Morris Animal Foundation's Equine Health Initiative

Horse Health Research from MAF Equine Consortium — Improving Horse Health with Veterinary Research

Morris Animal Foundation's Equine Health Initiative is our largest equine initiative.

Watch Video The Equine Health Initiative is the largest equine health campaign in the organization's history. The first project is the Equine Consortium for Genetic Research. This worldwide research project brings together the best equine researchers in a collaborative effort to improve equine health.

The Equine Consortium for Genetic Research is led by University of Minnesota equine professors Jim Mickelson and Stephanie Valberg, with a total of 32 scientists from 18 elite academic institutions throughout nine countries collaborating on the project's development and completion. The university will receive $2.5 million over five years to complete the project.

The research team will use the sequenced horse genome to identify genes and mutations that contribute to heritable diseases such as musculoskeletal disease, laminitis, recurrent airway obstruction, and bone disease. Because genetic diseases affect horses from every breed, this project has tremendous potential for preventing and treating diseases with heritable risk factors. The project will benefit the entire horse industry, offer new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to reduce animal suffering, and promote equine health and welfare.

To contribute to this critical project, e-mail Paul Raybould, Vice President of Gifts and Business Development, or call 800.243.2345.

• View the equine brochure.
• Donate to the Equine Health Initiative.

Equid Emotions and Laterality: Is there a Connection?

This is going to be an interesting thing to check out.

clipped from www.thehorse.com Does your horse give "dirty" looks? Rather than trying to read his expression, you might be able get some clues about how your horse really feels about objects by paying attention to which eye he uses to observe them. French behaviorists reported that horses explore and process information about various objects differently, depending on the emotional importance of the item. According to co-author Martine Hausberger, PhD, director of research at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique at the University of Rennes in France, "In the past few years, researchers have suggested that a link exists between a lateralized response and emotions in animals."

Read the entire article at http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12599