The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
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17 September 2016 THE HORSE TheHorse.com Enter the "One Health" movement, which has evolved over the years to mean "one medicine for all" and involves the collaboration of more than 850 physi- cians, osteopaths, veterinarians, nurses, dentists, health officials, behaviorists, and environmental and other scientists. Craig Carter, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVPM, DSNAP, is the director of the University of Kentucky's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, as well as a visiting professor in the school's College of Public Health, in Lexington. As such, he researches and teaches One Health principles. "It is a multispecies thing that just has so much promise for the future of solving a lot of problems, from cancer to infectious disease, heart disease, and joint problems," says Carter. "A lot of folks don't understand that diseases in all mammals are pretty much a mirror of the physiology and pharmacology of people, with some key differences. But the use of antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, and treat- ment protocols are all very similar." Carter says human and equine organ systems are quite comparable, having similar functions, but disease processes can affect those systems differently, creat- ing distinct clinical signs. One of Carter's roles as the new presi- dent of the American Veterinary Epide- miology Society (AVES) is to help people recognize One Health as an emerging field in the allied health professions— currently he estimates only 20-25% of veterinarians have bought into the One Health movement. The mission of AVES is to advance the field of veterinary epidemiology and public health to help improve the quality of life for all people and animals through science-based One Health principles. Here are three fields equine veterinar- ians are working in and the similarities they've recognized between horse and human health. Stomach Similarities Horses and humans have remarkably similar digestive tracts, which has given researchers of both species valuable insight into gastric ulcers and other disease processes, says Frank Andrews, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, LRMA, equine committee professor and director of the Equine Health Studies Program at Louisi- ana State University, in Baton Rouge. Andrews, who has a special inter- est in equine gastroenterology, says the digestive disease that humans and horses most commonly battle is abdominal pain, known as colic in horses. Also, cecal im- pactions, infections, or ruptures in horses produce clinical signs similar to those of appendicitis in people. "We also have inflammatory bowel disease in horses as well as people," he says. "It's probably underdiagnosed in horses." Research on the equine digestive tract has centered around one important organ, the stomach, for the benefit of human research and vice versa (human stomach research benefits horses, too), especially in regard to ulcers. Both horses and humans are monogastric animals, meaning they have a single-chambered stomach—as opposed to ruminants, which have four. The horse's stomach has A lot of folks don't understand that diseas- es in all mammals are pretty much a mirror of the physiology and pharmacology of peo- ple, with some key differences." DR. CRAIG CARTER SUSAN KORDISH/COWGIRL PHOTOGRAPHY S imilarities between veterinary medicine and human medi- cine abound, particularly when it comes to horses. Horses, after all, suffer from many of the same conditions people do: cardiovascular disease, salmonellosis, Lyme disease, joint disease, the eye disease uveitis, tendon issues, and cancers such as melanoma. The two species also exhibit similar clinical signs, even though the root conditions can be different. For ex- ample, equine grass sickness and Alzheimer's; self-mutilation in horses and cutting disorders in humans; foal rejection in mares and postpartum depression in women; equine metabolic syn- drome in horses and diabetes in people; and asthma in humans versus what was classically called heaves in horses. STUDYING DISEASES ACROSS SPECIES CAN BENEFIT HORSES AS WELL AS PEOPLE SARAH EVERS CONRAD