Successful treatment of equine sarcoids with cisplatin electrochemotherapy: a retrospective study of 48 cases.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY: Sarcoids are the commonest form of equine skin tumour. Several therapeutic measures have been described but none is considered to be universally effective. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a new anticancer therapy that utilises electrical field pulses to induce increased cell membrane permeability to antitumour hydrophilic drugs, such as cisplatin. The increased intracellular concentration of the drugs has a significant therapeutic benefit. The procedure has not been previously reported in a large number of horses. OBJECTIVE: To validate ECT as a novel alternative treatment for equine sarcoids. METHODS: A retrospective study evaluating the efficacy of cisplatin ECT in the treatment of equine sarcoids was performed. Electrochemotherapy treatments were applied under general anaesthesia at 2 week intervals with or without prior excision or debulking. Electric pulses were directly applied to the lesions following intra-tumoural injections of an aqueous solution of cisplatin. RESULTS: One-hundred-and-ninety-four sarcoids on 34 horses, 2 ponies, 11 donkeys and one mule were treated with ECT. The 4 year nonrecurrence rate was 97.9% for animals (47/48) and 99.5% (193/194) for tumours. When ECT was used as a single treatment, a significant influence of tumour size (ρ= 0.55) on the number of treatments required for cure was shown. When prior surgery was performed, there was a significant influence (P<0.001) of the excision quality (complete or incomplete) and the healing mode (closed or open wound) on the number of treatments. The most common adverse effect was a slight oedematous reaction for lesions located on thin skin regions. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results demonstrate that ECT, with or without concurrent tumour debulking, is an effective alternative for treatment of equine sarcoids.

Prevalence of gastric ulcer syndrome in high-level endurance horses.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING THE STUDY: Equine gastric ulcers syndrome (EGUS) prevalence studies are rare in the endurance horse and none has been carried out to date in horses competing at high level. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of EGUS in high-level endurance horses. METHODS: Thirty endurance horses competing at high level were selected and submitted to 2 gastroscopic examinations. The first gastroscopy was performed during the interseason period, and the second during the competition season within 2-3 days following a ride of 90-160 km. Data related to housing, feeding, training system as well as age, breed and gender were recorded for each horse. RESULTS: The prevalence of squamous gastric ulcers was 48% during the interseason period (mean score 0.85 ± 0.13 on a scale from 0-4) and 93% during the competition season (mean score 1.60 ± 1.15) with a highly significant difference between the seasons (P = 0.001). Most of the lesions were situated in the squamous portion of the stomach but 33.3% of horses showed also glandular lesions. Significant influence of training and performance level on the gastric score (according to the distance of the ride preceding the second gastroscopy) was shown (P = 0.038). There was also a significant influence of housing on the gastric score (P = 0.002) showing higher scores in the horses kept totally on pasture (mean score: 2.14 ± 0.14) vs. horses housed in a mixed environment (stable + pasture, mean score: 1.43 ± 0.17). Both the pastured and (stabled + pastured) groups were receiving a grain supplement but the pastured group received a higher daily starch intake, which might explain the higher ulcer prevalence. There was no influence of age, breed or gender on the gastric scores. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of gastric lesions observed in this study is probably related to the high level of training and performance of the horses examined compared to the population of horses included in the prior study. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE: This prevalence of EGUS in high-level endurance horses is comparable to the prevalence established in racing horses. The equine veterinarians may take into consideration EGUS as a potential cause of poor performance.

Mophometric study of the aortic arch and its major branches in rat fetuses on the 21st day of gestation.

The anatomy and embryology of the aortic arch and its branching tributaries (brachiocephalic trunk, left common carotid artery and left subclavian artery) in man and animals are well substantiated. However, the anatomical variations and morphometry of the aortic arch and its branching tributaries in rat fetus at the 21st gestation day have not been studied. Pregnant rats were hysterectomized and the arterial systems of 114 fetuses were injected with a polymerisable resin through the umbilical artery. After maceration, the vascular casts were dissected out and prepared for observations under a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The resulting SEM pictures were studied with a picture analyser and different vessel parameters (diameters, lengths and angles) were measured. The success rate of the microvascular cast injection was 46.5%. Out of the 53 observed aortic arch casts, 98.1% showed the classical branching pattern and one (1.9%) had no brachiocephalic trunk. Morphological analysis showed many differences, which were not linked to the litter. The statistical processing of the measurements enabled us to determine that the aorta diameter after the branching of the left subclavian artery was the most replicable parameter. Moreover, the results revealed some strong correlations between different parameters. There are probably no discrete categories among the various observed parameters as diameters and angles. Some parameters show very little variability and can thus be used as reference points for further studies such as the comparison of a control population with a population treated with a relevant xenobiotic.

Effect of precocious collection on semen output and quality in young Holstein bulls.

Semen production units compete heavily with each other, so they tend to select and collect bulls at the earliest possible age, even before puberty, in order to reduce the interval between generations. This study is a retrospective analysis of the effect of precocious collection on semen quality in Holstein bulls. The semen parameters of early- and late-maturing bulls collected before and after 410 days of age, respectively, were compared over two periods, 1991-1995 and 1997-1999. These periods were defined in relation to the collection rhythms (three collections of two ejaculates at 15 days interval before 1996 and adaptation of the collection rhythms to individual physiological capacity after 1996) and the collection conditions. The effects of age, precocious collection and the interaction between age and precocious collection on mean semen parameters (volume of the ejaculate, sperm motility, percent of motile spermatozoa per ejaculate, total sperm concentration and mobile sperm concentration) measured on collections 1-6 (n = 358 for 1991-1995 and n = 121 for 1997-1999), 7-12 (n = 255 for 1991-1995 and n = 80 for 1997-1999) and 13-18 (n = 92 for 1991-1995 and n = 36 for 1997-1999) were studied by covariance analysis. The semen quality of bulls collected at the early age differed from that of bulls collected after 410 days of age for the first period when the collection rhythm was intense. No effect of precocious collection was evidenced for the second period, suggesting the importance of individual adaptation of the collection rhythm to sexual maturation in young bulls. Early collections at a semen production unit reduced the time needed to obtain the number of insemination straws required for the progeny-testing program by 40 days. Early sperm collection is, thus, of economic and technical interest in well managed semen production units.