Suitability of reclaimed wood bedding for horses with recurrent airway obstruction ("heaves")

大多数养在室内的加拿大马都是以木质副产品为床垫的；要么是锯末，要么是木屑。被弄脏的床上用品每天都会被手工从马厩移走，储存在农场，最后用卡车运到垃圾填埋场丢弃。产生这种不可回收的废物对马业来说是一个挑战。Greenscene Agitek是一家拥有专有回收工艺的公司，该公司将用过的马床上用品转化为清洁和干燥的高质量床上用品。该工艺需要精炼和提取，可应用于使用和重复使用的床上用品多达20次。Greenscene Agitek是这一过程的先驱，这种被褥正被用于马场。 马匹被关在尘土飞扬的环境中，由于长期吸入霉菌孢子和灰尘，容易患上一种类似哮喘的疾病，称为“隆起”或“反复呼吸道阻塞”(RAO)。孢子和灰尘最常与饲喂干草和使用稻草作床铺有关，但也可能存在于某些类型的木质床垫中。尽管Greenscene Agitek回收的床上用品已经对霉菌含量进行了评估，但霉菌浓度和对患有呼吸系统疾病的马的影响都不清楚。在圭尔夫大学，我们有一群患有慢性RAO的马，暴露在劣质床上用品很容易加剧这种情况。 在这项提案中，我们寻求资金用于一项大学和行业的合作研究，以1)确定回收木质床垫中的霉菌孢子数量；2)测试容易发生隆起的马是否能更好地忍受被关在回收木质床垫上而不是稻草上。这项研究将分三个阶段进行--再生木材床上用品4周，冲洗期2周，稻草床上用品4周。将在第一阶段和第三阶段开始和结束时测定呼吸功能。将分析每匹马RAO的程度和发病时间与床垫中霉菌孢子浓度和霉菌类型的关系。 这些信息将有助于确保一种具有巨大潜力减少马业对环境影响的产品不会对健康造成不利影响。

Most Canadian horses housed indoors are bedded on wood by-products; either saw dust or wood shavings. Soiled bedding is removed by hand daily from stables, stored on farms, and eventually trucked and discarded in landfills. Generation of such non-recycled waste is a challenge for the horse industry. GreenScene Agritek is a company with a proprietary recycling process that transforms used horse bedding into cleaned and dried high quality bedding. The process entails refinement and extraction, and may be applied to used and re-used bedding up to 20 times. GreenScene Agritek has pioneered this process, and the bedding is being used on horse farms. Horses that are stabled in dusty environments are prone to develop an asthma-like condition called "heaves" or "recurrent airway obstruction" (RAO) from chronic inhalation of mold spores and dust. Spores and dust are most often associated with feeding hay and using straw for bedding, but may also be present in some types of wood-derived bedding. Although bedding recycled by GreenScene Agritek has been assessed for mold content, neither mold concentration nor the effect on horses with respiratory disease is known. At the University of Guelph we have a group of horses with chronic RAO that is readily exacerbated by exposure to poor quality bedding. In this proposal we seek funds for a collaborative university-industry study to 1) determine mold spore counts in recycled wood bedding; 2) test whether horses prone to develop heaves can tolerate being stabled on recycled wood bedding better than on straw. The study will proceed in three phases - 4 weeks on reclaimed wood bedding, 2 weeks of washout period, 4 weeks on straw bedding. Respiratory function will be determined at the beginning and end of phase 1 and 3. The degree and time to onset of RAO in each horse will be analyzed in relation to mold spore concentration and mold types in bedding. This information will be useful to assure lack of adverse health effects of a product that has great potential to reduce the environmental impact of the horse industry.