• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.374-379
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• 2015

A 10-year-old gelding Warmblood weighing 560 kg was referred to J&C Equine Hospital with the history of hyperpnea, depression, pawing, and rolling for 7 hours. According to the results of clinical and ultrasound examination, it was considered that intestines were distended with thickened wall. The horse had been treated with lactated Ringers' solution (14 L, IV), flunixin meglumine (1.1 mg/kg, IV), and mineral oil (1 L, PO), but he did not show any responses to those treatments. Exploratory laparotomy was performed and identified incarcerated small intestine through the epiploic foramen. The horse received resection and anastomosis of the entrapped small intestine. After surgery, the horse was treated with intensive postoperative care of fluid therapy (5 L with 20 mEq/L KCl, every 2 hours), flunixin meglumine (1.1 mg/kg, IV, sid), antibiotics (penicillin 22,000 IU/kg, IV, qid and gentamicin 6.6 mg/kg, IV, sid), lidocaine constant rate infusion (bolus 1.3 mg/kg over 15 minutes then 0.05 mg/kg/minute), common nutritional supplements, nasogastric intubation every 2 hours and trunk bandage. Postoperative feeding program had started with small amount of hay every 4 hours and gradually increased to normal amount till 5 days. At 77 days after surgery, he showed sudden outbreak of colic and was euthanized. The causes of colic were small intestinal strangulation by passing through the mesenteric rents and postoperative adhesion between small intestines. According to the results, it is recommended to perform perioperative intensive care of horse with colic and to use several methods to prevent adhesions during abdominal surgery of horses.

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.64.1-64.12
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• 2021

Background: Pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), a neurodegenerative disease leading to reduced dopamine production, is a common disease in aged horses. The treatment is based on administration of the dopamine agonist pergolide. This drug has been related to valvular fibrosis in humans, but the cardiovascular effect of this drug has not yet been investigated in horses. Objectives: To determine whether pergolide induces valvular disease in horses or affects the cardiac function. Methods: Standard, tissue Doppler (TDE) and two-dimensional speckle tracking (STE) echocardiography were performed in horses with diagnosed PPID based on adrenocorticotropic hormone dosage. Measurements taken in horses treated with pergolide were compared with those from untreated horses with nonparametric t-tests. Furthermore, measurements from follow-up examinations performed at least three months after the initial exam were compared with a Wilcoxon signed rank test for repeated measurements in each group. Results: Twenty-three horses were included. None of the 12 horses under treatment developed valvular regurgitation. Furthermore, no differences in the measurements of the left ventricular systolic or diastolic function could be seen between the group of horses with treatment and those without treatment. Measurements taken in the follow-up exam did not differ compared to those taken in the initial exam in both groups. Conclusions: No changes of the left ventricular function assessed by TDE and STE could be shown in a small population of horses with confirmed PPID. Treatment with pergolide did not affect the ventricular function nor induce valvular disease.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.651-661
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• 2021

This study aimed to investigate whether breed, sex, and age affected temperament differently (more or less neophobic) in mature horses during a novel object test. The study included Jeju crossbred (n = 12, age = 9.42 ± 4.57 y), Thoroughbred (n = 15, age = 10.73 ± 3.09 y), and Warmblood horses (n = 12, age = 13.08 ± 3.55 y) with the females (n = 22, age = 11.36 ± 4.24 y) and geldings (n = 17, age = 10.65 ± 3.66 y). Jeju crossbreds (Jeju horse × Thoroughbred) are valuable considering their popular usage in Korea, but limited studies have explored temperament of Jeju crossbred horses. A trained experimenter touched the left side of the neck with a white plastic bag (novel object). The test ended when the horse stopped escape response and heart rate (HR) dropped to baseline. Behavioral score and escape duration were measured as behavioral variables. Multiple variables related to HR and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured to reflect emotional state. These included basal HR (BHR), maximum HR (MHR), delay to reach maximum heart rate (Time to MHR), standard deviation of beat-to-beat intervals (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), and ratio of low to high frequency components of a continuous series of heartbeats (LF/HF). Statistics revealed that Thoroughbreds had significantly higher behavioral scores, and lower RMSSD than Jeju crossbreds (p < 0.05), suggesting greater excitement and fear to the novel object in Thoroughbreds. None of the behavioral or cardiac parameters exhibited sex differences (p < 0.05). Age was negatively correlated with SDNN and RMSSD (p < 0.05), indicating that older horses felt more anxiety to the novelty than younger horses. Thoroughbreds and females had distinct correlations between behavioral and HRV variables in comparison with other groups (p < 0.05), implying that escape duration might be a good indicator of stress, especially in these two groups. These results are expected to improve equine welfare, safety and utility, by providing insights into the temperament of particular horse groups, to better match reactivity levels with specific functions.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.199-211
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• 2021

Equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG), produced by the endometrial cups of the placenta after the first trimester, is a specific glycoprotein that displays dual luteinizing hormone (LH)-like and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)-like effects in non-equid species. However, in equidaes, eCG exhibits only LH-like activity. To identify the specific biological functions of glycosylated sites in eCG, we constructed the following site mutants of N- and O-linked glycosylation: eCGβ/αΔ56, substitution of α-subunit⁵⁶ N-linked glycosylation site; eCGβ-D/α, deletion of the O-linked glycosylation sites at the β-subunit, and eCGβ-D/αΔ56, double mutant. We produced recombinant eCG (rec-eCG) proteins in Chinese hamster ovary suspension (CHO-S) cells. We examined the biological activity of rec-eCG proteins in CHO-K1 cells expressing the eLH/CG receptor and found that signal transduction activities of deglycosylated mutants remarkably decreased. The EC₅₀ levels of eCGβ/αΔ56, eCGβ-D/α, and eCGβ-D/αΔ56 mutants decreased by 2.1-, 5.6-, and 3.4-fold, respectively, compared to that of wild-type eCG. The Rmax values of the mutants were 56%-80% those of wild-type eCG (141.9 nmol/10⁴ cells). Our results indicate that the biological activity of eCG is greatly affected by the removal of N- and O-linked glycosylation sites in cells expressing eLH/CGR. These results provide important information on rec-eCG in the regulation of specific glycosylation sites and improve our understanding of the specific biological activity of rec-eCG glycosylation sites in equidaes.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.105-113
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• 2014

Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is an economically important pathogen of horses and exerts its major impact by inducing abortion storms and sporadic abortions in pregnant mares, early neonatal death in foals, and respiratory disease in young horses. Although equine herpesvirus type 4 (EHV-4) rarely causes clinical manifestations of disease in organs other than the respiratory track, isolated cases of myeloencephalopathy and sporadic abortions have been reported in EHV-4 infections. Here, we report an abortion storm in Thoroughbred breeding farms in Jeju island, South Korea. It occurred for 16 days from first abortion to last one. There were no clinical signs prior to abortion and stillbirth in broodmares. Two PCR-primers were made on glycoprotein B gene of EHV-1 and EHV-4 to amplify specific common regions of the viruses. We could detect the virus specific genes in aborted samples by PCR, and concluded that the cause of abortion storm was EHV infection. This report describes the first abortion storm case caused by EHV in Thoroughbred breeding farms in South Korea.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.263-268
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• 2023

Despite regular vaccinations, equine influenza virus (EIV) and Streptococcus equi subsp. equi (strangles) are the cause of highly contagious respiratory infections in horses. Many recent studies have reported that the concurrent administration of two vaccines could simplify horse management and minimize veterinary expenses. However, there is little information available regarding the efficacy of concurrent vaccinations against EIV and strangles. In this study, we evaluated EIV-specific antibody responses following the single EIV vaccination with the recombinant viral-vectored EIV vaccine or concurrent vaccination with the EIV and inactivated strangles vaccines. Blood samples were collected at 1-, 2-, 4-, and 8 weeks post-immunization (wpi) from each group. EIV-specific antibodies were evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay. Both single and concurrent vaccination showed similar levels of EIV-specific serum immunoglobulin g (IgG) at 1 and 2 wpi. However, at 4 to 8 wpi, the EIV-only vaccination group showed significantly higher serum IgG levels than those from the concurrently vaccinated group. The HAI titers showed similar trends as the ELISA data, except at 8 wpi when both groups presented HAI titers with no significant differences. These data demonstrate that the concurrent vaccination against EIV and strangles could compromise the humoral immune response to equine influenza between vaccination intervals, which suggests the use of the consecutive vaccination protocol for EIV and strangles rather than concurrent vaccination.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.180-182
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• 2006

One male Arabian horse, 5-year-old, reared in Gort, Co Galway, Ireland was diagnosed as conjunctivitis. Acupuncture and aquapuncture with dexamethasone were done at BL01, BL02 and ST01, twice a week, and oculo-acupuncture was done into Shangjiao area using with oculo-acupuncture needle for human use. At session 3, there were no lacrimation, ocular discharge and hyperemia in the eye. The present patient was a case with equine conjunctivitis which showed favorable therapeutic response by acupuncture treatment.

• Mass Spectrometry Letters
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.158-165
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• 2022

Many therapeutic class drugs such as beta-blocker, corticosteroids, NSAIDs, etc are prohibited substances in the horse racing industry. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) technology makes it possible to isolate drugs from interference, enables various drug analyses in complex biological samples due to its sensitive sensitivity, and has been successfully applied to doping control. In this paper, we describe a rapid and sensitive method based on solid-phase extraction (SPE) using solid phase cartridge and LC-MS/MS to screen for different class's 35 drug targets in equine plasma. Plasma samples were pretreated by SPE with the NEXUS cartridge consisted non-polar carbon resin and minimum buffer solvent. Chromatographic separation of the analytes was performed on ACQUITY HSS C18 column (2.1 × 150 mm, 1.8 ㎛). The elution gradient was conducted with 5 mM ammonium formate (pH 3.0) in distilled water and 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile at a flow rate of 0.25 mL/min. The selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode was used for drug screening with multiple transitions in the positive ionization mode. The specificity, limit of detection, recovery, and stability was evaluated for validation. The method was found to be sensitive and reproducible for drug screening. The method was applied to plasma sample analysis for the proficiency test from the Association of Racing Chemist.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.268-272
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• 2010

South Korea is susceptible to foreign diseases due to its high rate of livestock importation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the infectious conditions of contagious disease of horses imported into South Korea from other countries. The horses were tested for contagious equine metritis (CEM), equine infectious anemia (EIA), equine piroplasmosis (EP), equine viral arteritis (EVA), vesicular stomatitis (VS), dourine, and glanders. The prevalence of these infectious diseases in 6,650 horses imported from 24 countries between 2003 and 2008 was reviewed by the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service. Seropositive results were found for EIA, EP, EVA, dourine and glanders: 3/6,189 serum samples tested were EIA-positive, 37/6,005 samples tested by complement fixation (CF) were EP-positive, 28/6,043 samples tested by virus neutralization (VN) were EVA-positive, 4/2,071 serum samples tested by CF were positive for dourine, and 4/1,950 samples tested by CF were positive for glanders. No contagious equine metritis or vesicular stomatitis was detected. In total, 76/6,650 imported horses tested positive for an infectious disease. Notably, 4/6 sera (66.6%), all taken from horses imported from Tanzania, were positive for glanders. This is the first report of glanders infection in horses from Tanzania since 1996.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the concentration of seminal plasma in aerobic and anaerobic conditions on the total motility(TM) and the progressive motility(PM) of spermatozoa in long term preservation of cooled equine semen. We also examine the pregnancy rates after artificial insemination using fresh, cooled or frozen semen, and different durations of cooled-preserved equine semen. In the aerobic state of cooled-preserved semen, As the increase of preserved duration to 24h, 48h, 72h, and 96h, TM tended to decrease in each of different concentrations of formalin-containing experimental group, TM tended to decrease regardless of the concentrations of SP. In different concentrations of SP, TM of without seminal plasma(SP W/O) group tended to be higher than that of SP 20%, SP 33% and SP 50%, especially TM of SP W/O group was significantly higher than other groups at 96 h (p<0.05). PM was higher in the groups of SP W/O and SP 20% than in the groups of SP 33% and SP 50% from 24 h to 72 h in cooled-preservation, especially PM of SP W/O group was significantly higher than other groups at 96 h (p<0.05). In the anaerobic condition of cooled-preserved semen, the results of TM and PM at different concentrations of SP were similar to the results in the aerobic condition although there was a difference in the ratio. The pregnancy rates of fresh-cooled, cooled-preserved and frozen semen were 66.3%, 60.7% and 34.5%, respectively, and the pregnancy rate of frozen semen was the lowest. We also found that it is possible to pregnancy after artificial insemination using 72 h cooled-preserved equine semen. There was similar of the pregnancy rates in the different month from April to August.