The Current State of Managing Airway Disease in Horses

One researcher believes additional studies are needed to improve IAD diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

Inflammatory airway disease (IAD), also known as equine asthma, is a common problem in horses. It can affect the performance of horses participating across a range of activities, including racing, eventing, show jumping, and dressage. And yet, despite recent scientific advances, there’s still so much that researchers don’t know about IAD.

Cristy Secombe, BSc, BVMS, MVsc (hons), MANZCVS, Dipl. ACVIM, a senior lecturer in equine medicine at Murdoch University, in Western Australia, will be speaking on the topic at the Equine Veterinarians Australia Bain Fallon conference, taking place July 17-21 in Melbourne, Australia. Secombe considers further research about this respiratory disease necessary to effectively tackle IAD in Australia and around the world.

“IAD is commonly diagnosed in Australia and most scientists agree that there are a number of things that contribute to the development of IAD in athletic horses including dust, allergens, infectious agents, and a horse’s genetic susceptibility,” Secombe said. “The likelihood that a horse will develop the disease will depend on what level of exposure to causative agents they are able to tolerate and this varies from horse to horse.”

Diagnosing IAD can be challenging as the only clinical sign could be an intermittent cough or poor performance with minimal respiratory signs. Currently, the most common diagnostic method involves looking at the types of inflammatory cells present in the respiratory tract and the amount of mucus produced

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

How much time do you usually spend grooming your horse?
435 votes · 435 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!