Livestock Management RANCHING
Picture courtesy Oklahoma State University
Prevention, dietary adjustment show promise in fending off joint pain in young horses
A
SERIES OF STUDIES BY RESEARCHERS IN THE DEPARTMENT of animal science at Texas A&M University suggest that preventing or treating the early
signs of arthritis in young quarter horses is the best solution to more serious cartilage damage and infl a- mation in older horses. Dr. Josie Coverdale, associate professor in equine
science, and Dr. Jessica Lucia, a former graduate student under Coverdale and now a professor at Sam Houston State University, found that the use of anti-infl ammatory aids mixed with daily rations can help decrease joint infl ammation in young horses. “Arthritis is one of the most common reasons we
retire horses, and this study shows that prevention of joint damage in early training may be possible through diet,” Coverdale said. “It’s pretty clear the damage comes during early training and that damage often leads to arthritis later in life. A lot of pharmaceuticals are given to treat pain, but few actually help repair the cartilage. We went with the premise that preven- tion is the best approach, rather than trying to treat an existing condition.” Coverdale said they used the horse production herd
at Texas A&M to develop the model and test several diet additives. Lucia read through numerous journals and found a study using LPS (lipopolysaccharide) in- jected into the joint for induction of localized infl am- mation in horses. “We came across LPS, which has been used in older
tscra.org Dr. Josie Coverdale, associate
professor of equine science in the department of animal science at Texas A&M University.
horses, but not younger horses,” she said. “LPS is the infl ammatory part of E. coli, which can be injected using a sterile solution. The beauty of the method is that you inject it in the knee and within 24 hours you get the swelling associated with cartilage turnover and related pain.” This allowed researchers to study the infl ammation
and breakdown of cartilage over time and mimic the progression of infl ammation and cartilage changes associated with intense exercise. “This initial model study showed us the pattern
of infl ammation and isolated appropriate markers to measure cartilage breakdown using joint fl uid removed from the knee at various time points,” Coverdale said. Once the LPS model was established to predictably
cause joint infl ammation, Coverdale said, different di- etary strategies were used to try to decrease the amount of infl ammation, which included anti-infl ammatory dietary supplements such as glucosamine — commonly used by men and women runners to aid in building back damaged cartilage. Coverdale said previous data with glucosamine sup- plementation was “hit or miss with adult horses,” but
November 2014 The Cattleman 71
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