Research Projects Reveal Valuable Breakthroughs

The new director of the Center for Equine Health discusses results of the state’s post-mortem study.

 by GREGORY L. FERRARO, DVM

Many of you may already know me since I have been a veterinary practitioner on the Southern California racetracks for the past 27 years and have been a participant in many of the changes that have occurred in our industry. I was the founding President of the Southern California Equine Foundation and served on the CHRB’s medication advisory committee in years past. I currently serve on the board of directors of both the Southern California Equine and Dolly Green Research Foundations.

My role within the industry, however, has made a dramatic change as of Jan. 1, 1998. Dr. Bennie Osburn, dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at U. C. Davis has asked me to assume the job of director of their Center for Equine Health.

For those of you not familiar with the center, I will give you a brief history. The Center for Equine Health (formerly known as the Equine Research Laboratory) was founded in 1973 and since that time has been a primary force in equine research within the state of California and the United States. Under the direction of my predecessors, Dr. John Hughes and Dr. David Wilson, the center has grown and prospered. Since 1985 a total of 378 different major research projects have been completed. Research funds generated by the CEH support the work of as many as 50 scientists at any one time.

Additionally, the Center operates a 60-acre farm adjacent to the U. C. Davis campus. This facility can house up to 250 horses for its research and educational activities. We also operate the West Coast quarantine and treatment facility for the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Contagious Equine Metritis program.

No other single research entity has had a bigger impact on the knowledge and practice of equine medicine within the Calif. Thoroughbred community than the Center for Equine Health. The research conducted over the last 20 years has provided many answers to vital medical questions and has changed dramatically the approach to dealing with the injured horse.

Having said all that, where do we go from here?

My role, as the new director, will be to build upon this solid foundation and expand and enlarge the scope of the center’s activities. Dean Osburn and the faculty of the Veterinary School have given me the mandate to make the Center for Equine Health a strong and active advocate for the horse and to broaden the center’s participation in solving the problems facing the state’s community of horsemen. As part of that mandate, this series of articles will attempt to both make you more aware of our research and inform you of the latest scientific discoveries made at the Veterinary School.

Over the next several months, I will be introducing you to many of our veterinary scientists, talking about their work, and answering questions that I hope you, the horsemen, will ask. The information will be presented in a simple and precise manner which all of you will be able to use and understand. I promise you that we won’t bore and confuse you with long and complicated scientific explanations. Rather we will present concise little tidbits of information that you can apply to your everyday activities.

As time goes by, those of you who have specific problems with your horses can ask us for solutions that we will in turn provide in succeeding articles. Hopefully, we can develop a dialogue that will be both interesting and useful. The goal will be to make this column a welcome and useful tool for all readers.

So to start us off, let’s talk about a unique system that has been developed between the racing community and the U. C. Davis Veterinary School. The death of anyone’s horse is always a tragedy that’s hard to take. The sense of loss to the horse’s owners and handlers is acute. In California, however, that dark cloud now has somewhat of a silver lining.

Every horse that dies on any racetrack in the state enters into an autopsy program designed by the Veterinary School’s Diagnostic Laboratory System and run in cooperation with the California Horse Racing Board. Each animal’s body is transported to one of the CDVLS’ facilities, where the most extensive and thorough autopsy procedures are done. Not only does this examination provide the attending veterinarian, trainer and owner with the answers to the cause of injury and death, but the results of the many examinations completed over the last 5 years has demonstrated to us significant industry wide patterns of disease. It has given us new leads into cause and effect and has provided a direction for many of our more recent research projects.

Nowhere else in the world are autopsies conducted on so many horses in such a thorough way. We have learned new information about how and why fractures occur. New discoveries in the understanding of why heart attacks occur in seemingly normal and healthy racehorses are beginning to be found as well as what is happening in the lungs of bleeders and the spinal cords of horses with Equine Protozoal Myelitis. This new information is now being channeled into meaningful research projects, which hopefully will help us solve some of these problems.

There are several simple pieces of information, which we have learned that you can put to use right now. For example, by recording the types of shoes worn by all horses that have suffered catastrophic breakdowns, we have realized that if horsemen would use horseshoes with no toe grabs, they could reduce the injury rate to the forelegs of their horses by about 30 percent. Now that’s a fact you can take to the bank!

Did you know that most fractures are not spontaneous events, but rather the result of long-term bone fatigue? That these fractures are preceded by measurable changes in the bone which leads to microfractures and eventually a broken bone? This is much like metal fatigue in aircraft.

We also know that this rate of failure increases as you increase the density of high-speed activity. In other words, the more works and races that you crowd into a given period of time, the more likely your horse is to sustain a fracture because his bones do not have sufficient time to recover from the stress of each speed event. Therefore, if you want your horse to last, spread out his hard works and races. The old horseman’s adage that "a horse needs at least three weeks to recover from a hard race" turns out to be scientifically correct.

Another interesting pattern that we are just now beginning to appreciate is that a very high percentage of horses that suffer fractures of the shoulder or pelvis do so within 60 days of returning to training from an extended lay-up. The question is, what is happening to the bones of these animals while they are at the farm recovering from an injury? Are they weaker when they return or is some other factor involved? We don’t know yet, but you can be certain we will be trying to find out.

In the meantime, the best advice is to take it easy with your horse when he returns to training after a lay-up. Don’t be in a hurry in the beginning. Go slow at first; you will make up the time later and maybe save your horse from further injury. This is an important fact to remember. We, in fact, are beginning to believe that horses’ bones need to be trained into fitness just like their muscles, hearts and lungs.

I personally have learned over the years, that the trainers who have had the most success in bringing horses back from injuries are the ones that take their time and let the horse dictate when he is ready to go on in his training. The older and more experienced the horse, the truer this is.

In another area, you all have head of the current problems in the industry with Equine Protozoal Myelitis (EPM). The disease causes an ataxia, which appears somewhat like "wobbles." It is caused by a parasite, which gets into the horse’s spinal column and causes damage. While the disease is treatable, it is very poorly understood. The Southern California Equine Foundation, realizing how devastating this disease could be to the horse industry, has provided funds to utilize our autopsy program to do important research into the cause and effect. Consequently, every horse that comes in for autopsy has a complete and thorough examination performed on its brain and spinal column. This is no easy job and we, because of our relationship with the racing industry, are the only ones in the position to look at the large number of these cords necessary to complete this important study. Hopefully, our work will be fruitful in providing the information necessary to protect the industry from the menace of EPM.

These are just some of the examples of the knowledge gained through the cooperative efforts between the U. C. Davis Veterinary School and the racing industry. It should demonstrate to you that we, in California, have a truly valuable and unique relationship, one that is truly worth perpetuating.

As you begin to hear more about our scientists and their work, I hope you will be stimulated to comment and ask questions. In that way, we can develop an active dialogue that will help us direct our future efforts. It is our sincere desire that we here at the Center for Equine Health will continue to be a valuable asset to the Thoroughbred industry over the coming years. It is part of my job as director to make that asset available to you all.

So please, help me do that by writing or E-mailing us with your comments and questions. I will attempt, over time, to answer them all.

Ask the Vets

Comments and questions can be mailed to: Dr. Gregory L. Ferraro, Center for Equine Health, School of Veterinary Medicine, One Shields Avenue, Davis, Calif. 95616-8589 E-mail glferraro@ucdavis.edu