Catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses on racetracks in Gauteng, South Africa

Journal of the South African Veterinary Association

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses on racetracks in Gauteng, South Africa
 
Creator Spargo, Keith E. Rubio-Martinez, Luis M. Wheeler, Dale P. Fletcher, Lizelle Carstens, Ann
 
Subject veterinary science factors; fractures; horses; injury; racing; tendons
Description The incidence and types of catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbreds that resulted in euthanasia on selected racetracks in South Africa between 1998 and 2012 were investigated by an observational retrospective investigation. Data from the National Horseracing Authority of Southern Africa for these racetracks were used to calculate incidence rates in Thoroughbreds (n = 114) that sustained catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries during racing that required immediate euthanasia, based on the diagnosis made by the on-site veterinarian as well as on fetlock radiographs and dissections of 53 cadaver limbs of horses that sustained a catastrophic musculoskeletal injury. The proximal sesamoid bones and the distal suspensory ligament were involved in 55.26% of horses; 73.58% of the cadaver limb radiographs were of the left forelimb, 64.15% were closed fractures, and 74.47% had biaxial proximal sesamoid bone fractures. Catastrophic musculoskeletal injuries occurred almost exclusively unilaterally and involved mostly the left front leg. The average incidence rate for a catastrophic musculoskeletal injury occurring in a year at any of the tracks was 0.6 of 1000 starts.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor South African Veterinary Foundation and University of Pretoria's Research committee
Date 2019-02-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Observational retrospective investigation
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/jsava.v90i0.1640
 
Source Journal of the South African Veterinary Association; Vol 90 (2019); 5 pages 2224-9435 1019-9128
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1640/2354 https://jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1640/2353 https://jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1640/2355 https://jsava.co.za/index.php/jsava/article/view/1640/2352
 
Coverage Gauteng; South Africa 1998-2012 thoroughbred racehorses of 2 - 6 years of age
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Keith E. Spargo, Luis M. Rubio-Martinez, Dale P. Wheeler, Lizelle Fletcher, Ann Carstens https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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