer they got to the cow and the box.

The results showed that the horses were as afraid or more afraid of the cow than a box. The scientists say this reaction suggests that the horse's fear of novel objects may also be a part of a horse's fear of unfamiliar species.

The team concludes that as prey animals, horses are sensitive to unknown and frightening stimuli, and they often act in fear despite years of domestication and selection against fearful behavior. This instinct to avoid fearful objects, living or not, may be exacerbated when the horse is restrained (in this case led toward the object). They also concluded that with handler support, trained horses can be easily habituated to objects they once found scary.

Read the full study here.

Novel Circovirus Identified In A Kentucky Horse

A novel circovirus has been found in a Kentucky horse with liver disease, though it remains unclear whether the virus was the cause of the horse's health problems.

Circoviruses can affect pigs, birds, elk, dogs, cows, pandas, bears, bobcats, pumas, foxes, mink, seals, bats, rodents, fish, and bobcats. They can have no effect on some animals and may be lethal to others.

Dr. Alvin Hui serum tested five horses in Kentucky: one ill and four healthy. The researchers discovered parvovirus-H, equus anellovirus and some distantly related mammalian circoviruses sequences. The circovirus was present in the ill horse, which was a pregnant mare with hepatitis and a fever. The mare was also positive for equine parvovirus-H, which could have been the cause of the liver disease.

The scientists were able to completely map the genome of the equine circovirus 1 strain Charaf (EqCV1-Charaf). The team determined that the equine circovirus genome is most closely related to pig circoviruses PCV1 and PCV2, which are distributed worldwide, and to a Canadian elk circovirus, which has been reported just once.

The team concluded that EqCV1 is a new species in the circovirus genus and the first reported in a horse. Whether the circovirus played a role in the mare's hepatitis is uncertain as the virus's disease-causing ability is unclear.

Read the full article from the journal Viruses.

NZ Horse Diagnosed With Novel Papilloma Virus

A 10-year-old Warmblood gelding in New Zealand was referred to a veterinary clinic with two masses on his left fetlock. The masses were each over an inch in diameter and had hard, rough surfaces. They grew rapidly in the three weeks since the horse's owner had discovered them. A piece of one of the masses was sent for microscopic evaluation and Drs. John Munday, Michael Hardcastle and Melissa Sim determined that a novel papillomavirus caused the lesions.

Papillomaviruses are double-stranded DNA viruses that tend to be host specific. There are nine equine papillomaviruses that have been sequenced; the first to be sequenced was Equus caballus type 1 (EcPV1), which causes papillomas in horses.

The masses the gelding had were most similar to EcPV1, but they didn't present in the same way: EcPV1 generally causes small masses around the face. Veterinarians treated the masses with imiquimod ad the lesions resolved in 14 weeks.

The study team noted that papillomas only develop when a host is infected by a papillomavirus for the first time, which is why warts (papillomas) typically develop in young horses. This is an additional indication that the virus that caused the lesions in the older horse is new.

Read the full study here.