Research Update Spring 2017

Equine Guelphhelping horses for life

Imagine a single injection of a long-acting,inexpensive drug to relieve jointinflammation with no adverse side effectson other organs such as the gut and kidney.That is what Ontario Veterinary Collegeresearcher, Mark Hurtig and his teamenvision as they embark on new technologythat could revolutionize joint injections andmuch more. Sustained release formulations

could have great potential in deliveringantibiotics, parasiticides or other drugs thatrequire long treatment regimes or treatmentof tissues that are difficult to penetrate withoral or other injectable drugs. There couldbe applications for direct injection of drugsinto joints, the spinal column, tendonsheaths and even eyes.

Hurtig’s current research project onsustained release using intra-articularmedication began in the Spring of 2016 withobjectives of slowing down the progressionand signs of joint disease. Currently thereare no drugs registered for use in thetreatment of equine osteoarthritis, partlybecause there are challenges withconventional drugs reaching joint tissues inadequate concentrations. A good example isglucosamine which has minimal absorptionby the equine gastrointestinal tract.

Describing the intra-articular medication indevelopment, Hurtig says, “We can treat asingle or multiple joints without having topoison the whole horse.”

INSIDE Volume 14

TheHorsePortal.ca...................................................3

Model Research Leads to Advanced Studies of Cardiovascular and Gut Health. ................................4

How Therapy Horses React to Humans.......................6

Equipment and Expertise at OVC Makes Strides in Diagnosing Equine Leukemia ...................................7

The science of equine health andwelfare is moving so fast that it is nolonger true to say, “All I need to knowabout horses I can learn in the stable.”For the horse caregiver, this poses theproblem of staying up to date, and thisnewsletter is one of many initiatives atEquine Guelph designed to help.

This issue features research funded bythe horse industry in Ontario that willimpact on the health of your horses’joints, arteries and blood, and intestinalsystem, and on the mental health ofpeople benefiting from equine therapy.

We also bring you two new methodsfor staying up to date: The Horse Portaland the training opportunities it opensup for you, and an online tool formanaging extremes of temperature.

Dr. Jeff Thomason and Dr. John Baird, Co-Chairs, Equine Guelph ResearchCommittee

continued on page 2...

Sustained release intra-articular medication could last three to fourmonths, or longer

Sustained Release Intra-articular Medication

Photo by: Ian Woodley

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2 Equine Guelph

How does it work?“Sustained release technology targets thejoint space and the joint space alone,” saysHurtig. “The drug levels in the rest of thebody are miniscule.” With low systemicexposure, this means there should be noproblems with ulcers, renal disease andother complications that can result fromNSAIDS. Sustained release technology isabout binding the drug to a carrier andhaving that carrier break down slowly torelease the active pharmacologicalingredient (API). In this case a liquidpolymer mixture becomes a semi-solid gelafter it is injected into the joint. The gel isbroken down slowly releasing the APIwhich can be a drug, therapeutic protein orgrowth factor. The polymer mixture isdescribed by Hurtig as ‘comprised ofgarden variety molecules’ which are readilyavailable, inexpensive and well accepted assafe in food and drug manufacturing.

A little does a lotDr. Hurtig’s team has shown that as little as200mg of drug (a small fraction of one oraldose) could last three to four months orlonger. In many cases this means using twoto three orders of magnitude less drug. “Itis a really local therapy and a very greentechnology,” explains Hurtig. “With lessdrugs being excreted out into the

environment, this means less impact on soiland drinking water.” Less drugs couldprove better for the horse, environment andpocketbook.

Traditional treatment ofosteoarthritis Conventional treatments manage the painand inflammation in joint disease. There areno treatments registered for treating equine osteoarthritis though injectablecorticosteroids, hyaluronic acid, plateletrich plasma, IRAP (interleukin receptorantagonist protein), NSAIDs and

nutraceuticals help control the symptoms.These treatments can suppressinflammation but have no proven effect on repairing cartilage. In some cases, such as prolonged use of long actingcorticosteroids, there is a negativemetabolic effect on articular cartilage andcan promote additional joint degeneration.Hyaluronic acid, platelet rich plasma, andmany of the new biologic therapies have arelatively short acting effect of weeks to afew months. Prolonging the effect of suchtreatments with sustained release carrierscould be one answer to practical costeffective management of joint disease.Drugs that are too expensive or toxic toadminister to horses by other routes couldbe delivered by direct injection.

What’s next?Hurtig’s research collaborations insustained release intra-articular medicationcould revolutionize the treatment ofosteoarthritis. In collaboration with Dr. Beth Gillies at the University of WesternOntario, they have been developingcarrier/drug prototypes for preliminarytrials in horses.

Funding for this research has been providedby Equine Guelph.

By: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

Equine Guelph has partnered withinternationally renowned blanketmanufacturer, Bucas of Ireland and ispleased to announce the launch of the‘ThermoRegulator Healthcare Tool’.

The new interactive online tool exploresthermoregulation in all seasons to helphorse owners avoid over-heating anddehydration along with a variety of

sicknesses caused as a result of chillingand other preventable health concerns.

Bucas managing director, Ulf Casselbrantsays, “Bucas is pleased to partner withEquine Guelph in the development of the‘ThermoRegulator Healthcare Tool’, as itis an excellent resource for the horse ownerin understanding the principles ofthermoregulation in horses and helpful in

the proper use of blanket protection fortheir horse.”

To learn more about thermoregulation andto decide if your horse is a candidate to becovered by a blanket � go to theThermoRegulator Healthcare Tool atEquineGuelph.ca.

Less drugs could prove betterfor the horse, environment andpocketbook.

Photo by: Erin Cummins

Sustained release intra-articular medication continued from page 1

New ThermoRegulator Healthcare Tool

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TheHorseportal.ca – Join the Herd!Equine Guelph announces the officiallaunch of TheHorsePortal.ca – a new portalfor industry training in an easily-accessibleonline format for the equine industry. Fromthe Rockies to the eastern islands, theportal will bring together horse people likenever before to stay current on best healthand welfare practices. The new program,resulting from an innovative industrypartnership, provides horse people withshort, practical online training to stay up-to-date with the latest information onequine care.

The inaugural short courses:‘Equine Welfare – Canada’s Code’

March 6 - 24‘Equine Biosecurity – Canada’s

Standard’ April 10 - 28

For any person responsible for a horse, it isessential to learn the national standards.These first two short courses on The HorsePortal are important offerings forcaregivers and horses alike. Each day, newscientific knowledge emerges on how tobetter care for horses and deal withemerging issues. It is everyone’sresponsibility to stay current on best healthand welfare practices and industrystandards.

“Through The Horse Portal, horsecaregivers can access common sense,

practical training that can be used on adaily basis,” says Gayle Ecker, director ofEquine Guelph. “Equine Guelph is pleasedto partner with the equine industry acrossthe nation bringing Canadians together tolearn about equine welfare and care as acommunity.”

Equine Guelph has partnered with tenEnglish-speaking provincial equestrianfederations across Canada to offer theirmembers equine training and educationthrough The Horse Portal. The portal isalso available to non-federation members.From racing to performance to thebackyard pony, this portal was developedto educate and benefit all segments of theequine industry.

This project is funded in part throughGrowing Forward 2 (GF2), a federal-provincial-territorial initiative. TheAgricultural Adaptation Council assists inthe delivery of GF2 in Ontario. Otherpartners include: Campbell Centre for theStudy of Animal Welfare, EquestrianCanada, Farm & Food Care Ontario,Greenhawk, Omega Alpha Equine, OntarioEquestrian Federation, Ontario Society forthe Prevention of Cruelty to Animals andStandardbred Canada. ParticipatingFederations include: Alberta EquestrianFederation, Equine Association of Yukon,Horse Council British Columbia, Island

Horse Council, Manitoba Horse Council,New Brunswick Equestrian Association,Newfoundland and Labrador EquestrianAssociation, Nova Scotia EquestrianFederation, Ontario Equestrian Federationand Saskatchewan Horse Federation.National training partner is EquestrianCanada.

For more information, go toTheHorsePortal.ca

By: Henrietta Coole

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6 Equine Guelph

In 2016, Prof. Katrina Merkies, Animal Biosciences at theUniversity of Guelph set out to learn if horses respondeddifferently to people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).The study took place at Sunrise Therapeutic Riding and LearningCentre in Puslinch, ON using seventeen of their tried and truetherapy horses who had been in the program for two years or more.

“The most difficult part of the study was recruiting volunteers forthe control group,” says Merkies who closely matched the PTSDapplicants with their doppelgangers in gender, height, build and asmany other characteristics as possible. Professional acting coach,Tony Babcock of Toronto was on hand to make sure the controlgroup reflected the same physical movements and mannerisms asthe PTSD subject who entered the enclosure before them. Videofootage was taken to compare the horses’ reactions in bothscenarios. Heart rates were also monitored, salivary cortisolconcentrations measured and close attention was paid to thehorses’ body language including head height, ear orientation, gaitand distance from human.

Findings did not reveal different responses from the horses in thepresence of the PTSD subjects or the control group. This suggeststhat the horses were not responding to emotional emanations.There were differing reactions between the pairs (PTSD andcontrol subject) inferring that horses were reacting to the physical.Merkies hypothesizes, “This could be reassuring to the PTSDrecipients of equine therapy; that the horses react to them as anindividual and not to their mental illness.”

Differences were noted from the baseline, when the horse wasalone in the enclosure, to when there was a human present. Thehorses would vocalize more and chew more before the human wasintroduced. Horses would also display higher head carriage beforethe person entered the arena. With human presence, the horses allmoved slower and then faster after the person left the ring. In allcases the horse displayed more relaxed posture and movementduring human presence than in the baseline and after the personleft the enclosure. Cortisol levels were not affected throughout thestudy in the saliva samples taken.

One interesting and unexpected result was the difference in horseheart rate; not between the control group and PTSD subject butbetween persons with and without horse experience. The moreexperienced horse person elicited a higher heart rate in the equinethan a human with little to no previous exposure to horses.Merkies has noted this reaction in previous studies involvingequine behavior and postulates, “Experienced horse people maycome into contact with the horse with expectations and, in thehorse’s experience, are likely to issue demands whereas a morenervous person with no experience would act differently andinduce less stress.”

Merkies looks forward to future research studying how thepersonality of horses and humans mesh, particularly involving the

role of attachment theory in horse-human relationships. Thequestion arises: Is there a certain personality horse that is bettersuited for a role in therapy programs?

Funding for this research has been provided by the Horses andHumans Research Foundation.

By: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

How Therapy Horses React to Humans

Marnie McKechnie, research assistant withSunrise horse Luke

Photo by: Dr. Katrina Merkies

Sponsored by Merck Animal Health

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Equine leukemia is a rare and terrible disease which is challengingto diagnose,” says Dorothee Bienzle, Ontario Veterinary Collegeresearcher. In a recent three-month study, Bienzle with the help ofgraduate veterinarian Carina Cooper, compiled information fromthe last 16 years of cases of equine leukemia that came through theOVC. Over half of the 16diagnoses have occurred in thelast two years due to recentadvances in detection.

When asked if cases were on therise, Bienzle explained equineleukemia is still rare butdifficulties in making adiagnosis can result in animalsthat die without a diagnosis. Thecriteria in testing horses is not asclear cut as it is for dogs andcats. The two main types ofleukemia found (myeloid andlymphoid) are fairlystraightforward to differentiatein dogs and cats but not so inhorses.

“New technologies such as flowcytometry and immuohisto-chemistry, pioneered at OVC,have been fundamental to the increase in definitive diagnoses ofequine leukemia in the past two years,” says Bienzle.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Acute Lymphoid EquineLeukemia (ALL) tend to have a grave prognosis with survival ofdays or weeks. There is a third type of leukemia, calledMyelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), which dogs, cats, humans andhorses can have. This is also a cancer of bone marrow seen in the

more elderly. MDS typicallyprogresses at a slower rate. Thecurrent treatment for MDS inequines is corticosteroids andthe survival rate can be monthsto years allowing life as acompanion animal during thattime.

Hematology results of the studyshowed all cases as havingatypical white blood cells incirculation, and in most casesthere was high Serum AmyloidA (SAA), which is a proteinproduced in the liver that willrise in response to inflammation.Anemia, low neutrophil and lowplatelet counts are reasons to testfurther for equine leukemia.

For more information on FlowCytometry at the Ontario

Veterinary College: /www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/research/en/researchresources/flowcytometry.asp

By: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

Equipment and Expertise at OVc Make Strides inDiagnosing Equine Leukemia

Like branches of a tree, EquiMania! reaches out and captivateskids and adults into the wonderful world of horses. Theimpressive, new ‘tree of life’ display, showcasing the stages offoal development, complete with a video featuring the birth of afoal, was a big hit at the 10th anniversary of EquiMania! at theRoyal Agricultural Winter Fair, last November in Toronto.

“Thanks to our loyal sponsors, EquiMania! will bring its fun,interactive youth exhibit promoting horse health and safety toaudiences as far reaching as Omaha in 2017!” says Gayle Ecker,director of Equine Guelph. Equine Guelph thanks all our sponsorsfor their continuing support of the award-winning attraction:Greenhawk, Kubota Canada, Ontario Equestrian Federation,Shur-Gain, Standardbred Canada, SSG Gloves, System Fencing,Workplace Safety and Prevention Services and Zoetis.

To book EquiMania! for your event in 2017, contacteq4kids@uoguelph.ca

Always Something New at EquiMania!

New technologies such as Flow Cytometry,pioneered at OVC, are fundamental to theincrease in definitive diagnosis of EquineLeukemia in the past two years

Photo by: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

Photo by: Jackie Bellamy-Zions

tel: 519.824.4120 ext. 54205horses@uoguelph.ca • www.EquineGuelph.ca

Equine Guelph, university of Guelph50 McGilvray St., Guelph, ON, N1G 2W1

upDATE ON EquINE GuELpH'S HEALTHcARE TOOLS WEB pAGE

™helping horses for lifeequine guelph

promoting health& performance

funding industryresearch

educatinghorsepeople

Anyone wishing to excerpt Equine Guelph should contact: Jackie Bellamy-Zions ext 54756 jbellamy@uoguelph.ca

EVENTS Mark your calendar!Can Am All Breed Equine Expo(Markham) – EquiMania!March 31 – April 2

Equine Welfare – Canada’sCode – Online trainingMarch 6 - 24

Equine Biosecurity – Canada’sstandard – Online trainingApril 10 - 28

Equine Guelph’s 12 week OnlineCourses(Next offering May 2017)

Visit EquineGuelph.ca andTheHorsePortal.ca for morecourse information.

We Have You covered

Equine Guelph thanks the following animal health companiesfor their sponsorship:

SENIOR HORSE CHALLENGE

THERMOREGULATOR

COLIC RISK RATER

BARN FIRE PREVENTION

BIOSECURITY RISK CALCULATOR

Visit all the Interactive HEALTHCARE TOOLS atEquineGuelph.ca

In 10 - 15 minutes you can gain feedback tailored to yourhorse health care needs.

From the new ThermoRegulator to the Vaccination Equi-Planner, there are interactivequestionnaires, checklists and personalized print outs, all designed to provide practical recommendations to optimize horse health.

Free videos, info-graphics, and interactive graphic activities provide engaging andeasy to understand health tips that you can use today.