Field study examining the mucosal microbiome in equine glandular gastric disease

This study also looked at the effects of exercise on gastric ulceration, supporting past findings that exercising more than five days a week is associated with increased gastric ulceration. Exercise-induced musculoskeletal conditions also are reduced with two days in a row rest every week. If your performance horse is not getting his/her
two consecutive days of rest weekly, maybe you should find a way to implement it.
DrO

Field study examining the mucosal microbiome in equine glandular gastric disease
PLoS One. 2023 Dec 7;18(12):e0295697. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295697. eCollection 2023.
Authors
Linda J Paul 1 , Aaron C Ericsson 2 , Frank M Andrews 1 , Zachary McAdams 2 , Michael L Keowen 1 , Michael P St Blanc 1 , Heidi E Banse 1
Affiliations

1 Veterinary Clinical Sciences, Equine Health and Sports Performance, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, United States of America.
2 Metagenomics Center, Equine Gut Group, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States of America.

PMID: 38060520
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295697

Abstract

Equine glandular gastric disease (EGGD) is a common disease among athletic horses that can negatively impact health and performance. The pathophysiology of this EGGD remains poorly understood. Previous studies using controlled populations of horses identified differences in the gastric glandular mucosal microbiome associated with disease. The objective of this study was to compare the gastric microbiome in horses with EGGD and those without across multiple barns and differing management practices. We hypothesized that alterations in the microbiome of the gastric glandular mucosa are associated with EGGD. A secondary objective was to perform a risk factor analysis for EGGD using the diet and management data collected. Microbial populations of biopsies from normal pyloric mucosa of horses without EGGD (control biopsies), normal pyloric mucosa of horses with EGGD (normal biopsies) and areas of glandular mucosal disruption in horses with EGGD (lesion biopsies) were compared. Lesion biopsies had a different microbial community structure than control biopsies. Control biopsies had a higher read count for the phylum Actinomycetota compared to lesion biopsies. Control biopsies also had an enrichment of the genera Staphylococcus and Lawsonella and the species Streptococcus salivarius. Lesion biopsies had an enrichment of the genera Lactobacillus and Actinobacillus and the species Lactobacillus equigenerosi. These results demonstrate differences in the gastric glandular microbiome between sites of disrupted mucosa in horses with EGGD compared to pyloric mucosa of horses without EGGD. Risk factor analysis indicated that exercise duration per week was a risk factor for EGGD.

Excerpted from the article’s discussion:
When examining potential diet and management risk factors in this study, horses with greater than 180 minutes of exercise per week were identified to have an increased risk of EGGD diagnosis. This supports other studies that have identified exercising 5–7 days per week [39] or 6–7 days per week [1] as a risk factor for EGGD. In people, gastrointestinal syndrome (GIS) occurs in both elite and recreational athletes and includes any gastrointestinal disturbance or dysfunction associated with exercise [40]. Exercise has not been associated with alterations in the equine gastric microbiome, suggesting other mechanisms may contribute to its role in EGGD. A decrease in blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract has been documented in people [41] and horses [10] which can make these organs, including the gastric glandular stomach, more susceptible to dysfunction and disease. Diet and management factors have previously been identified to alter the gastric microbiome [13, 14, 21]. However, none of these factors were retained in the final model as a risk factor for EGGD in the present study.

Copyright: © 2023 Paul et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.