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Research Highlights
Over the past century, this collective group of researchers
has made numerous major breakthroughs in the field of equine
health. Consider just some of these landmark contributions:
- 1930 - Work by researchers in the field of mare fertility
related to breeding hygiene resulted in an increase in pregnancy
rates from 40-65 percent to 75-85 percent over a five-year
period.
- 1939 - The department was designated the National Salmonella
Typing Center after becoming internationally renowned for
its work in that field.
- 1947-48 - Streptococcus /zooepidemicus was identified
as the most frequent bacterial cause of equine abortion
and foal death.
- 1950s - Researchers devised much needed laboratory procedures
for the study of equine abortion virus (equine herpesvirus-1)
infections, including development of the first vaccine against
this disease.
- 1950s - Equine viral arteritis (EVA) was defined for
the first time as a specific disease.
- 1954 – Gluck researchers were the first to discover
and report acquired resistance of Haemonchus contortus to
phenothiazine in sheep. This is believed to be the first
record of a parasitic species in either humans or animals
developing resistance to a drug.
- 1960s - Development of the first multivalent vaccine
against equine influenza, a viral respiratory disease which
affects a large percentage of the horse population each
year.
- 1966 - Research began on the mare’s response to
extended (artificial) light in controlling her reproductive
cycle. This discovery changed forever the struggle to get
mares in foal earlier in the year.
- 1969 - Vaccine for Streptococcus equi (strangles) was
developed and became commercially available.
- 1984- An epidemic of equine viral arteritis (EVA) enabled
researchers for the first time to confirm existence of the
"carrier" state in stallions. This knowledge has
been pivotal in devising effective strategies for controlling
the spread of EVA.
- 1993 - The Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center was
designated by the Office International des Epizooties (World
Organization for Animal Health) as a World Reference Center
for three significant equine viral diseases:
- Equine rhinopneumonitis
- Equine influenza
- Equine viral arteritis
- 1994 – Development of the first test for the diagnosis
of horses affected with equine protozoal myeloencephalitis
(EPM), a parasitic neurological disease occurring in horses
in the Western Hemisphere.
- 1999 - Involvement of Gluck Center researchers in the
development of Flu-Avert™, a highly successful intranasal
vaccine for equine subtype 2 influenza virus. The modified-live
virus vaccine was licensed by the USDA in 1999. In addition,
work on maternal influenza and equine herpesvirus 1 antibody
interference by researchers in the department led to new
recommendations for foal vaccination protocols by the American
Association of Equine Practitioners.
- 2001 - Further research into EPM spawned the development
of the first FDA-approved medication available for treating
the disease.
- 2001 - A group of Gluck Center scientists, in collaboration
with other UK College of Agriculture researchers, helped
determine the cause of the early fetal losses, late-term
abortions and other problems that occurred in association
with Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS).
- 2005 –Gluck Center researcher initiates and is
the first author of a "white paper" that leads
to full genome sequencing of the horse by the National Human
Genome Research Institute.
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With each purchase made with The Horseman's Card, a donation is made to the world-renowned
Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center.
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