Could the same biomarkers linking low vitamin D to seriously ill humans be present in horses? Starting this spring, Ontario Veterinary College researcher, Dr. Luis Arroyo and his team will be collecting and analyzing equine blood samples measuring vitamin D and other biomarkers of inflammation and systemic disease. They expect to find major disorders of hormonal pathways, much like in human studies looking at hypovitaminosis D as a marker of disease severity. This knowledge could be pivotal to future studies looking into clinical intervention at the earliest stages.

Equine enterocolitis (diarrhea, colitis) is a major cause of equine deaths worldwide. “It is a black box,” says Arroyo as he recalls a staggering statistic from a recently published paper out of California. The paper stated that in 13 years of studying over 700 enterocolitis cases, the cause of the disease was unknown at least 65% of the time. Colitis can result in loss of hormonal control, metabolic/ electrolyte / fluid imbalances, and organ failure.

Horses are hindgut fermenters and they depend on the microbiota in the gut to break down what they eat and produce energy. Disturbance of this ecology will affect the health of the horse directly. Colitis causes inflammation of the intestine and the horse can end up with diarrhea. When this occurs and there is significant nutrient loss, they can end up becoming very sick.

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