208
EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION / AE / APRIL 2018
at their attachment sites. All larvae collected during the study period were identified as third-stage larvae of Gasterophilus intestinalis. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences in the
prevalence of EGUS with respect to sex (P = 0.75) age (P>0.999) and breed (P = 0.37), while the difference between the number of donkeys affected by ESGD and those affected by ESGD/EGGD was highly significant (P<0.0001). Similarly, the difference between the prevalence of donkeys affected by grade 1 lesions (hyperaemia and/or hyperparakeratosis) and the prevalence of donkeys affected by grade 2–4 lesions (ulcers) was statistically significant (12.8% [2.3–23.3%] vs. 38.5% [23.2–53.7%], P = 0.0183).
Discussion
The aim of the present study was to present the prevalence, and anatomical distribution of EGUS in a cohort of live adult donkeys. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report to consider the gastroscopic evaluation of EGUS in live donkeys. The gastroscopic examination was performed in all the
donkeys enrolled in the present study, no damage to the oesophageal or gastric mucosa due to the passage of the endoscope was detected and the stomach was reached easily. The prevalence of gastric lesions consistent with EGUS
obtained in this study was 51.3% (35.6–67%) and 38.5% (23.2– 53.7%) of the animals had ulcers (grade 2/4–4/4). In addition, the squamous portion of the stomach was predominantly affected. Morrow and colleagues (2011) reported a prevalence of 42.1% (39.6–44.7%) of gastric ulcers, alone or in combination with other disorders, in a retrospective post- mortem study; they did not describe the localisation of the lesions (ESGD or EGGD) or the lesions’ score. Burden and colleagues (2009) found a prevalence of 41% in donkeys that had been subjected to euthanasia or were dead and did not describe the localisation of the lesions or the scoring. Al- Mokaddem and colleagues (2014) found a lower prevalence (20%) of gastric lesions (erosions/ulcerations) in 35 mature draught donkeys that had been subjected to euthanasia. In
TABLE 1: Prevalence values and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of equine gastric ulceration syndrome in donkeys examined alive by gastroscopic examination, according to anatomical location of the lesions, sex, age, and breed
Variables Lesion
location Sex Age Breed Total
No. positive/no. examined
ESGD*
ESGD/EGGD† Females Males
≤3 years >3 years Amiatina
Crossbreed
19/39‡ 1/39‡ 9/16
11/23 12/23 8/16
15/33 5/6
20/39
Prevalence (95% CI)
48.7% (33–64.4) 2.6% (0–7.5)
56.2% (32.6–77.8) 47.8% (28.7–67.5) 52.2% (32.5–71.3) 50.0% (27.2–72.8) 45.4% (28.5–62.4) 83.3% (53.5–100) 51.3% (35.6–67)
* Equine squamous gastric disease (ESGD); †ESGD in association with Equine glandular gastric disease (EGGD); ‡highly significant difference by Fisher’s exact test (P<0.0001); CI, confidence interval.
© 2017 EVJ Ltd
a study conducted in Spain on 10 dead donkeys, Morales Brice~
no et al. (2015) reported a 90% prevalence of gastric
ulcers, and performed a lesion scoring (0/4–4/4) similar to ours, as proposed by others (Andrews et al. 1999). Our results, obtained in apparently healthy donkeys examined alive, showed a similar prevalence of EGUS to the value reported by Morrow et al. (2011), considering the 95% CIs, higher than values reported by other authors (Burden et al. 2009; Al- Mokaddem et al. 2014), and lower than the findings of Morales Brice~
no and colleagues (2015) obtained in donkeys
that were dead or had been subjected to euthanasia. None of the donkeys enrolled in above mentioned studies
were working animals, instead they had a sedentary life style, like the donkeys included in this survey. However, the donkeys enrolled in previous studies (Burden et al. 2009; Morrow et al. 2011) were elderly (mean age: 30.5 and 30.6 years, respectively), while in the present study we enrolled younger animals (mean age: 5 years). In the survey carried out by Morrow and colleagues (2011), 92.6% of the donkeys were humanely destroyed, 4.8% were found dead and 2.6% died under treatment for different diseases. Burden and colleagues (2009) enrolled donkeys affected by different pathologies, which were dead or were subjected to euthanasia because of problems in one of the main body systems. In the present paper, 48.7% (33–64.4%) of the animals
showed ESGD of grade 0/4, while 48.7% (33–64.4%) had lesions graded 1/4–3/4, with a very low prevalence (2.6%, 0.0– 7.5%) of grade 4/4. In the report by Morales Brice~
no and
colleagues (2015), the evaluation of gastric lesions in dead donkeys revealed an ESGD with the highest prevalence of grade 2/4. These differences could be related to the inclusion of alive vs. dead donkeys and to the higher number of animals evaluated in the present study compared to the previous one (39 vs. 10). No differences related to sex, age or breed were found in
this study. This is in line with reports performed both in donkeys (Burden et al. 2009) and horses (Vatistas et al. 1999; Rabuffo et al. 2002; Bezdukova et al. 2005; Bell et al. 2007; Lester et al. 2008; Hepburn 2014), but in contrast with other authors (Sandin et al. 2000). None of our donkeys had clinical signs attributable to EGUS or other diseases, in accordance with Morales Brice~
no
and colleagues (2014), who enrolled asymptomatic donkeys that died due to nondigestive causes. The majority of donkeys enrolled by Burden et al. (2009) were subjected to euthanasia or died due to a problem in one of the main body organ systems. By contrast, Morrow et al. (2011) reported that only 2.6% of the donkeys enrolled were subjected to euthanasia under treatment of a nonspecified disease. Finally, Al-Mokadden and colleagues (2014) included donkeys subjected to euthanasia for diseases not related to EGUS, which were predominantly long bone fractures. The detection of third-stage G. intestinalis larvae was not
unexpected since these can be retrieved throughout the year and G. instestinalis has been reported as the most common Gasterophilus species in Italy (Otranto et al. 2005). G. intestinalis larvae were found to be attached along the margo plicatus in all our donkeys. These findings are in agreement with other authors who detected a 100% infestation rate in Egypt (Al-Mokaddem et al. 2014). However, lower prevalence values of 30% and 0.4% have also been
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
