Health strategy makes horse sense.

An article by Clare Illingworth, SPARK writer, University of Guelph.




Detecting foal pneumonia late in the disease process reduces the chances of successful treatment. Now, University of Guelph researchers are developing an early detection method borrowed from human medicine.

Prof. Carolyn Kerr and graduate student Kadri Uukkivi of the Department of Clinical Studies are studying a substance that lowers water surface tension on the lung’s moist inner surface and reduces the effort required to breathe. The substance — called pulmonary surfactant — is present in all mammalian lungs, but may be diminished in animals with lung disease such as bacterial pneumonia.

In human medicine, pulmonary surfactant can be used to help treat lung disease. Replacing missing surfactant in the lungs may speed recovery, says Kerr, who hopes to adopt the process for future equine research.

“Pneumonia is all too common on large breeding farms,” she says. “By using this substance as a marker, we may be able to detect an infection in the lungs of foals early and, as a result, have better treatment success.”

She and Uukkivi are comparing lung function and surfactant levels in healthy horses and in a group infected with bacterial pneumonia.

“We hope to create a guide-line that will allow early detec-tion of the infection,” says Kerr. “For both veterinary institutes and on-farm veterinarians, this will be a practical way to improve treatment success and lower negative effects on future athletic careers.”

This study will be conducted in a new facility dedicated to large animal lung health at the University of Guelph, built with support from the Canada Foun-dation for Innovation.

Other researchers involved in this study include Profs. Laurent Viel, Firestone Equine Research Laboratory in the Department of Clinical Studies, and Jeff Caswell, Department of Pathobiology. This research was also spon-sored by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food and the E.P. Taylor Equine Research Fund.