Preface

Understanding equine medicine, anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and behaviors is essential for horse and donkey welfare. This book contains both literature reviews and recent research into topics ranging from reproduction and locomotion through to ancient and modern treatments. The book investigates both healthy and pathological conditions at differing stages of life. The importance of each cell and tissue through to the whole organism is explored alongside the methodologies used to understand these vital structures and functions.

As editors, we are both practicing gene therapy, anatomy, and physiology researchers and teachers, therefore we have strived to ensure that every chapter is accessible to everyone. Whether you are a veterinary professional, student, researcher, animal owner, or simply have an interest in horses and donkeys, we hope you will find a number of interesting chapters in this book.

The 'Medieval Medicine to Gene Therapy' section starts with an interesting chapter showing strategies used in Armenia, where East meets West in both traditions and medicines. This fascinating chapter bridges science and history, kings and physicians, to guide the reader through a topic rarely written about. The next two chapters show the brilliant advances being made in gene therapy used to treat lameness caused by tendinitis, desmitis, and osteoarthritis. These techniques rely on knowledge of not only how and why genes and proteins are expressed, but also on the best methods to introduce gene therapies and then the effects on healing, the cells, tissues, and the whole animal.

The next section concentrates on 'Reproduction, Locomotion, and Skin'. The first chapter reviews seasonality and the effect of photoperiod on mares, shows improvements in reproductive efficiency in mares, and also explores endometritis and twin pregnancies. The next chapter looks at proximal suspensory desmitis of the hindlimb and whether this can predispose horses to sacroiliac disease. By asking owners and bringing together published evidence and information, the authors cover both disorders. The next chapter investigates cartilage health, looking in detail at potential biomarkers for diagnosis and novel therapeutic targets, concentrating on equine joints and lameness causing issues. The final chapter delves into equine sarcoid, which is the most common skin neoplasia in the horse and also affects other equids. This chapter describes what equine sarcoid is, how and why it presents and develops, clinical and pathological diagnosis, and potential treatments.

The final section covers the digestive system, diet, and finishes with a chapter on behavior. The first chapter covers the gastrointestinal system, looking at decades of experiences diagnosing and treating horses with postoperative ileus using different methods. It explores the difficulties, outcomes, and makes recommendations based not only on a large study but also on the published literature. Continuing the theme, a morphophysiological study of the gastrointestinal tract of the donkey is presented. Although the donkey is very similar to the horse, the chapter highlights the key attributes of the digestive system in the donkey, bringing together the vast literature on the subject into one chapter. Following information on the digestive system, it

**II**

**Chapter 7 107**

Digestive System, Diet and Behavior **137**

**Chapter 8 139**

**Chapter 9 167**

**Chapter 10 185**

**Chapter 11 203**

Current Strategies for Prevention and Treatment of Equine Postoperative

*by Milomir Kovac, Ruslan Aliev, Sergey Pozyabin, Nevena Drakul* 

Promoting Grass in Horse Diets and Implementing Sustainable

*by Pauline Doligez, Marie Delerue, Agnès Orsoni, Bathilde Diligeon, Céline Saillet, Hervé Feugère, Guillaume Mathieu, Jean Baptiste Quillet* 

What Are They Thinking? Scientific Horsemanship and the Mind

Morphophysiological Study of Gastrointestinal Tract of the Donkey

Equine Sarcoid

**Section 3**

*by Beatrice Funiciello and Paola Roccabianca*

Ileus: A Multimodal Approach

Deworming: 'Équipâture' Programme

*by Ian Q. Whishaw and Candace J. Burke*

*and Stéphanie Cassigneul*

*and Albert Rizvanov*

(*Equus asinus*) *by Arbab Sikandar*

of the Horse

seems natural to discuss some aspects of nutrition. The next chapter looks at studies on grass in horse diets and implementing a sustainable deworming program. The book concludes with a chapter that is arguably affected by many of the aspects of equine science already discussed, behavior. Behavioral Neuroscientists look at both horsemanship and horse behavior in relation to injury, locomotion, training, in differing environments and under saddle, and highlight aspects of memory.

The chapter contributors are experts in their fields from across the world. They have conducted scientific studies, collated the published literature from across the years, and presented a number of graphics throughout in order to illustrate their work.

> **Dr. Catrin Sian Rutland** University of Nottingham, UK

 **Albert Rizvanov** Professor, Kazan Federal University, Russia

**1**

Section 1

Medieval Medicine to

Gene Therapy

Section 1
