pneumonia | Horse Racing Free Tips

Foals With Interstitial Pneumonia May Have New Parvovirus

Foals in California have occasionally become seriously ill due to a form of pneumonia with an unknown cause, often in the spring and summer. Research from Dr. Eda Altan and colleagues at the University of California has found that a new parvovirus may be to blame.

The scientists looked at six foals who had succumbed to interstitial pneumonia, which affects the tissue surrounding the air sacs in lungs. Also called foal acute respiratory distress syndrome or severe bronchointerstitial pneumonia of foals, the condition often affects just one foal at a location.

Though the disease can look like other respiratory viral infections, no association to any other virus has been found.

The research team sequenced spleen, lung, and colon content samples from each of the foals after their deaths. They found equine copiparvovirus (genus of viruses in subfamily Parvovirinae of the virus family Parvoviridae) as well three previously uncharacterized viruses in the samples.

The study team went on to classify the unknown viruses as members of new ungulate protoparvovirus and bocaparvovirus species in the Parvoviridae family.

These discoveries don't prove that these viruses play a role in interstitial pneumonia, the scientists said. Additional studies are required to prove a disease-causing link.

Read the study here.

Let Them Eat: Horses Undergoing Non-Abdominal Surgery May Be Better Off Eating

Much like human doctors, veterinarians often recommended that horses slated for surgery fast before undergoing anesthesia. In humans, this reduces the risk of the development of aspiration pneumonia; in horses it was thought to decrease the risk of post-operative colic. However, a study has shown that there may be no need for horses scheduled for non-abdominal surgery to refrain from eating.

A retrospective study over a two-year period used 1,965 horses older than two years old that were referred to the Oakridge Equine Hospital in Edmond, Okla., for non-emergency, non-abdominal procedures. The horses had not fasted prior to their surgeries.

Dr. Patricia Baily and her study team found that only 2.5 percent of the horses that had not been fasted became colicky. They also found no correlation between the age of the horse, the surgery performed or the duration of the anesthesia and colic risk.

The scientists conclude that allowing a horse to eat prior to undergoing general anesthesia for a non-abdominal surgery doesn't increase his colic risk. In fact, allowing the horse to eat may help him maintain gut motility, reducing the risk of post-operative colic.