Developing behavioural methods to assess pain in horses

As of 1st July 2022, Olivia Curry commenced a new PhD project Developing behavioural methods to assess pain in horses under the Supervision of Cathy Dwyer, Juliet Duncan and Gemma Pearson.

This studentshi project will look at the causes, risk factors and diagnoses associated with Equine Grass Sickness (EGS), adopting an inter-disciplinary collaborative approach. Both biological and environmental factors will be investigated, with the student having the opportunity to review all available research and using a multi-disciplinary approach, identify gaps in knowledge and undertake relevant research strands to elucidate causal agents and risk factors.

Previous research has looked at individual potential causal agents and the lack of success so far in identifying a causative agent suggests it may be multifactorial. The main strands of this research project will include:

- Developing a relevant and novel in vitro system comprising 3D gut enteroid cultures from horses to enable the study of the early host-pathogen interactions following challenge of the in vitro cultures with some of the leading candidate causal agents that may be involved in equine grass sickness.

- Investigating the use of saliva as a non-invasive test in horses to detect host immune responses to a range of candidate antigens from potential causal agents that may play a role in inducing equine grass sickness.

- Samples for the project will be collected in longitudinal studies in selected areas where grass sickness has been prevalent in recent years.

- Establishment of a national biobank and database, including questionnaire development, collaborating with vets, horse owners and researchers, to collect biological and environmental samples from EGS cases and controls.