Industry News: Intervet Purchased by Schering-Plough

This post could be sub-titled, "Banamine Buys Regumate."

News reports from Europe are confirming that Schering-Plough is acquiring Organon BioSciences (OBS), the parent company of Intervet, from Akzo Nobel, in a move that could create a new leader in the global animal health industry. The deal, said to be worth 11 billion Euros (US$14.4bn), was announced on Monday from the Netherlands headquarters of Schering-Plough.

The deal may place Schering-Plough at the top of animal health corporations worldwide by sales.

One of Schering-Plough's most familiar equine-market products is the anti-inflammatory Banamine. Intervet makes several widely-used vaccines, plus wormers like Panacur and specialty treatments like Regumate.

Read the press release from the Schering-Plough web site here.

How to Prevent Bloated Feet, Nigeria-Style

There is a "real world" out there for racehorses who don't summer in Saratoga or loll about in the misty Kentucky bluegrass mornings.

I hope you will take a second to read this blog post from a Swedish racehorse owner in Nigeria, who actually snapped a photo of an Arabian racehorse there being deliberately "bled" to prevent "bloated feet." His or her horse is the only one at the track that is not allowed to have its blood drained into the sand.

I came across this story because it was selected from all the horse blogs and horse posts on non-horse blogs for something called the "Horse Blog Carnival." If you follow that link, you can also read all the posts--and there are some very good ones--if you have a few minutes to spare.

AAEP Deadline Looms for 2007 Speakers

March 15 is the deadline for submission of proposals and abstracts to present research and techniques at the 53rd American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention to be held at the Gaylord Palms resort and conference center in Orlando, Florida, from December 1 to 5, 2007.

The AAEP uses a web-based submission system; full details are mapped out for you at the AAEP web site.

The annual AAEP convention is the largest horse-health event in the world. No word yet whether or not the AAEP will repeat the successful sub-conference for farriers concept that was launched at the 2006 convention in San Antonio.

Grayson Foundation Funds Research Study on Medication for IR Laminitis Prevention

The Jockey Club's Grayson Foundation announced its new round of funding this week, with a whopping $1.1 million to go to research.

One of the new projects addresses a medication for laminitis prevention in horses with so-called Equine Metabolic Syndrome, or insulin resistance.

Here's the Foundation's description of the new project, which will be conducted by Dr Frank Nicholas at the University of Tennessee:

Levothyroxine as a treatment for insulin resistance in horses (toward a defense against laminitis)
Nicholas Frank, University of Tennessee. First year, $25,638

Approximately one half of horses who develop laminitis are on pasture when the disease develops. Sugar content of grass is believed to trigger pasture laminitis, insulin resistance accounts for some horses being more susceptible than others. This team has already shown that levothyroxine (LT4) can be safely administered to horses, induces weight loss, and increases insulin sensitivity. It is even more effective when given to horses with insulin resistance (IR), obesity and laminitis. This disorder is referred to as equine metabolic syndrome (EMS), and the study of the disorder reveals valuable insights into the relationship between insulin sensitivity, factors such as body fat mass, thyroid hormone status and laminitis.

This study seeks to expand the numbers of horses from the 8 that have been reported up to 20, to gain statistical significance. Then statistically sound results will be available for further studies on LT4 and it’s effects on laminitis sensitivity. This will be a pivotal study because the results will establish LT4 as the first effective treatment for IR in horses that are highly susceptible to laminitis. This would confirm the authors’ hypothesis that LT4 can be used to prevent laminitis in at-risk horses by improving insulin sensitivity.

Hoofcare & Lameness will endeavor to keep track of this study and report to subscribers on any new developments on this and all related studies to help IR horses with their laminitis problems.

Another laminitis study, to be conducted at the Ohio State University by Dr. James Belknap will examine the potential use of lidocaine as a preventative of laminar damage in the acute phase of laminitis.

Michigan State University Posts Seminar "Slide Shows" on Web Site

The web site of Michigan State University's College of Veterinary Medicine was enhanced recently with the addition of four "slide shows" from university clinicians on specific hoof-related problems in horses.

The slide shows are in Macromedia's "Breeze" program which mimics PowerPoint and can be controlled by the user.

The lectures, with links to each, are:

Foaling with Dr. Hal Schott (Cases from the neonatal critical care facility, including various congenital skeletal defects and one interested "windswept" foal in particular, which is shown in an embedded video)

Hoof Care of the Laminitic Horse with Dr. Frank Nickels

Fat, Foundered Horses (information on Insulin Resistance problems, or "Equine Metabolic Syndrome") with Dr. Hal Schott

Equine Cushing’s Disease with Dr. Hal Schott

Note: I am not sure about the effects of bandwith on the loading time of the images. Each presentation varies, with about 45 slides being the average. They loaded quite quickly with my DSL connection but I don't know how a dial-up connection would do. No special software is needed to view the files.

Thanks to Michigan State's Office of Publications editor Judy Lessard for announcing the web site update.

AFA Convention Update: Election Results

I had to leave the AFA convention early, unfortunately, and was not able to be at the general membership meeting to hear the election results. However, someone did bolt out of the meeting to phone me the results this afternoon.

Andrew Elsbree of New York is the new president-elect, and Dick Fanguy of Louisiana is the vice president. Almost 1000 votes were cast.

The AFA voted in a bylaw change recently which did away with the office of secretary and created the office of president-elect, which is designed to train the next AFA president.

Andrew and Dick join president Dave Ferguson of Maryland and treasurer John Blombach of Massachusetts as officers. Along with past president Craig Trnka of New Mexico and Board Representative Tom Troisin of California, they will make up the AFA's Executive Committee, which governs the organization. The Board is currently made up chapter presidents and commitee chairs, and the EC answers to the Board.

Congratulations to Andrew and Dick.

Congratulations also to Jeff Hampton of Washington and Irishman Gerard Laverty, now living in British Columbia, Canada. Both passed the AFA's highest certification level, the "Therapeutic Endorsement." Both Jeff and Gerard are subscribers to Hoofcare & Lameness Journal.