A 'costume change' for zebras and horses reveals how stripes thwart horsefly landings
Scientists learned in recent years why zebras have black and white stripes - to avoid biting flies. But a study published today in the journal PLOS ONE probes the question further: What is it about stripes that actually disrupts a biting fly's ability to land on a zebra and suck its blood?
Avian influenza viruses infect horses in Mongolia but do not cause large outbreaks of disease because they failed to acquire key genetic changes to enable greater cross-species transmissibility, according to a study published February 7 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Pablo Murcia of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, and colleagues.
Scientists discover key genes for mucosal melanoma in humans, dogs and horses that help prioritize targets for new cancer therapies
Cancer genes in mucosal melanoma, a rare and poorly understood subtype of melanoma, have been compared in humans, dogs and horses for the first time by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. Researchers sequenced the genomes of the same cancer across different species to pin-point key cancer genes.
Each year on the first Saturday in May, Thoroughbred horses reach speeds of over 40 miles per hour as they compete to win the Kentucky Derby. But the domestic horse wasn’t always bred for speed. In fact, an international team now has evidence to suggest that the modern horse is genetically quite different from the horses of even just a few hundred years ago.
The Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) strongly advocate that all animal owners should ensure that efficient, practical and functional radiofrequency identification (RFID) devices are implanted to allow for easy traceability of animals. This is particularly important in the event of a natural disaster, exotic disease outbreak or biosecurity incident as it allows for the prompt reunion with their owners.
Bothersome insects are a predicable summer hazard. Swatting them can almost become a sport, but some irritable horses enjoy taking shots at something larger.
A vaccine against deadly foal pneumonia might finally be within reach, thanks to Morris Animal Foundation-funded research conducted at two major universities. The breakthrough could potentially save the lives of thousands of foals every year.
Help is on the way for plump ponies at risk of the painful, often deadly, condition of founder or laminitis which is the second biggest killer of domestic horses.
QUT Professor Martin Sillence, from QUT’s School of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, said a new veterinary drug related to one used to treat human metabolic syndrome has been found to prevent laminitis in ponies with the equine version of metabolic syndrome.
If you are repeatedly training your horse to do the same task every day, you could well be spending your time more productively. New research has found that horses have similar learning progress and remember a task just as well, when they are trained every three days, as when they are trained daily.
A hot humid day. One rider. One horse. Both are exercising at a moderate level. Who is more likely to overheat?
It might surprise you to know that your horse gets hotter much faster than you and is more susceptible to the negative effects of heat stress.
Prof. Michael Lindinger, an animal and exercise physiologist at the University of Guelph, explains: “It only takes 17 minutes of moderate intensity exercise in hot, humid weather to raise a horse’s temperature to dangerous levels. That’s three to 10 times faster than in humans. Horses feel the heat much worse than we do.”
