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 Karen
J. McDowell, MS, PhD
Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center
Department of Veterinary Science
University of Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0099
My research area is reproductive biology. The long-term goals
of my program are to advance the knowledge of control of the
estrous cycle and mechanisms of pregnancy maintenance in mares.
With this knowledge, strategies can be developed to better
identify problem mares and successfully manage mares whose
pregnancies are at risk; pregnancies that, with our current
state of knowledge, result in embryonic and fetal loss.
The direct benefits are to increase efficiency and decrease
costs of equine breeding programs. I am committed to a systematic,
scientific approach, along with assessing equine farm management
practices. These approaches mesh basic science and biology
with the reality of how animals are handled and managed. The
valuable scientific information from this approach serves
to decrease the number of matings that occur each year to
produce a live foal. The purpose is not necessarily to produce
more foals, but to produce the high quality, highly desirable
foals more efficiently.
In April, 2001, a staggering increase in equine abortions
of unknown cause occurred in central Kentucky and the surrounding
area, and is now referred to as Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome
(MRLS). Since that time I have been a part of the research
team that provided the first experimental evidence that MRLS
was caused by eastern tent caterpillars and conducted controlled
experiments to elucidate the mechanism of action of the disease.
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