Inaugural Laminitis Research Grant to Swedish Study

ECIR Group Inc. announced on September 13 that Johan Bröjer, DVM, MSc, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM (LAIM), Dipl. ECEIM, Professor of Equine Internal Medicine at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has been awarded the group's inaugural research grant.

Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation Research Funding for 2022

US-based research in equine lameness continues to move forward with today's announcement of new and continuing projects to be funded in 2022 by the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.

Evidence-based laminitis research audio file summarizes equine digital pulse and hoof wall temperature data

Have a quick listen to the newest RCVS Knowledge summary of EBVM-related laminitis research.

Laminitis Research: Might inflammation be an underlying cause of insulin dysregulation and equine metabolic syndrome?

DENVER/September 20, 2019 – Inflammation may be a bigger player in insulin dysregulation in horses than is commonly thought. Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at the University of Melbourne are working to determine if low-grade systemic inflammation might be an important underlying cause of insulin dysregulation.

If they are correct, their findings could help change current dietary recommendations for horses at risk of laminitis, a devastating disease linked to high insulin levels associated with insulin dysregulation.

Thank you and good-bye: US laminitis research charity Animal Health Foundation ceases operation

Did you feel a little shudder pass through the barn today?  Laminitis research lost one of its main lifelines with the closing of the Animal Health Foundation, a charity in Missouri, USA today. A big page of hoofcare history turned as one of the most trusted equine health charities in the world closed its doors. It's time for us all to sit up straight and realize that nothing lasts forever, no matter how well-meaning, successful, and respected it is. The decision to close was a personal one and the Board of Directors opted not to continue. The closure comes with funds still in the bank. Who'll pick up the slack? Don and Diana Walsh deserve a resounding "Well done!" salute but the job they started 35 years ago is still a work in progress. But progress it has been!

• • • • •

If your horse survived laminitis, or if you have struggled successfully to prevent laminitis in your horse, you may owe some degree of gratitude to a veterinarian and a generous group of horse owners from St. Louis, Missouri.

Laminitis Prevention Survey Result: Along with weight gain, shoeing cycle and trimming schedule are factors in risk

Although excess weight has long been considered a primary risk factor for laminitis, new research continues to sort through the many risk factors and look for patterns of horsecare or links between the factors themselves, as well as that weight gain is most likely to be associated with laminitis.

A relatively large study, by equine science standards, was conducted in the United Kingdom and gave researchers access to data on more than 1000 horses in "real time" by receiving monthly reports for more than two years from owners about the same horses. The sole purpose of the study was to gather data on laminitis and the horsecare factors that may contribute to it.

Out of 1,070 horses followed in the study, 97 experienced 123 episodes of laminitis over the 29 months the data was collected.

The bottom line conclusion was that weight gain more than doubled the risk of developing laminitis, but other horsecare practices, including hoofcare, should not be ignored.

Possible environmental chemical link found to equine metabolic syndrome and related laminitis in Welsh ponies and Morgan horses

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in a horse’s environment may play a role in the development of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), a leading cause of laminitis. This finding, made by Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at The University of Minnesota, could explain some of the variability in EMS severity that can’t be explained by other commonly measured factors, such as diet, exercise and season.

Laminitis Research Videos: Advances in endocrinopathic laminitis diagnosis, treatment and science

Last week,  31 laminitis research articles, collected from recent editions of the prestigious Equine Veterinary Journal, were made freely available to the public. All 31 articles may be read and downloaded without charge for the next year.

What could make this better? A summary--or three of them, in fact. Today we offer an overview of the research, in the form of three short, concise videos by three of the authors. Each provides an overview of the articles in his or her area of research.

Australian Equine Laminitis Research Veterinarian Andrew van Eps Joins Penn Vet New Bolton Center

Australian laminitis researcher
Andrew van Eps, BVSc, PhD, MACVSc, 

DACVIM is moving to America. Dr. van
Eps is noted for his contributions related
to cryotherapy, or icing, of horses' lower
limbs to prevent laminitis, and recent
research on support limb laminitis. (Hoof
Blog/Laminitis Conference file photo)

Renowned for his research on equine laminitis, Dr. Andrew van Eps joined the faculty of Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in December as Associate Professor of Equine Musculoskeletal Research.

Van Eps has spent the majority of his career at The University of Queensland in Australia, most recently as Director of the Equine Hospital and Associate Professor of Equine Medicine. The University is also his alma mater; he graduated with his veterinary degree (BVSc) in 1999 and his PhD in 2008.

The move marks a return to New Bolton Center, where he completed his residency in large animal internal medicine in 2008 and spent another year as a lecturer and clinician.

“We are fortunate to have attracted Dr. van Eps to Penn Vet,” said Dr. Gary Althouse, Chairman of the Department of Clinical Studies at New Bolton Center. “He comes to us both as a seasoned clinician and an equine researcher of international caliber.”

Laminitis Research: Grayson-Jockey Club Foundation Announces 2013 Support for New and Continuing Laminitis, Lameness Detection Projects

Video: AAEP Extends Pasture-Associated Equine Laminitis Research Project into 2013

The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) has announced that it is extending its pasture-associated equine laminitis research project into 2013, in hopes of collecting more cases from the field.

Prepare for Takeoff: Orsini and Grenager Summary of Laminitis Research at California "Equine Limb" Conference

Equine Limb: Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics 

 in Monterey, California on November 2 and 3, 2012.

When the "Equine Limb" conference opens in Monterey, California next weekend, attendees who are interested in learning about the latest equine laminitis research won't have to wonder, "What page are we on?"

Jim Orsini, conference co-director
with Rustin Moore

It's very easy to dive right into the deep end when it comes to covering laminitis research and treatment, and the conference is carefully planned to simulate a 747 jetliner taking off from a busy international airport: it seems physically impossible for it to become airborne, but it does it by acceleration and lift computed at exactly the right equation. Gravity is defied.

Planning a laminitis conference is very similar. And Dr. Jim Orsini of Penn Vet's New Bolton Center and equine practitioner Nora Grenager are the masters of the craft.

These two standard-bearers of the The Laminitis Conference organizing committee are planning a takeoff that would look familiar to air traffic controllers in their towers. They will review recent research thoroughly but quickly. You should buckle your seat because the conference will reach cruising altitude before you know it!

The review of laminitis research begins at the Monterey event's partner conference, the 2011 International Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot held in West Palm Beach, Florida, last November; the scientific program there centered on the pathophysiology of laminitis. While the California event has expanded to cover a broader spectrum, its heart is still beating with the mission of solving the laminitis puzzle.

Some highlights that Orsini and Grenager will touch on:

Nora Grenager will review laminitis
research from the Florida conference
as a preface to the California event.

First, the difference between sepsis and systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), two terms often used interchangeably in laminitis lectures. But when you hear the word sepsis, does it suggest something like a "septic joint", an overwhelming bacterial infection? How does sepsis factor into laminitis? Semantics? Maybe, but it is critical to understanding the new research.

The 2004 Presidential election may have come down to "Florida, Florida, Florida," but the laminitis conference attendees left chanting, "Inflammation, inflammation, inflammation".

But what about the endocrinopathic form of laminitis? Equine metabolic syndrome and Cushing's disease (PPID) research is burgeoning, along with the role of hyperinsulemia (HI). Insulin levels are being re-evaluated as sirens to all sorts of equine health conditions, large and small.  How exactly does hyperinsulemia cause a horse to develop laminitis?

For that answer, researchers looked directly at how insulin functions (or doesn't) in the foot. The role of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) is a critical area of research, since it is possible that insulin is working through a different mechanism in the equine foot's vasculature than it does in the rest of the body.

Can you hear a second chant rising in the background? "IGF, IGF, IGF!"

Laminitis related to hyperinsulemia is the slow, insidious form of the disease, and the one most commonly seen in our horses. The obesity that accompanies it is reversible, and the predisposition of some breeds to hyperinsulemia mean that it is becoming clearer that early identification and therapy for horses at risk must be a priority in the field.

In their abstract, the authors wrote, "Even in horses with no history of lameness, there is a pattern of abnormal hoof growth that is related to HI: abnormal growth rings in the external hoof wall, separation of the wall at the white line, and seedy toe, often with small areas of hemorrhage within the abnormal white line area. This damage is cumulative and at some point culminates in acute laminitis if not properly addressed with diet, exercise, and medication where necessary to normalize blood insulin concentrations."

Support limb laminitis will also be reviewed, and new information on the distinct form of the disease known as "traumatic laminitis", which researchers at Dr. Chris Pollitt's Australian Equine Laminitis Research Unit have outlined. Researcher Brian Hampson PhD discovered that wild horses on arid terrain suffer concussive and/or compressive laminar pathology. Is this laminitis, per se? Much more research on traumatic laminitis needs to be done, but you'll hear about the first phases of this exciting concept.

"Feral horses have little option but to keep moving and either adapt or make do the best they can if they are to survive. In a domesticated horse, comparable changes typically are accompanied by chronic lameness or stiffness, and are incompatible with optimal performance."

That statement in itself is food for thought. While Hampson and Pollitt have cast some doubt on the suitability of the wild horse foot as the ideal equine digit, it seems that there may be deep and profound lessons that can be learned from our domestic horses' wild brethren.

And that, in itself, is just one of the vistas you'll be able to see from the thought clouds of this world-class conference. Distal limb lameness and imaging have been added to the program this year, as the conference's horizons expand over the curvature of the distal limb planet.

If you haven't already reserved your spot at the conference, please do it now. Much more information and a full speaker program is online at www.laminitisconference.com.

Equine Limb: Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics 

 in Monterey, California on November 2 and 3, 2012.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any direct compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned, other than Hoofcare Publishing. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.