{"id":4731,"date":"2019-05-03T15:40:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T19:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=4731"},"modified":"2024-11-21T11:23:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T16:23:11","slug":"equine-asthma-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/equine-asthma-research.php","title":{"rendered":"Study Shows Equine Asthma Can Distinguish Winners from Losers on the Racetrack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Laurent Cou\u00ebtil uses an equine nebulizer to administer treatment for asthma. (Purdue University photo\/Rebecca Wilcox)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

From\nchariot racing in ancient Rome to the modern Kentucky Derby, horseracing has\nbeen celebrated in some form for more than a thousand years. Whether the\nhorses\u2019 hooves were pounding around in a dirt-filled coliseum or a racetrack\nsurrounded by spectators in wide-brimmed hats, they probably had one thing in\ncommon: asthma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When just\na few seconds makes the difference between first and last place, equine\nathletes need to bring their best game to the track. For those that don\u2019t, the\nissue can often be traced to the lungs. \u201cUnlike the heart or muscle, the lung\nin the horse athlete is a limiting factor,\u201d said Dr. Laurent Cou\u00ebtil<\/a>, director of Purdue University\u2019s Equine\nSports Medicine Center<\/a> and professor of large animal\ninternal medicine in the College\nof Veterinary Medicine<\/a>. \u201cEven in healthy horses,\nbreathing is a limiting factor on performance. So if you take a little bit away\nfrom that, the consequences can be severe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\nhas spent much of his career treating and researching equine respiratory\ndisease. However, it wasn\u2019t until 2016 that \u201cequine asthma\u201d was recognized as\nan official diagnosis, when Dr. Cou\u00ebtil collaborated with three other\nresearchers to argue for the adoption of the term in the Equine Veterinary Journal<\/a>.  Both inflammatory airway disease, which is\nless severe and virtually unnoticeable when the horse is at rest, and recurrent\nairway obstruction or heaves, which can manifest itself in a chronic cough and\nincreased breathing efforts at rest, fall under the umbrella of what\nveterinarians now recognize as equine asthma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\nhas contributed to far more than terminology. Over the last two decades, his\nresearch has created a better understanding of the scope of the disease and\neven invented a new way to diagnose it. \u201cMilder equine asthma has been difficult to detect\nbecause horses don\u2019t necessarily show many signs besides the fact that they\u2019re\nnot performing well. Some of them cough once in a while, but it isn\u2019t crippling\nthem,\u201d Dr. Cou\u00ebtil said. \u201cNow that we have the tools to look for it, we realize\nit\u2019s very common.\u201d  A 2018 study led by\nDr. Cou\u00ebtil found that 80 percent of the thoroughbred racehorses surveyed had\nmild or moderate asthma. The results, which were published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine<\/a>, show\nthat the worse a horse\u2019s asthma, the worse their performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test\nfor equine asthma, veterinarians use variations of methods developed to measure\nlung disease and dysfunction in humans, such as the bronchoalveolar lavage and\nlung function test. However, some of these tests are not commonly done or\nimpossible to perform on horses. To address this, Dr. Cou\u00ebtil developed a new\nmethod.  \u201cIn humans, the most common test\nperformed to test for asthma is forced exhalation. The nurse trains you to take\nin the deepest breath possible and blow out as hard as you can,\u201d he said. \u201cThis\nis easy for people because we can follow instructions, but you can\u2019t tell a\nhorse to do that, so I worked with Purdue engineers to develop a pulmonary\nfunction test for horses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The test uses a mechanical ventilator to control a sedated horse\u2019s breathing. A series of tanks, using positive and negative pressure, help mimic deep inhalation and exhalation. During the process, a computer records data about the patient\u2019s lung capacity, expiration volume, and expiration flow. This system is the only one in the world capable of performing such a test, and it\u2019s extremely sensitive, detecting even very mild asthma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\nhe knows how to diagnose the disease, Dr. Cou\u00ebtil wants to be able to treat it.\nSevere equine asthma is typically treated with corticosteroids, which come with\na risk of drug violations in racehorses, suppress the horse\u2019s immune system,\nand may result in life-threatening infection or founder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\u2019s\nresearch shows that the causes of equine asthma are largely environmental. Some\nbreeds have a predisposition, he said, but thoroughbreds (the most common breed\nof racehorses in the U.S.) aren\u2019t one of them. In the horses he works with, the\nbiggest risk for developing asthma is a dusty environment, which can be\ndifficult to avoid for an animal that lives outside and eats mostly dried\ngrass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"close-up
A study led by Professor of Large Animal Internal Medicine Laurent Cou\u00ebtil found that 80 percent of thoroughbred racehorses surveyed had mild or moderate asthma. (Purdue University photo\/Rebecca Wilcox)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

For a\nrecent study, Dr. Cou\u00ebtil worked with several Purdue researchers to equip\nhorses at a racetrack with sensors near their noses to measure how much dust\nthey were inhaling. The research team included Katy Ivester, PVM equine\nresearch scientist in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences; Carla\nOlave, Veterinary Clinical Sciences Department graduate student; Purdue animal\nsciences\/pre-veterinary medicine student Emily Hess; Purdue veterinary student Kylie\nZehner, of the DVM Class of 2022; and Laura Murray, RVT, Veterinary Clinical\nSciences Department research technologist.  The horses in the study wore the sensors while\ngoing about their daily routines, and the findings show that most of the dust\nthey inhaled was coming from hay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know\ndust is the problem, but now we\u2019re trying to figure out how to reduce it. In our\nnext study, we\u2019re testing different types of hay to see if we can reduce the\namount of dust horses are coming into contact with while they\u2019re eating,\u201d Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\nsaid.  Some horses will be fed steamed\nhay, which incubates in a sauna-like case for an hour before being fed to\nhorses. The final product is a little wet, but the process kills much of the\nmold and dust that accumulates in bales of hay. Other horses will be fed baled\nsilage, or haylage, which is hay baled at a higher moisture content than dry\nhay and stored in a tightly sealed plastic wrap (like wet dog food, but for\nhorses).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nsupplements could also help horses recover from severe asthma. When fed\ntogether with a lower-dust feed option, Omega-3 fatty acid supplements were\nshown to enhance and hasten recovery. \u201cThe horses that were fed the supplement\nimproved much quicker and to a much greater extent. Many of them stopping\ncoughing within a couple weeks,\u201d Dr. Cou\u00ebtil said. \u201cThe next step for us is\ntrying to understand the mechanism that makes that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\u2019s research aligns with Purdue\u2019s Giant Leaps<\/a> celebration, acknowledging the University\u2019s global advancements made toward health and longevity as part of Purdue\u2019s 150th<\/sup> Anniversary. This is one of the four themes of the yearlong celebration\u2019s Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The equine pulmonary function test technology is\npatented through Purdue\u2019s Office of\nTechnology Commercialization<\/a>.  Dr. Cou\u00ebtil\u2019s research is supported by the\nGrayson Jockey-Club Research Foundation, the state of Indiana, and Purdue\nVeterinary Medicine research funds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When just a few seconds makes the difference between first and last place, equine athletes need to bring their best game to the track. For those that don\u2019t, the issue can often be traced to the lungs. \u201cUnlike the heart or muscle, the lung in the horse athlete is a limiting factor,\u201d said Dr. Laurent Cou\u00ebtil, director of Purdue University\u2019s Equine Sports Medicine Center and professor of large animal internal medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,41,31,29,11,27],"tags":[317,1118,1119,1120,1117,339,196,62,51],"class_list":["post-4731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centers","category-faculty-staff","category-hospitals","category-our-people","category-research","category-services","tag-discovery","tag-equine-asthma","tag-equine-athlete","tag-equine-respiratory-disease","tag-equine-sports-medicine-center","tag-laurent-couetil","tag-spring","tag-vcs","tag-vth"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4731"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25785,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4731\/revisions\/25785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}