Infections in Neonatal Foals
Infectious diseases are a major problem in young foals. Diseases, including diarrhea, pneumonia, meningitis, umbilical infections and joint infections can range from mild to rapidly fatal. Even in foals that survive the initial infection, these conditions can sometimes result in permanent problems. A study published in a recent edition of the Equine Veterinary Journal (Wohlfender et al, 2009) looked at infectious diseases in the first 30 days of life in 1031 foals on 36 breeding farms in the Newmarket, UK area. This very large study provided some interesting information:
- The overall incidence of infectious diseases was 8.3%, meaning around 1 in 12 foals developed some type of infectious disease during the first 30 days of life.
- The most common infectious problem was diarrhea, which occurred in 5.9% of foals. Foals with diarrhea that didn't have other signs of illness were not included. This is because most young foals with diarrhea and no other abnormalities likely have foal heat diarrhea, which is not an infectious disease.
- Umbilical infections developed in 0.7% of foals.
- Joint infections occurred in 0.4% of foals.
- Bone infections occurred in 0.2% of foals.
- Respiratory infections were uncommon, occurring in only 0.6% of foals.
- There was no difference in the incidence of infections in foals that were treated routinely with antibiotics to "prevent" infections. Whether or not this practice is effective has been a controversial issue for a long time. The best way to answer the question would be to have a study that randomly assigned foals to receive antibiotics or no antibiotics, and then monitored both groups for infections. This study didn't do that, so there could be some "bias" to this particular finding, but the results are still useful. I don't find the results surprising - there has never been good evidence that antibiotics are routinely needed in newborn foals. This study may help control routine (and in my opinion unnecessary) antibiotic treatment in healthy newborn foals.
This study provided more information confirming that infectious diseases are a significant problem in foals, and that measures are needed to reduce the incidence of infections. It also provided evidence that routine antibiotic use is NOT an effective means of doing this. While there is a lack of good, objective evidence, routine hygiene, sound management and every-day infection control practices are probably critical factors for infectious disease prevention in these young animals.
