Incidence of disease, injury and mortality in Thoroughbred foals and yearlings on stud farms in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Mouncey, Rebecca; verheyen, kristien; DeMestre, Amanda; Arango-Saboga, Juan Carlos

Abstract

Background: Up-to-date estimates of early-life morbidity and mortality in Thoroughbreds are lacking.
Methods: A birth cohort was established on Thoroughbred stud farms across the United Kingdom and Ireland. All veterinary interventions for disease or injury between birth and 18 months of age or leaving the study were recorded. Multilevel Poisson regression models with farm and foal as random effects were fitted to estimate incidence rates.
Results: Data were available for 3,328 foal-months at risk of 275 foals on seven farms. The overall rates of disease and injury requiring veterinary intervention and mortality were 11.9 cases/100 foal-months at risk (95% confidence interval (CI) 8.6-16.2) and 0.2 cases/100 foal-months at risk (95%CI 0.1-0.4), respectively. Almost half (n=133/273, 49%, 95%CI 43-55) of the live-born cohort and 5.8 cases/100 foal-months at risk (95%CI 4.1-8.2) required veterinary intervention for musculoskeletal disease or injury, the majority of which were developmental orthopaedic disease (DOD).
Limitations: Convenience sampling of participants may affect generalisability of findings.
Conclusions: Rates of musculoskeletal disease and injury on Thoroughbred stud farms, in particular DOD, were high. Further work to identify modifiable risk factors and further understanding of the economic impact of these conditions and long-term consequences for musculoskeletal health and performance is required.

Citation

Mouncey, R., verheyen, K., DeMestre, A., & Arango-Saboga, J. C. (in press). Incidence of disease, injury and mortality in Thoroughbred foals and yearlings on stud farms in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Veterinary Record, https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.2994

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 5, 2023
• Online Publication Date: May 14, 2023
• Deposit Date: May 16, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 16, 2023
• Journal: Veterinary Record
• Print ISSN: 0042-4900
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.2994
• Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.2994