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Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses

BACKGROUND: Oral lesions related to the use of the bit and bridle are reported to be common findings in horses worldwide and represent an important animal welfare issue. In order to provide an overview of bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses, a field examination of the rostral part of...

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Autores principales: Björnsdóttir, Sigríður, Frey, Rebecka, Kristjansson, Thorvaldur, Lundström, Torbjörn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4236600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25116656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-014-0040-8
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author Björnsdóttir, Sigríður
Frey, Rebecka
Kristjansson, Thorvaldur
Lundström, Torbjörn
author_facet Björnsdóttir, Sigríður
Frey, Rebecka
Kristjansson, Thorvaldur
Lundström, Torbjörn
author_sort Björnsdóttir, Sigríður
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Oral lesions related to the use of the bit and bridle are reported to be common findings in horses worldwide and represent an important animal welfare issue. In order to provide an overview of bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses, a field examination of the rostral part of the oral cavity was performed in 424 competition horses coming to the two major national horse events in Iceland in 2012. Records from repeated examination of 77 horses prior to the finals were used to assess potential risk factors. RESULTS: Mild lesions were recorded in 152 horses (36%) prior to the preliminary rounds. They were most often located in the commissures of the lips and the adjacent buccal mucosa (n = 111). Severe lesions were found in 32 (8%) horses. For 77 horses examined prior to the finals, the frequency of findings in the area of the mandibular interdental space (bars of the mandible) had increased from 8% to 31% (P < 0.0001). These findings were most often (16/24) regarded as severe. The presence of lesions on the bars was strongly associated to the use of curb bits with a port (OR = 75, P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Bit-related lesions were found to be a general problem in Icelandic competition horses. The type of bits used influenced both the location and the severity of the lesions. The use of curb bits with a port was found to be a decisive risk factor for lesions on the bars of the mandible, most of which were regarded as severe. The results also raised questions about the head and neck carriage demanded for the competition horses.
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spelling pubmed-42366002014-11-19 Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses Björnsdóttir, Sigríður Frey, Rebecka Kristjansson, Thorvaldur Lundström, Torbjörn Acta Vet Scand Research BACKGROUND: Oral lesions related to the use of the bit and bridle are reported to be common findings in horses worldwide and represent an important animal welfare issue. In order to provide an overview of bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses, a field examination of the rostral part of the oral cavity was performed in 424 competition horses coming to the two major national horse events in Iceland in 2012. Records from repeated examination of 77 horses prior to the finals were used to assess potential risk factors. RESULTS: Mild lesions were recorded in 152 horses (36%) prior to the preliminary rounds. They were most often located in the commissures of the lips and the adjacent buccal mucosa (n = 111). Severe lesions were found in 32 (8%) horses. For 77 horses examined prior to the finals, the frequency of findings in the area of the mandibular interdental space (bars of the mandible) had increased from 8% to 31% (P < 0.0001). These findings were most often (16/24) regarded as severe. The presence of lesions on the bars was strongly associated to the use of curb bits with a port (OR = 75, P = 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: Bit-related lesions were found to be a general problem in Icelandic competition horses. The type of bits used influenced both the location and the severity of the lesions. The use of curb bits with a port was found to be a decisive risk factor for lesions on the bars of the mandible, most of which were regarded as severe. The results also raised questions about the head and neck carriage demanded for the competition horses. BioMed Central 2014-08-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4236600/ /pubmed/25116656 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-014-0040-8 Text en Copyright © 2014 Bjornsdottir et al.; licensee Springer http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Björnsdóttir, Sigríður
Frey, Rebecka
Kristjansson, Thorvaldur
Lundström, Torbjörn
Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title_full Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title_fullStr Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title_full_unstemmed Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title_short Bit-related lesions in Icelandic competition horses
title_sort bit-related lesions in icelandic competition horses
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4236600/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25116656
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13028-014-0040-8
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