Assessment of Pain in Horses With EGUS
Date
2021
Authors
May, Bridget
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Thesis
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Abstract
Pain is a subjective experience, making pain assessment difficult. In animals, this becomes
even more complicated, especially when assessing pain in conditions that are only presumed
to be painful such as equine gastric ulcer syndrome. Characterised by lesions on the mucosa of
the equine stomach, this disease has a prevalence of 60-100% . It is not known whether gastric
ulcers are painful for horses. The aim of this study was to use subjective (horse grimace scale)
and objective (interleukin-1ꞵ) measures to determine if horses with equine gastric ulcer
syndrome scored higher than pain-free control horses. A total of 77 horses were assessed for
lameness and gastric ulcers and split into 4 groups depending on the presence and absence of
each. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups when comparing
horse grimace scale scores or interleukin-1ꞵ expression. There was a statistically significant
association between horses with grade 4 ulceration of the squamous mucosa and heightened
levels of interleukin-1ꞵ, which supported the hypothesis that horses with equine gastric ulcer
syndrome would have higher levels of interleukin-1ꞵ than those with less severe ulcers. Whilst
some positive results were found, further studies are required to optimize use of the interleukin-
1ꞵ assay as well as using more horses with no ulcers and more horses with severe ulcers to get
more definitive results.
School/Discipline
School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences
Dissertation Note
Thesis (BSc(Hons)) - University of Adelaide, School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, 2021
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