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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2014
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4236600 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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