Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Equine grass sickness in italy: a case series study.
- Journal:
- BMC veterinary research
- Year:
- 2021
- Authors:
- Laus, Fulvio et al.
- Affiliation:
- School of Bioscences and Veterinary Medicine · Italy
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
Equine grass sickness (EGS) is a serious disease that mainly affects horses kept on pasture, causing issues with their nervous system, especially in the gut. This study looked at four horses in Central Italy during early spring, one with a subacute form and three with chronic forms of the disease. All the horses showed signs like being very tired, not eating, trouble swallowing, drooling, fast heart rates, and muscle twitching, and unfortunately, they were all euthanized because their condition was poor. The diagnosis was confirmed through tissue samples taken during surgery. This suggests that EGS might be more common in Italy than previously thought, especially in young horses, and highlights the need for veterinarians to consider it when horses show signs of abdominal pain or other related symptoms.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Equine grass sickness (EGS) has been reported in several European and extra-European countries. Despite this, no scientific paper about clinical cases of EGS in Italy has been published. EGS is a disease affecting almost exclusively horses kept on pasture, characterized by clinical signs related to lesions in autonomic nervous system (ANS), particularly in the enteric nervous system (ENS). According to clinical presentation, acute, subacute and chornic syndromes can be observed, with various sympthoms including dullness, anorexia, dysphagia, drooling of saliva, tachycardia, ptosis, patchy sweating and muscle fasciculations. In horses affected by acute forms, mild to moderate abdominal pain and large volumes of nasogastric reflux can be observed. The etiology is still speculative and many hypothesis have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis. CASE PRESENTATION: The present study describes four cases of EGS (one subacute and three chronic forms) occurred in Central Italy during early spring. In all the cases included in the study, the prognosis was poor and the horses were euthanized. The diagnosis was confirmed by histological examination of ANS or ENS. In two cases, in vivo diagnosis was obtained by histological examination of enteric bioptic samples collected during laparoscopy. CONCLUSIONS: EGS in Italy could be underdiagnosed and incidence understimated. Greater awareness should be applied in Italy for the inclusion of EGS in differential diagnosis for horses presenting clinical signs of abdominal pain associated or not with gastric reflux and muscular fasciculation. All the cases in this study concerned horses kept in the same pasture, confirming a possible premise-linked and management-linked factors on the ethiopathogenesis of EGS. The age of horses ranged from 2 to 6 years, that is consistent with the risk factor age for EGS (from 2 to 7 years of age). Previous suspected EGS diagnosis in the same livestock and recent cool dry weather were considered additional potential risk factors.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34362361/