CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A major aim of our long-term research is to characterize the metabonome of a metabolic disease, oscteochondritis dissecans (OCD), in horses and to find correlations with nutritional intakes using NMR-based metabolic analysis of their blood. Over several years we have identified a good number of metabolites and other components (specific amino acids, lipo-proteins, etc.), which have been significantly different between OCD and control cohorts in various conditions. Based on these findings we have made recommendations to alter the feed to compensate for these changes in hope that it could reduce the occurrence of OCD. This feed of altered composition was used for the first time in 2013 on a farm that had had a 25 to 30% incidence of OCD in its foal crop annually for over 6 years. The hypothesis was that the new feed would significantly alter not only the metabonome of all horses (the controls included), but that the differential metabonome of the OCD horses would also reflect the changes in the feed formula.Given the changing conditions between successive years (stress level, seasonal differences, housing, prior treatment, etc.) there was one cohort in the earlier set on the original feed (2011), which is closest to, and is directly comparable with the experimental cohort of 2014 on altered feed. In September 2011 twenty matched pairs of yearling Standardbred horses were sampled at a training facility. Their blood (serum) samples were collected using standard procedures [1]. Each pair of horses had the same sire and similarly bred dams. They had been raised on the same farm and fed the same pelleted ration formulated for growing horses since weaning. The only difference between members of each pair was that one had had surgical correction of hock OCD lesions 2 to 7 months before the samples were collected, while the other had no radiographic evidence of lesions. In September 2014 serum samples were again obtained from yearlings born in January-April, 2013. They had been fed a new formulation of pelleted feed all of their lives. Ten OCD and 14 controls were sampled, all in the same facility as in 2011, under similar conditions. The same type of hay (Alfalfa) was fed in both years. Blood samples were handled as before.In this poster we present the results of a thorough, NMR-based metabonomic analysis comparing the spectra of 2011 and 2014 horses, both for the controls and those with OCD, and analyze the observable variations between controls and OCD horses. The analysis used carefully processed 1H-NMR data and multivariate statistics, as well as statistical total correlation spectroscopy (STOCSY). The results are preliminary, yet promising. The incidence of OCD in the overall population of foals from 2014 was 15%-down from a consistent 25 to 30% in the overall foal crops of previous years. However further cycles of applying the new feed formulation will be certainly necessary for long-term, solid statistical conclusions with respect to its efficacy in reducing the incidence of this metabolic disorder.1.Pappalardo, Lucia, Pelczer, István and Ralston, Sarah L., Journal of Equine Veterinary Science, 33, 1044-1049, 2013.