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“ Around ten of us are working on asthma, exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhages, and foal rhodococcosis,” he explains. Regarding asthma, there is“ a sector-wide logic, as it is the major cause of equine underperformance. It has two forms: severe or moderate.”
Chronic or transient asthma The severe form, also called emphysema, is strongly linked to the horse’ s environment and diet. It can be managed but never truly cured. Moderate asthma, which affects the athletic horse, is instead an irritation with multiple causes that can be treated.“ Research is underway, particularly in Switzerland, to determine whether severe asthma has a genetic factor. For the past ten years, every time we work with a horse, we take a sample with the aim of launching a genetic study later. We already have 400 or 500 samples stored, but we need twice that number before starting the study.” The LABÉO team is mainly funded by the IFCE, the Fonds Éperon( and therefore racing), and the Normandy Region.“ We work with‘ reallife’ horses, relying on a network of trainers and owners,” specifies Éric Richard. In racing, they mostly use trotters“ for practical reasons. The intensity of their effort is as high as that of thoroughbreds, so our results are transferable.” Researchers cultivate cells to avoid overly invasive protocols on animals. They even create“ organoids,” cells organized in 3D like mini lungs. The researcher is pleased to have made“ many small discoveries” over the past twenty years.“ There are two diagnostic tools for lung problems: endoscopy( inserting a camera into the airways) and bronchoalveolar lavage( introducing a small volume of sterile liquid into the lungs and then retrieving it for analysis). Regarding the latter, we established that the two lungs do not yield the same result. Sampling only one therefore carries a high risk of false negatives.” Since 2013, LABÉO has implemented a test combining samples from both lungs, offering reliable results at an affordable cost: about € 50 plus the cost of sampling by the attending veterinarian.“ We are trying to find asthma biomarkers that would allow early diagnosis through a simple blood test. A protein, an indicator molecule … It’ s a lifetime dream! We have not yet found the perfect marker, but a promising trio. By combining them, we might achieve sufficient diagnostic quality, but there is still at least a year of work ahead.” Éric Richard and his team have also demonstrated the frequent involvement of rhinovirus B— akin to the human common cold— in many cases of moderate asthma in Europe.“ A variant of this virus circulates in the United States, and we did not expect to find a different one on our continent.” Since equine asthma is very similar to human asthma, collaboration between scientists working on both species is being considered.
Hemorrhage The other major lung pathology in racehorses is bleeding, or exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage( EIPH). Increased respiratory pressure during racing causes pulmonary capillaries to rupture, leading to blood leaking into the alveoli. Virtually all racehorses are affected at some point in their careers. This condition often leads to retirement when it becomes chronic. Jean-Marc Betsch notes that some top champions can nevertheless continue successful careers with adapted training and careful veterinary monitoring. Bleeding is usually subtle— only 5 % of affected horses show blood at the nostrils— but up to 2 liters of blood can be lost in severe cases. Horses may be asymptomatic or may cough, lose performance, and develop lung infections.“ A racehorse or event horse can bleed without underlying disease; this is much rarer in other sport horses,” explains Tanguy Hermange. Inflammation, heart problems, airway obstruction( for example when the horse overbends), are contributing factors. The best treatment is time and spacing out intense efforts. In terms of prevention, there is unfortunately little that can be done. Furosemide, a diuretic, is
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