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    Egg reappearance periods associated with anthelmintic treatments given to horses in winter and summer over two years
    (Elsevier B.V., 2024-12-18) Scott I; Lawrence KE; Gee EK
    Shortened egg reappearance periods (ERP) have been seen as an early warning of anthelmintic resistance development in cyathostomins in horses. The hypothesis has been that in these instances, efficacy against egg laying adult cyathostomins remains high, but a decline in activity against later larval stages leads to the earlier resumption of egg shedding after treatment. In this study using a single herd of horses we investigated the ERP of a number of commonly used equine anthelmintics and examined whether ERP might show seasonal variation between winter and summer. Four main Faecal egg count reduction tests (FECRT1–4) were conducted respectively in Winter (Jun/Jul) 2019, Summer (Jan/Feb) 2020, Winter 2020 and Summer 2021. The tests examined the efficacy and ERP of ivermectin, moxidectin, abamectin and fenbendazole. Egg counts of two groups of horses were monitored before and for 6–7 weeks after treatment - however long it took for counts to return to at least 10 % of what they had been before treatment. One additional FECRT was also conducted, using a second abamectin-containing product (FECRT5 - Spring 2020). Treatment with ivermectin (FECRT1–4), moxidectin (FECRT 1–2) and the first abamectin product tested (FECRT3) all reduced egg counts by >99 % for 4 weeks after treatment, with ERP of 5–7 weeks and with minimal differences between the 3 treatments. There was a tendency for counts to rise more rapidly in summer, and in the second year of testing as opposed to the first. Both the second abamectin product (FECRT5) and the fenbendazole (FECRT4) were found to be ineffective, reducing egg counts immediately after treatment by 68 and 52 % respectively.
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    Risk Factors for Horse Fatality in Thoroughbred Jumps Racing in New Zealand.
    (Elsevier B.V., 2023-10-01) Gibson MJ; Legg KA; Gee EK; Rogers CW
    The aim of this study was to examine the race-, horse- and jockey-level risk factors for race day fatality in New Zealand Thoroughbred jumps racing using retrospective race day data from the 2011/12 to 2021/22 seasons (n = 8,970 starts). There were 51 race day fatalities resulting in an incidence rate of 5.7 per 1,000 starts (95% C.I. 4.3-7.5). The majority of fatalities were the result of fractures (44/51, 4.9 per 1,000 starts, 95% C.I. 3.7-6.6). Steeplechase and hurdle races had the same incidence of fatal fractures of 4.9 per 1,000 starts (95% C.I. 3.7-6.6, P > .05). Most (70.5%) of the fatal fractures were due to a horse falling during the race. In steeplechase races, horses running in races over 4,201 m were 5.0 times (95% C.I. 1.2-33.0) more likely to sustain a fatal fracture than horses in racing over shorter distances. In hurdle races, horses racing during spring were 2.2 times (95% C.I. 1.0-4.8) more likely to sustain a fatal fracture compared to winter. Due to the low number of suspected cardiac failures and fatal soft tissue injuries, risk factors for these fatalities could not be identified. These data provide a baseline to enable evidence-based regulatory changes and prospectively monitor the effectiveness of changes made.
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    Dietary Transitions Toward Sustainable Horse Feeding.
    (Elsevier B.V., 2023-07-07) Karasu GK; Rogers CW; Gee EK
    Sustainability is the balancing act of optimizing the use of current resources without compromising the current or future environment. Within the agriculture sector the primary focus of sustainability has been to reduce environmental pollution, specifically greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions, nitrogen emissions, and leaching. For the equine industry the first step towards sustainability is the documentation and critique of current feeding and management practices to permit modifications to enable the industry meet social and legislative obligations. As a monogastric hindgut fermenter on a per kg bodyweight basis the horse has relatively lower GHG emissions compared to ruminants. However, there are several opportunities to further reduce the environmental impact of the equine industry. The majority of these relate to subtle changes, or consideration of, improving feed conversion, using alternative ingredients, and management of fecal material associated with intensive husbandry. To initiate the journey towards sustainability this review documents opportunities with current equine feeding and management practices to reduce the environmental impacts of the equine industry.
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    Immune response to allogeneic equine mesenchymal stromal cells
    (BioMed Central Ltd, 2021-12) Kamm JL; Riley CB; Parlane NA; Gee EK; McIlwraith CW
    BACKGROUND: Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are believed to be hypoimmunogeneic with potential use for allogeneic administration. METHODS: Bone marrow was harvested from Connemara (n = 1), Standardbred (n = 6), and Thoroughbred (n = 3) horses. MSCs were grouped by their level of expression of major histocompatibility factor II (MHC II). MSCs were then sub-grouped by those MSCs derived from universal blood donor horses. MSCs were isolated and cultured using media containing fetal bovine serum until adequate numbers were acquired. The MSCs were cultured in xenogen-free media for 48 h prior to use and during all assays. Autologous and allogeneic MSCs were then directly co-cultured with responder leukocytes from the Connemara horse in varying concentrations of MSCs to leukocytes (1:1, 1:10, and 1:100). MSCs were also cultured with complement present and heat-inactivated complement to determine whether complement alone would decrease MSC viability. MSCs underwent haplotyping of their equine leukocyte antigen (ELA) to determine whether the MHC factors were matched or mismatched between the donor MSCs and the responder leukocytes. RESULTS: All allogeneic MSCs were found to be ELA mismatched with the responder leukocytes. MHC II-low and universal blood donor MSCs caused no peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferation, no increase in B cells, and no activation of CD8 lymphocytes. Universal blood donor MSCs stimulated a significant increase in the number of T regulatory cells. Neutrophil interaction with MSCs showed that universal blood donor and MHC II-high allogeneic MSCs at the 6 h time point in co-culture caused greater neutrophil activation than the other co-culture groups. Complement-mediated cytotoxicity did not consistently cause MSC death in cultures with active complement as compared to those with inactivated complement. Gene expression assays revealed that the universal blood donor group and the MHC II-low MSCs were more metabolically active both in the anabolic and catabolic gene categories when cultured with allogeneic lymphocytes as compared to the other co-cultures. These upregulated genes included CD59, FGF-2, HGF, IDO, IL-10, IL-RA, IL-2, SOX2, TGF-β1, ADAMSTS-4, ADAMSTS-5, CCL2, CXCLB/IL-8, IFNγ, IL-1β, and TNFα. CONCLUSIONS: MHC II-low MSCs are the most appropriate type of allogeneic MSC to prevent activation of the innate and cell-mediated component of the adaptive immune systems and have increased gene expression as compared to other allogeneic MSCs.