BACKGROUND Cystic echinococcosis (CE), caused by hydatid cysts, is a widespread and hazardous disease in humans and animals worldwide. The disease is very common in Turkey, causing serious economic losses and public health problem. In this study, the seroprevalence of equine CE was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). METHODS Partially purified cyst fluid antigen from shee...

BACKGROUND The number of abandoned or otherwise neglected donkeys has significantly increased in Ireland in the recent past. The real or perceived capacity of the donkey to act as a reservoir of equine infectious disease, and thus pose an increased risk of disease transmission to horses and ponies, may be a factor in this increased abandonment and neglect. The authors here report on a field stu...

Reports about ringworm in donkeys are scanty and refer to zoonotic agents such as Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton verrucosum. Seventeen Asino Amiatina donkeys semi-extensively farmed in paddocks showed alopecic nummular, scaling areas mainly on head and neck. Microsporum racemosum cultivated from the lesions was identified by morphology and PCR. Affected animals healed spontaneousl...

Leptospirosis is a global zoonosis caused by pathogenic spirochetes classified within the genus Leptospira. Leptospires live in the proximal renal tubules of reservoir or chronic carrier animals, and are shed in the urine. Naïve animals acquire infection either when they come in direct contact with a reservoir or infected animals or by exposure to environmental surface water or soil that is con...

Donkeys are bred throughout the world and often play an important role in agriculture. They are also bred to produce mules. Traditionally, jacks are considered challenging to breed in domestic conditions, whether for natural breeding or semen collection using either jennies or mares. The donkey’s natural sexual behaviour significantly differs from that of other domestic animals. This presents c...

Preoperative evaluation In order to get an accurate preoperative evaluation on a donkey or mule, it is important to recognize some of the differences, from horses, which may impact anesthetic management. Only a few of these differences will be discussed, but hopefully, they will serve as a constant reminder that the anesthetist must be on the look-out for differences rather than ASSuming the pa...

There are over two million equine animals in Iran, of which approximately 75% are donkeys. Despite this, very little is known about their parasite status and the impact of this on their work output. Usually, it is the alimentary canal, body cavity and liver that harbor parasites in equine species. In this study, 45 donkeys (Equusasinus) were examined at necropsy. The contents of the stomach, sm...

The donkey (Equus asinus) is a domesticated species from the Equidae family that is economically important and very well adapted to the arid regions of South America, Africa and Asia. However, except for a few studies in the literature related to testis structure and function in donkeys, to our knowledge there is no report regarding spermatogenic and Sertoli cell efficiencies in this equid spec...

The seven donkey breeds recognised by the French studbook are characterised by few coat colours: black, bay and grey. Normand bay donkeys seldom give birth to red foals, a colour more commonly seen and recognised in American miniature donkeys. Red resembles the equine chestnut colour, previously attributed to a mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R). We used a panel of 124 donkeys ...

The aim of this study was to provide two-dimensional (2D) and M-mode echocardiographic reference ranges from a sample of the UK population of donkeys including geriatrics (>30 years), owned by The Donkey Sanctuary, and to assess the influence of gender, weight and age on these variables. A total of 36 donkeys with no clinical or echocardiographic evidence of cardiovascular disease were examined...