BY M.S. FOLGMANNA; K.F. STOCKB; K. FEIGEA; U. DELLINGA
GRAPHICS: THE AUTHORS
Current studies on the health status of young German Warmblood stallions are lacking. The aims/objectives of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of radiographic findings at licensing examinations of German Warmblood candidate stallions and quantify the environmental influences on the distribution of recorded findings.
In this retrospective observational study, records of 1,693 radiographic examinations performed on 1,678 German Warmblood stallions presented for licensing in 2018–2020 were reviewed. Data were provided by all German Warmblood horse-breeding associations and their official veterinarians. The collection and storage of the records were performed using the German equine health database. Only the most recent examination per horse was included in the analyses. The influences of season of birth, age at licensing, year of licensing, and the evaluator on main radiographic findings were determined using generalised linear models with a significance level of p < 0.05.1.
Introduction
Soundness is one of the three pillars for the successful licensing of stallions in Germany [1]. The licensing of a stallion is the first step towards becoming a breeding stallion. It grants a preliminary breeding permission, which requires successful performance testing to evolve into a permanent permission [2]. Before the young stallions are assessed by a distinct commission of the respective breeding association regarding their conformation, movement, and, if applicable, jumping, they must pass a standardised clinical and radiographic examination [1].
The purpose of radiographs in candidate stallions is twofold: firstly, to reveal orthopaedic conditions with hereditary potential [3] and, secondly, to identify conditions which might impair future athletic performance and, thus, interfere with the completion of requirements for breeding stallions (obligatory performance testing) [1,2]. In addition, marketing reasons play some role, because auction sales promoting use in breeding and equestrian sport are often linked to licensing events.
All official examination results are kept by each respective breeding organisation, but not yet routinely stored in the central database. This is part of the reason why comprehensive evaluations across breeding organisations on that specific group of horses have not yet been performed, even though some of these animals will potentially have a significant influence on the development of the breed and its health. Therefore, all German breeding associations of Warmblood horses and their official veterinarians initiated the establishment of a joint equine health database in 2014 in collaboration with the German Equestrian Federation (Fédération Équestre Nationale, FN) [4,5]. The database allows standardised, online data recording and is currently confined to examinations of candidate stallions performed prior to licensing [6].
The data presented in this study are part of a larger project in which the German equine health database was used for data collection and analysis for the first time. The aim of the project was to assess the health status of recent candidate stallions in all German Warmblood breeds. The results of clinical findings were previously presented in a separate article by Folgmann et al. [7].
The objectives of the current study were to evaluate the prevalences of radiographic findings at licensing examinations of all German Warmblood candidate stallions in 2018–2020 and assess the influence of environmental factors (season of birth, age at licensing, year of licensing, evaluator) on these prevalences. The hypotheses were that: (1) the majority of the stallions have no radiographic findings, and (2) environmental effects play a minor role on the distribution of radiological findings
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study design and data collection: The data used in the present study are the results of radiographic examinations prior to the licensing of the candidate stallions in 2018–2020. All data provided by the German breeding associations for Warmblood horses were included. The study was part of a larger project, and the study design has been described in detail elsewhere [7]. Specifically, radiographic examination records, i.e. radiographic findings documented on paper or digitally, were centrally compiled by the first author by using the German equine health database and subsequently analysed. Entering data into the database’s user interface was possible in varying degrees of detail but always started with the limb allocation, radiographic projections, and the region of the finding. Regions were defined by the database as follows:
• the navicular bone (NB);
• the distal phalanx (P3);
• and adjacent structures including the distal interphalangeal joint (DIJ);
• the middle phalanx (P2)
• including the proximal interphalangeal joint (PIJ);
• the proximal phalanx (P1) including the metacarpo-/metatarsophalangeal joint (MC/MTJ);
• proximal sesamoid bones (PSB);
• the distal and proximal third metacarpal/metatarsal bone including splint bones (MC/MT);
• tarsus including the tarsal joint (TJ); the distal and proximal tibia; and the stifle including the patella, distal femur, and stifle joint...
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