Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
2621 MORGAN CIR
KNOXVILLE,TN 37996-4540
Performing Department
LARGE ANIMAL CLINICAL SCIENCES
Non Technical Summary
Equine protozoal myeloencephalomyelitis is an important and potentially fatal neurologic disease of horses caused by a protozoal organism called Sarcocystis neuroma. An effective vaccine to prevent this disease would be desirable. The purpose of this study is to utilize a case-control design to determine the efficacy of a new vaccine against equine protozoal myeloencephalitis.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The objectives of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a vaccine for equine protozoal myeloencephalopathy (EPM)using a case control design. The objectives are 1) to compare the prevalence of vaccination for EPM among horses diagnosed with EPM (cases) and a group of horses diagnosed with neurologic conditions other than EPM (neurologic controls); 2) to compare the prevalence of vaccination for EPM among horses diagnosed with EPM (cases) and a group of horses admitted to the participationg clinics for non-neurologic conditions (non-neurologic controls); and 3) to compare the distributions of times since vaccination to admission to the referral hospital for cases of EPM versus each of the 2 control groups.
Project Methods
A questionnaire will be filled out by clients and blood samples taken from horses (vaccinated and unvaccinated) presented to The University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital with Equine Protozoal Myeloencephalopathy (EPM), neurologic disease other than EPM, and normal hospitalized horses in order to determine if the vaccine is helpful in the prevention of EPM. This will be done in a large population of horses at over a 3-year periord at 11 different sites as a multicenter clinical trial. The questionnaire and blood sample results (Western blot test) will be evaluated at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine to determine if the horses vaccinated with EPM vaccine have a less incidence of EPM compared to the horses with neurologic disease other than EPM and the control group.