ABSTRACT

Laminitis is a painful condition that causes lameness in horses. However, monitoring this condition in feral horses is logistically difficult. Laminitis can be detected postmortem, as inflammation of the sensitive laminae of the hoof changes the relative location of the bony structures within the hoof capsule. Thus, evaluation of cadavers may be used to estimate laminitis prevalence in feral populations of horses. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of laminitis in feral horses inhabiting the Sable Island National Park Reserve, Canada, using radiographic imagery on the hooves of naturally deceased horses. Radiographic indicators evaluated included coronary band extensor process distance (CE), capsular rotation (CR), palmar angle (PA), ratio of the dorsal hoof wall thickness to the length of the distal phalanx (DHWT:P3) and sole depth (SLD). Each value measured indicated the following prevalence of laminitis: CE 0% (97.5% Confidence Interval (CI) 0–4.51%), 8.75% CR (95%CI 3.59–17.2%), PA 25% (95% CI 15.99–35.94%), DHWT:P3 6.25% (95%CI 2.06–14.0%) and 65% SLD (95% CI 53.52–75.33%). The majority of indices measured for laminitis were low. These findings suggest that laminitis is fairly infrequent in the Sable Island horses evaluated in this study.

摘要

蹄叶炎是一种痛苦的疾病，会导致马匹跛行。然而，监测野马的这种情况在逻辑上很困难。蹄叶炎可以在死后检测到，因为蹄敏感层的炎症改变了蹄囊内骨结构的相对位置。因此，对尸体的评估可用于估计野马种群蹄叶炎的患病率。本研究的目的是利用自然死亡马蹄上的射线照相图像，估计居住在加拿大黑貂岛国家公园保护区的野马中蹄叶炎的患病率。评估的射线照相指标包括冠状带伸肌突距离 (CE)、关节囊旋转 (CR)、掌角 (PA)、背蹄壁厚度与远节指骨长度之比 (DHWT: P3) 和鞋底深度 (SLD)。每个测量值表明以下蹄叶炎患病率：CE 0%（97.5% 置信区间 (CI) 0–4.51%）、8.75% CR（95%CI 3.59–17.2%）、PA 25%（95% CI 15.99–35.94 %)、DHWT:P3 6.25% (95% CI 2.06–14.0%) 和 65% SLD (95% CI 53.52–75.33%)。大多数测量的蹄叶炎指数都很低。这些发现表明蹄叶炎在本研究中评估的黑貂岛马中相当罕见。