No abstract available.
Horses*

No abstract available.
Horses* ; Intracranial Hypotension*

Anti P. aeruginosa immunoglobulin prepared from horses have proved to be effective as a supplement to the conventional methods for early treatment of P. aeruginosa infection on animal. The results showed that anti P. aeruginosa immunoglobulin have protective value: P. aeruginosa number on surface of burn wounds decreased on 3rd day after treatment; protective effect manifested in mice infected intraperitoneally with P. aeruginosa with the doses from 2LD50 to 4LD50. The results in vivo on animal showed that anti P. aeruginosa immunoglobulin should be applicated in clinical trial to demonstrate its efficiency as a part of complete treatment of burn patients, with purulent sepsis complication
Immunoglobulins ; Pseudomonas aeruginosa ; Horses ; animals

Exercise is one of the most common stressors in horses. Although various physiological parameters such as cortisol respond to exercise, there is no reliable parameter for the measurement of exercise-induced stress in sport horses. This study was performed to discover a new biomarker with high sensitivity for exercise-induced stress. The expression of fos mRNA was increased more than 10-fold in horse blood samples collected after an hour of exercise, as compared with before the exercise. The plasma cortisol levels were also increased after the exercise, but only by about two-fold. The fos mRNA levels were well-correlated with plasma cortisol concentrations. These findings suggest that fos mRNA expression in blood may be useful for the measurement of exercise-induced stress in horses.
Horses* ; Hydrocortisone ; Plasma ; RNA, Messenger ; Sports

BACKGROUND: Anti-OF (opacity factor) antibody (Ab) is useful to study past infection or outbreak of group A streptococci (GAS) and to identify OF antigen (Ag). Throat cultures were taken from 172 elementary school children and venous blood were collected at the same time to screen the frequency of anti-OF Ab. METHODS: The presence of OF Ag was recognized by turbidity of horse serum. OF Ag was identified with inhibition of opacity reaction by known anti-OF Ab. The sera of children were screened for the presence of anti-OF Ab with the representative OF Ag. RESULTS: The positive rate of anti-OF Ab was very high regardless of OF production or throat culture results. Thirty two of 38 (84%) OF Ag producing GAS carriers, 25 of 35 (71%) OF Ag non-producing GAS carriers and 72 of 99 (73%) throat culture negative children harbored anti-OF Ab. While among OF Ag, non-typable and OF 22 were high in prevalence (36.8% and 29.0% respectively), anti-OF 4, anti-OF 28 and anti-OF 12 of OF Ab were identified highly (39.5%, 29.7% and 15.7% respectively). Forty-five (26.2%) among 172 children had two anti-OF Abs and 11 (6.4%) had more than three anti-OF Abs. CONCLUSIONS: Seventy five percent of school children was proven to be previously infected with GAS through this anti-OF Ab study. The anti-OF Ab carrying rates were high, regardless of positivity of throat culture and OF Ag production. We could demonstrate that the prevalent strains of GAS changed in according to time span by proving the difference of frequency of OF Ag and anti-OF Ab and one-fourth of children had been infected with more than 2 different serotypes.
Antibodies* ; Child* ; Horses ; Humans ; Pharynx* ; Prevalence

An effect of aging on cardiac morphology and function has been shown in humans. In horses, cardiac wall motion analysis using two-dimensional speckle tracking (2D-ST) has not yet been reported. Our study included 57 horses of different warmblood breeds between 3 and 30 years old. Age had a significant influence on left ventricular free wall (LVFW) systolic strain rate (p ≤ 0.05) and early diastolic relaxation (p ≤ 0.01). In the interventricular septum (IVS), systolic (p ≤ 0.01) and late diastolic (p ≤ 0.05) contraction velocities also increased with age. In our study, 2D-ST revealed important information on myocardial function, which was most evident in the LVFW, where measurements were highly reproducible. Aging seems to be associated with structural changes within the myocardium and with decreasing contraction capacity in old animals. These physiological, age-related processes should be considered when performing cardiac wall motion analysis of the 2D-ST results for the LVFW and IVS in horses.
Aging ; Animals ; Echocardiography ; Horses ; Humans ; Myocardium ; Relaxation

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of horse riding simulator exercise on the thickness changes in the transverse abdominis in normal adults. METHODS: Forty-five healthy adults were recruited and randomized to a horseback riding simulation exercise group (n=15), a sling exercise group (n=15), and a trunk stabilization exercise group (n=15). A horseback riding simulator offers the indoor experience of horseback riding and mimics the rhythmic movement of horseback riding, thereby provided a virtual environment, such as riding a real horse on the front screen. The velocity of the horse riding simulator exercise was regulated within the subject's ability to control the exercise on the horse riding simulator. A sling exercise group performed sling exercise under the inspection of the experimenter. In the trunk stabilization exercise group, the subjects were instructed to perform the exercise accurately and pause the session when pain occurred during the intervention. The subjects in each group carried out the interventions three times per week for six weeks. The thickness of the transverse abdominis was measured using a pressure biofeedback unit and the ultrasound. RESULTS: Significant differences in the thickness of transverse abdominis within the groups were observed between before and after the interventions. On the other hand, there were no differences in the parameters among the groups. CONCLUSION: Horse riding simulator exercise can be an alternative to trunk stabilization exercise by increasing the thickness of the transverse abdominis in healthy adults.
Adult ; Biofeedback, Psychology ; Hand ; Horses ; Humans ; Ultrasonography

Oral viridans streptococci are recognized as one of the etiological agents of a variety of infectious diseases such as dental caries and infective endocarditis. Although antimicrobial susceptibility tests for these fastidious bacterial species are now established and standardized, a comparison between the broth microdilution and broth macrodilution tests has not previously been performed. This comparison was performed in the present study using the tests adopted by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) and seven clinical isolates of oral viridans streptococcal strains. A modified broth macrodilution susceptibility test method was also included in this analysis, in which the media was not supplemented with horse blood. The susceptibility interpretation category agreements were measured at 83% (broth microdilution versus broth macrodilution) and 71% (broth microdilution versus modified broth macrodilution). The interpretation category agreement between the broth macrodilution and modified broth macrodilution tests was also 83%. These data indicate that the interpretation of antibiotic susceptibility test results for oral viridans streptococci are influenced by the methods used.
Communicable Diseases ; Dental Caries ; Endocarditis ; Horses ; Viridans Streptococci

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Optimal culture conditions for Helicobacter pylori have not been established. We compared the effectiveness of four different agar-based media for the growth of H. pylori. MATERIALS AND METHODS: G27, ATCC #43504 and 60190, and primary cultured strains were used. H. pylori strains were cultured for four days under four culture conditions: chocolate agar, Thayer-Martin (TM) agar containing vancomycin-colistin-nystatin inhibitor (VCNI), Brucella agar, and brain heart infusion (BHI) agar containing 5% horse blood and IsoVitaleX (BBL™ BD, USA). Culture of cells in each medium was repeated fourteen times. The growth of H. pylori was measured by using a spectrophotometer. RESULTS: TM, Brucella, and BHI agars showed mean absorbance values of 0.099, 0.059, 1.410, and 0.913, respectively. These values were significantly different (P=0.030). After post-adjustment by Bonferroni correction, similar growth was noted for in chocolate, Brucella, and BHI agars; however, TM agar significantly suppressed H. pylori growth compared with Brucella agar (P=0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Chocolate, Brucella, and BHI agars provided effective culture conditions for the growth of H. pylori. TM agar containing VCNI suppressed the growth of H. pylori and other organisms.
Agar ; Brain ; Brucella ; Cacao ; Heart ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Horses

In order to avoid contamination attributed to Vanbreuseghem hair haiting technique in the laboratory, the author contrived the following modified method. After adding 100ml of antibiotics solution (mixture of 500mg of Cyclohexamide, 20, 000u of Penicillin and 40mg of Streptomycin in 1,000ml of distilled water) in PVC phial containing 100gm of soil, it was gently agitated for an hour and lefted to be settled for 12 hours. The suspended solution obtained and a batch of horse hair were randomly distributed on a Petri dishfitted with blue cloths, then cultured at 24C'. The overall results obtained from this modified method were not as satisfying as that of the Vanbreuseghem method but a few advantages such as simplicity of the procedure and significantly lower laboratory contamination implicated its practicality. Furthermore, this method was also found to be useful in the first isolation of infected animal hairs, hair perforation tests and as a substitution for artificial media. For the cross mating, a patch of blue cloths was laid on top cf moist sterilized soil evenly spreaded on a Petri dish. Then hair-baiting procedure was performed and good results were obtained.
Animals ; Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Dihydroergotamine ; Hair* ; Horses ; Penicillins ; Soil ; Streptomycin