Published January, 2015

To kick-start the educational sessions at the 2014 American Association of Equine Practitioners' (AAEP) Convention, held Dec. 6-10 in Salt Lake City, Utah, three veterinarians presented their favorite surgery, medicine, and reproduction studies from the past year. On the breeding side, researcher and Texas A&M University theriogenology professor Terry Blanchard, DVM, Dipl. ACT, described 12 equine reproduction-related papers sure to impact the industry. Of those, two featured work done by University of Kentucky researchers:

Using Acute Phase Proteins to Monitor Placentitis

Researchers from the University of Kentucky hypothesized that certain types of proteins become elevated in mares with placentitis (inflammation of the placenta, an important cause of pregnancy loss). To verify this, they measured concentrations of the proteins serum amyloid A (SAA) and haptoglobin (Hp), as well as white blood cell counts (WBC) and fibrinogen concentrations in mares with experimentally induced placentitis. They determined that SAA and Hp levels increased significantly after induced infection and remained high until the mares aborted. Fibrinogen concentrations and WBC counts, on the other hand, were not useful markers. Blanchard said these results raise the question of whether veterinarians can use SAA or Hp screening to identify at-risk mares earlier in the course of the disease.

• Canisso IF, Ball BA, Cray C, et al. Serum amyloid A and haptoglobin concentrations are increased in plasma of mares with ascending placentitis in the absence of changes in peripheral leukocyte counts or fibrinogen concentration. Am J Reprod Immunol. 2014;72(4):376-85. 

Bacteria Transmission from Stallions to Mares Post-Breeding

A group from the University of Kentucky looked at the presence of bacteria on stallions' external genitalia and whether that bacteria were recovered from mares post-breeding with live cover. They used 15 stallions and 206 mares from two Central Kentucky farms. They determined that 22% of the stallions were positive for potentially pathogenic bacteria, yet only 29% of the mares bred to those positive stallions had positive uterine cultures the following day. The researchers also looked for potential correlations between whether a mare cultured positive after being bred to a negative or a positive stallion and found no significant relationship between these factors. They concluded that breeding to stallions with positive cultures did not increase the incidence of positive post-breeding uterine cultures in mares. "This is probably going to be of interest to those of you who are responsible for monitoring stallions in breeding sheds where natural service occurs," Blanchard noted. "The authors’ findings encourage us not to be overzealous in treating many of these stallions that culture positive for potential pathogens."

• Cerny KL, Little TV, Scoggin CF, et al. Presence of Bacteria on the External Genitalia of Healthy Stallions and its Transmission to the Mare at the Time of Breeding by Live Cover. J Equine Vet Sci. 2014;34(3):369-374.

For a complete recap of the reproduction studies presented, see the article Top Equine Reproduction Studies of 2014.

Alexandra Beckstett, The Horse Managing Editor