The funds will be used to maintain and enhance the infrastructure that supports research aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of production animals and equids

The funds will support two specific research projects. The goal of the first project is to improve the management of sepsis, a common and often fatal condition in horses and camelids and occasionally other domestic animals. Sepsis is an infection that causes systemic (whole body) inflammation. This often compromises the blood circulation and function of vital organs leading to death. A common complication in horses is laminitis, a very painful condition in which the hoof separates from the underlying bone. Effective treatments for sepsis and laminitis are lacking. The project will develop a robust and predictable animal model of sepsis which will allow the evaluation of potential new therapies. A second line of research aims to investigate the effect of a drug that prevents platelet aggregation and therefore improves the blood circulation on laminitis. The research is expected to lead to the discovery of new treatments for sepsis in horses and other species. This will be of great interest to horse breeders, horse owners, owners of camelids and veterinary practitioners. The results of these studies will be disseminated through scientific and lay publications as well as presentations at regional and national meetings. The work will be performed with veterinary students, residents and graduate students who will receive important hands-on research training and gain practical clinical experience. The second project focuses on equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM), a neurologic disease caused by sarcocystis neurona that results in huge economic losses to the equine industry. S. Neurona infects between 15 and 89% of horses, but clinical disease develops in less than 1% of these horses. The progression of this neurological disease is unpredictable and often times requires prolonged treatment with antiprotozoal drugs that are expensive. Unfortunately, only 60-70% of the horses appear to respond to treatment and 10-20% of the horses experience relapse of clinical signs upon cessation of treatment. Sarcocystis neurona establishes infection within the cells of the central nervous system. Understanding how S. Neurona survives within, and interacts with the host cell will provide insights into molecular mechanisms that could be targeted to prevent relapse from occurring. This project aims to identify key parasite proteins that support its intracellular lifestyle, and the development of molecular genetics tools that will enable US to decipher the biological role of these proteins. These efforts will lead to identification of proteins (secretory and membrane) that are functional during intracellular development of S. Neurona, and potential targets for development of novel drugs to treat these infections. The immediate target audience for this work will be other scientists in academic and animal health companies. The outcome is the identification of proteins that are critical for the intracellular survival and function of the parasites. The results of the research will be disseminated through publications and presentations at national meetings.