Developing behavioural methods to assess pain in horses

截至2022年7月1日，Olivia咖喱开始了一个新的博士项目，在Cathy Dwyer，Juliet邓肯和Gemma Pearson的监督下开发行为方法来评估马的疼痛。这个学生项目将采用跨学科的合作方法，研究与马草病（EGS）相关的原因，风险因素和诊断。将调查生物和环境因素，学生有机会回顾所有可用的研究并使用多学科方法，找出知识差距并进行相关研究以阐明病因和风险因素。以前的研究已经着眼于个别潜在的病原体和缺乏成功的鉴定病原体迄今表明它可能是多因素的。本研究项目的主要思路将包括：-开发一个相关的和新的体外系统，包括三维肠道肠培养物从马，使早期宿主-病原体相互作用的研究后，挑战的体外培养物与一些领先的候选病原体，可能涉及马草病。- 研究使用唾液作为马的非侵入性试验，以检测宿主对可能在诱导马草病中起作用的潜在致病因子的一系列候选抗原的免疫反应。- 该项目的样本将在近年来草病流行的选定地区进行纵向研究。建立一个国家生物库和数据库，包括问卷编制，与兽医，马主和研究人员合作，收集EGS病例和对照的生物和环境样本。

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.