The feeding and drinking behavior of 11 mares and 15 foals living on pasture with free access to water was recorded during 2,340 15-min focal samples taken over 2 yr. Lactating mares on pasture spent about 70% of the day feeding. Foals began feeding on their first day of life. As they grew older, they spent progressively more time feeding, but still spent only 47 -+ 6% of the time feeding by 21...

ABSTRACT: The aims of this study were: 1) determine total specific IgG and subisotypes in serum colostrum pregnant mares vaccinated against Theileria equi Streptococcus subspecies equi; 2) foals born from these mares. In mares, the highest value for T. was at 335 days gestation declining 30 postpartum, while S. 328 remaining high up to postpartum. Transfer passive immunity both antigens observe...

Virulent Rhodococcus equi causes pyogranulomatous bronchopneumonia in foals. The route of infection of foals has been considered to be inhalation of aerosolized bacteria from soil that is contaminated with equine feces. Thus, disease caused by R. equi has been regarded as an opportunistic infection of environmental origin and not a contagious disease. In this study, we report the exhalation of ...

Rhodococcus equi is one of the most important causes of disease in foals. Infection is typically characterized by pyogranulomatous pneumonia although extrapulmonary infections occur occasionally. Uveitis and polysynovitis have been reported in foals naturally infected with R. equi and are thought to be the result of an immune-mediated process. However, the pathogenesis of these conditions is po...

Sepsis causes significant mortality in neonatal foals; however, there is little data describing the cellular and molecular pathways of lung inflammation in septic foals. This study was conducted to characterize lung inflammation in septic foals. Lung tissue sections from control (n = 6) and septic (n = 17) foals were compared using histology and immunohistology. Blinded pathologic scoring of he...

The goals of this study were to evaluate titers of antibodies against Lawsonia intracellularis in 68 resident broodmares from a farm known to be endemic for equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) and to evaluate maternal antibodies, occurrence of seroconversion and fecal shedding in their foals. Serum samples collected from mares at delivery and from foals pre- and post-colostrum ingestion and ...

A 1996 Kentucky Equine Research (KER) study monitored the incidence of developmental orthopedic disease (Pagan and Jackson, 1996). The results of this study provided early evidence of the importance of nutrition of the mare to the proper growth and development of the foal. The farm in this study produced 271 foals. Ten percent of the foals showed signs of developmental orthopedic disease by rad...

PROLIFERATIVE enteropathy caused by the obligate intracellular organism Lawsonia intracellularis has been described in a number of domestic and wild animal species (Lawson and Gebhart 2000). In horses, the disease is known as equine proliferative enteropathy (EPE) and has been reported from North America (most American states and Canada), Europe (Great Britain, Belgium and Switzerland) and Aust...

Absorption of maternal antibodies from colostrum is important for protection of foals against specific infectious diseases but also substantially interferes with the response of foals to many vaccinal antigens. It is now well documented that the response of foals from vaccinated mares to inactivated influenza vaccines is blocked until at least 6 months of age, and administration of influenza va...

The purpose of this study was to determine if colostrum-deprived foals with experimentally induced Rhodococcus equi pneumonia have a decreased severity of the disease and decreased mortality rate when given hyperimmune (HI) R. equi antibody plasma (R. equi titer at least 100 % and virulence-associated protein A [VapA] at least 10000) prophylactically versus when given normal equine plasma (R. e...