By Blake Jackson
Inflammation is a natural defense mechanism that helps the body respond to injury or illness by sending immune cells to affected areas and promoting healing.
However, when inflammation becomes chronic or excessive, it can lead to additional health problems and further tissue damage.
For horses, determining whether inflammation is acute or long-term can be challenging because veterinarians must rely on physical exams, patient history, and standard bloodwork that may not reveal early inflammatory changes.
Early identification of inflammation in horses is essential, as timely treatment can help prevent chronic conditions, ease discomfort, and support better overall health and performance. Veterinarians often use a complete blood count (CBC) a test also used in humans to measure and evaluate various blood cells.
While CBCs are a standard tool for assessing general health, the reference intervals commonly used today were not specifically created to detect inflammation.
To address this gap, researchers at Penn State developed new inflammatory indices, which are mathematical combinations of CBC values that more accurately reflect inflammation. By integrating data from different white blood cell types and platelets, these indices provide a more comprehensive picture of a horse’s inflammatory status.
“A horse could have mild inflammation and still have ‘normal’ complete blood count values because the reference intervals - in other words, the normal CBC ranges - were created using horses that appeared healthy, even though some might have had early inflammation,” explained study first author Molly Friend, a doctoral candidate in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Integrative and Biomedical Physiology.
“These industry standard reference intervals are not designed specifically to detect inflammation, so they can miss subtle inflammatory changes.”
Friend conducts her research under the guidance of Danielle Smarsh, associate professor of equine science in the Department of Animal Science and senior author on the study.
Rather than evaluating individual CBC values in isolation, the research team examined ratios and indices involving different white blood cell subtypes. This approach helps highlight the balance between the innate, rapid immune response and the adaptive, more targeted response, offering clearer insight into inflammation levels in horses.
Photo Credit: gettyimages-patrick-jennings
Categories: Pennsylvania, Education, Livestock