Scientists at
the University of
Liverpool are comparing
ancient 15-million-year-old horse fossils with the bones of modern racehorses
to find out why horses' legs can be prone to fracture.
Researchers
are comparing modern bones with the fossils - using computer models to simulate
how the old and new bones would respond to the forces experienced as horses
gallop.
Lead
researchers Dr Ellen Singer and Dr Nathan Jeffery told BBC News how comparing
ancient and modern horses' leg joints could eventually help vets to understand
ways in which "catastrophic" fractures might be prevented.
Slow motion
footage courtesy of Dr Ellen Singer, University
of Liverpool
FORT ERIE - With 17 racetracks in Ontario expected to close by 2013 due to the end of the Slots-at-Racetracks program, the Horse Racing Transition (HRT) Panel created by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs is predicting 13,000 horses could be euthanized.
The number of horses expected to be euthanized is concerning to local horse trainer Bill Warner, who said “the numbers just don’t make sense.”
The horse racing industry “is just like any other business,” so it doesn’t seem right to destroy these animals when they can be sold to other trainers in the U.S. or used recreationally, the trainer, who has been in the business for more than 40 years, said.
Warner said some horses who can no longer race and are not suitable for other uses are sold at public auction and can be used for meat — but the lives of many horses don’t have to end, he said.
Although he did admit “more horses will be slaughtered than in the past” because of the number of racetracks closing.
MPP Monte McNaughton, of Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, who has spoken out against Dalton McGuinty’s decision to end the Slots-at-Racetracks program on March 31 of next year, said the program provided annual payments to the horse racing industry.
One of the racetracks affected by this decision includes Fort Erie’s border oval, which will close its doors on Dec. 31 this year.
McNaughton said the HRT panel was created to work with the horse racing industry as it transitions to life after the Slots-at-Racetrack program as well as provide recommendations to the government on how to allocate transition funding and assist the industry in becoming more self-sufficient.
The panel consists of former cabinet ministers Elmer Buchanan, John Snobelen and John Wilkinson.
In an interim report, the HRT panel predicted the government’s decision to pull the plug on the Slots-at-Racetracks program will put 60,000 jobs at risk, along with the lives of 26,000 horses involved in the industry, said McNaughton.
He added that the panel predicted 13,000 of those horses will be euthanized — the panel arrived at that number by consulting with professionals in the horse-racing industry.
McNaughton said he has toured racing facilities across Ontario — making stops at Racetracks in Windsor, Sarnia and Fort Erie — and spoke with horse-racing professionals and the public.
One of the concerns raised by trainers he spoke with was that the monetary value of horses have decreased because they aren’t in high demand for racing. This decrease in value could possibly lead to the euthanization of many horses, he said.
McNaughton said he expects to see a final report from the HRT panel by the end of this month.
About the Slots-at-Racetracks program
Since 1998, Ontario Lottery and Gaming has provided $3.7 billion to the horse racing industry in Ontario through the Slots-at-Racetracks program.
About $50 million over three years in transition funding will be given to support to the industry.
The Slots-at-Racetracks program gives 20% of gross slot revenue, shared equally by the track operator and those involved with running horses at the respective tracks. The program will end on March 31, 2013.
ScienceDaily (May 2, 2012) — When you buy a racehorse, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Top yearlings at Keeneland's 2011 Thoroughbred auction, for instance, averaged nearly $350,000 and hadn't yet raced a step. Odds are that some of them never will. Now, thanks to a Binghamton University biologist, it's possible to boost the odds of getting a winner with a simple genetic test.
ThoroughGen, founded by Steven Tammariello, associate professor of biological sciences, performs genetic testing on horses. The company offers a basic three-gene test for Thoroughbreds at a cost of $175. It screens for one gene that is vital to energy production and two tied to muscle function. Energy production is linked to stamina, muscle twitch to speed. But according to Tammariello, this is just the tip of the iceberg, adding that the horse has some 27,000 genes.
Tammariello carts a portable testing device to sales. All he needs is one strand of hair from the horse's mane and if he receives a sample by 4 p.m., he can give clients results the next morning. But the field is so new that it's still fighting pockets of resistance. Still, for many breeders in the Thoroughbred industry, genetic testing is the future. And it's the future for other breeds of horses as well, not just the racers.
When a stranger rang Debbie Lee and her partner, Steve Hogno, to ask if they'd like to race their beloved quarter horses at a country club resort, the pair thought their dreams were finally coming true.
"We said, 'Oh boy, we sure would!'" Lee recalls. "The guy who rang said he even knew of a property near the resort where we could keep our horses, and Steve and I couldn't wait to check it out."
The caller was Ian Howard, part of a consortium planning to restore the long-closed Kooralbyn Valley Resort near Beaudesert in south-east Queensland and set up regular quarter horse sprint races. Late last month, after meeting Howard and inspecting the proposed agistment block - "It seemed like the perfect spot" - Lee and Hogno moved 25 horses from land they rented in Toowoomba to the Kooralbyn Valley property.
But less than a fortnight after the healthy young horses were released to roam their picturesque new 81-hectare home - with three dams and a running stream - they began dying at an unprecedented rate. By Wednesday, six days after the first mysterious deaths on the unoccupied property were reported to the RSPCA by passers-by, all but four of the quarter horses, uninsured, were dead. And despite exhaustive testing by Biosecurity Queensland, the mass deaths continue to defy scientific explanation.
The most likely cause is thought to be paralysis ticks (up to 50 were found on each dead or stricken animal), especially rampant after last summer's flooding, combined with the fact the prized horses came from a tick-free area and had no immunity to tick toxin.
"No one told us about this danger," a devastated Lee said this week. "Steve and I loved these horses; we'd never have taken them there if we'd known about the killer ticks - it would have been like sticking a child who'd never been exposed to colds and flu in with a bunch of sick people."
But horse trainer Hogno is far from convinced ticks are the real culprits. Employed as a mining supervisor in a remote part of Western Australia, Hogno flew back to Brisbane last week to inspect the dead and dying horses.
"With tick poisoning, the paralysis always works forward from the hindquarters and tail," the veteran horseman said. "But in all of these cases the paralysis started from the head. Also, no one has ever heard of a case where so many animals have died so suddenly. Tick deaths occur over quite a prolonged period, yet many of these horses were dead within an hour or two of going down."
Hogno suspects that "elements" opposed to sprint racing within the broader horse racing industry may have been connected with the mystery deaths. Opposition to sprint racing, run over short courses, arose from a perceived threat to thoroughbred racing. It led to a rule change in 1993 that effectively banned races over less than 800 metres from Australian race tracks.
Since then, Hogno and other enthusiasts have been trying to find ways around the ban, focusing recently on privately funded, or proprietary, racing at independently owned venues. (Ian Howard told The Sun-Herald he and others involved in the Kooralbyn Valley Resort project hoped to stage regular sprint races there if a licence could be obtained through the Queensland government.)
"It was no secret that the large number of horses arriving at the Kooralbyn paddock were destined for sprint racing," notes Hogno. "The [Kooralbyn Valley Resort consortium] have circulated their intention of establishing sprint horse racing on a very large scale, with offshore wagering and so on … [and] we know from past experience that there is an element vigorously opposed to sprint racing ever being allowed to get re-established in Australia."
Hogno's suspicions deepened after being told via an anonymous phone call that people had been seen feeding his horses "late at night" over a fence at the Kooralbyn property, which borders a public road. A spokesman for Biosecurity Queensland said that while still unable to rule any potential cause for the deaths "in or out", he was unaware of anything indicating introduced poisons.
The property where the horses died and are now buried is owned by Ian Barry, who was travelling when the tragedy began unfolding. The job of fronting the media and burying the horses fell to his brother, David, who moved the surviving animals to his own property, administered serums against ticks and botulism, and stayed up around the clock to tend his charges. Last weekend, after returning from his travels and making a short inspection of the block where the horses died, Ian Barry found three paralysis ticks on his own body.
"He pulled one out from behind his ear," David Barry said at the property. "Next morning he woke paralysed down one side, and had to spend three days in hospital. The side of his head was blown up like Quasimodo's."
David Barry says he hadn't realised the horses were like pets to Hogno and Lee until inspecting the dead and dying animals with the couple last weekend. "Deb was crying and identifying them by name … she'd hand fed some of them from an early age. After that, I went into overdrive to try to save the remaining four."
But, despite showing signs of improvement earlier this week, one of the survivors died on Thursday. Another, which had been "running and playing" on Thursday morning, collapsed that afternoon.
Hogno got the latest grim news at his desert outpost. "This is a week after [the last four horses] were sprayed, and all ticks were removed, and after having tick anti-serum," he emailed soon afterwards. "Adds to the theory of some [deliberately] introduced virus or disease. Very strange."
Like Hogno, Ian Howard - who unwittingly set the scene for the tragedy - says he and the vets he has consulted cannot accept that ticks "could knock over that many horses that quickly".
Yet he also struggles with the notion of foul play: "I just can't believe that anybody could be that bloody-minded. But if it was [a deliberate act], and the culprits get caught, I wouldn't like to be in their shoes."
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