Royal Veterinary College

The British racing industry, in partnership with the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), is using data spanning 14 years to identify and help reduce risk in the sport, via the Racing Risk Models (RRM), the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Horse Welfare Board (HWB) announced on Wednesday. Work on the RRM began in 2018 and its development and implementation has been one of the core recommendations of the HWB's 2020 strategy, A Life Well Lived. Academic researchers from the RVC have since been analysing data collected for each race start in...

Equinome today announced the launch of Checkmate, a new online tool that checks potential matings in real-time for genomic inbreeding risk. Recently published research led by the Royal Veterinary College showed an association between higher genomic inbreeding levels and abortions and stillbirths in Thoroughbreds. High levels of genomic inbreeding have also been shown to significantly impact durability for racing, with published studies, led by University College Dublin and Equinome, showing a clear link between genomic inbreeding and the likelihood of a Thoroughbred horse to ever race. Checkmate is designed to...

Chromosomal errors are a common cause of pregnancy loss in mares, researchers from the Royal Veterinary College (RVG), as part of a team from Cornell University, have discovered in a new study. In humans, chromosomal errors are a common cause of miscarriage, accounting for up to 82% of pregnancy loss. Due to the similarities between human and horse chromosomal structures and other pregnancy characteristics, this research supports the use of horses as a novel model organism to study miscarriage in women. The findings of this study mean it is possible...

Owners and previous owners of former racehorses in the UK are encouraged to participate in a new survey launched by the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) on Thursday. The purpose of the survey is to find out the different factors that influence a successful outcome in rehoming racehorses.  It is part of the RVC's wider 'Life After Racing' project, which seeks to improve understanding of retraining and rehoming former racehorses by outlining the processes involved in rehoming and assessing the different factors that influence a former racehorse's suitability for entry into...

New research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), in collaboration with Cornell University, has found that inbreeding is a contributing factor to mid- and late-term pregnancy loss (MLPL), but not early pregnancy loss (EPL) in thoroughbreds. This is the first study which explores the effect of genomic inbreeding levels on late-term pregnancy loss in the horse and will help inform mating choices to minimise the risk of miscarriages in thoroughbreds. Inbreeding is a common practice in the livestock industry because individuals with desirable traits are highly prized for breeding. However,...

The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has published new research that shows that Thoroughbreds with lower levels of collagen type III have a higher risk of fracture. The study will help to provide a greater understanding of how best to diagnose and manage horses at high risk of fractures, which is a leading cause of euthanasia within the breed. Currently in the UK, approximately 60 horses each year are put down on racecourses after sustaining such an injury. The research team leader Dr Debbie Guest, Senior Research Fellow at the RVC,...

Edited Press Release Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) have been awarded funding to build on their studies into umbilical cord torsion (UCT) in Thoroughbreds. This research, funded by the Alborada Trust, continues the first-ever comprehensive study of UCT in the world and will explore causation, as well as develop novel diagnostic tools to enable veterinary surgeons to detect and monitor the condition. Sadly, one in 25 Thoroughbred pregnancies in the UK result in pregnancy loss during mid- to late gestation, a figure that has shown no significant improvement...