Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).

Postures have long been used and proved useful to describe animals' behaviours and emotional states, but remains difficult to assess objectively in field conditions. A recent study performed on horses using geometric morphometrics revealed important postural differences between 2 horse populati...

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Autores principales:	Clémence Lesimple, Carole Fureix, Emmanuel De Margerie, Emilie Sénèque, Hervé Menguy, Martine Hausberger
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2012
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f88a7013ff04459da376cdf7d5da946d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f88a7013ff04459da376cdf7d5da946d2021-11-18T07:06:15ZTowards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0044604https://doaj.org/article/f88a7013ff04459da376cdf7d5da946d2012-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/22970261/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Postures have long been used and proved useful to describe animals' behaviours and emotional states, but remains difficult to assess objectively in field conditions. A recent study performed on horses using geometric morphometrics revealed important postural differences between 2 horse populations differing in management conditions (leisure horses living in social groups used for occasional "relaxed" riding/riding school horses living in individual boxes used in daily riding lessons with more constraining techniques). It was suggested that these postural differences may reflect chronic effects of riding techniques on the horses' kinematics and muscular development. In the present study, we tried to evaluate the interest of postural measures to assess welfare in horses. This study was separated into 2 parts. First, 18 horses coming from these 2 types of populations (leisure/riding school horses) were submitted to 2 back evaluations by 1) manual examination (experienced practitioner) and 2) sEMG measures along the spine. We then measured neck roundness on 16 of these 18 horses. The results highlighted high correlations between manual and sEMG examinations over the spine. sEMG measures at the different locations were strongly correlated all over the spine. Moreover, neck postures and muscular activities were strongly correlated, horses with concave necks having higher sEMG measures both at precise locations (i.e. cervical sites) but also when comparing neck postures to the whole spine muscular activity highlighting the functioning of horses' back as a whole. Lastly, strong differences appeared between the populations, leisure horses being evaluated as having sounder spines, exhibiting lower sEMG measures and rounder neck than the riding school horses. sEMG measures and neck "roundness" seemed therefore to be reliable indicators of back disorders, easy to evaluate in field conditions. This highlights the accuracy of using postural elements to evaluate the animals' general state and has important implications for animals' welfare evaluations.Clémence LesimpleCarole FureixEmmanuel De MargerieEmilie SénèqueHervé MenguyMartine HausbergerPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 7, Iss 9, p e44604 (2012)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Clémence Lesimple Carole Fureix Emmanuel De Margerie Emilie Sénèque Hervé Menguy Martine Hausberger Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
description	Postures have long been used and proved useful to describe animals' behaviours and emotional states, but remains difficult to assess objectively in field conditions. A recent study performed on horses using geometric morphometrics revealed important postural differences between 2 horse populations differing in management conditions (leisure horses living in social groups used for occasional "relaxed" riding/riding school horses living in individual boxes used in daily riding lessons with more constraining techniques). It was suggested that these postural differences may reflect chronic effects of riding techniques on the horses' kinematics and muscular development. In the present study, we tried to evaluate the interest of postural measures to assess welfare in horses. This study was separated into 2 parts. First, 18 horses coming from these 2 types of populations (leisure/riding school horses) were submitted to 2 back evaluations by 1) manual examination (experienced practitioner) and 2) sEMG measures along the spine. We then measured neck roundness on 16 of these 18 horses. The results highlighted high correlations between manual and sEMG examinations over the spine. sEMG measures at the different locations were strongly correlated all over the spine. Moreover, neck postures and muscular activities were strongly correlated, horses with concave necks having higher sEMG measures both at precise locations (i.e. cervical sites) but also when comparing neck postures to the whole spine muscular activity highlighting the functioning of horses' back as a whole. Lastly, strong differences appeared between the populations, leisure horses being evaluated as having sounder spines, exhibiting lower sEMG measures and rounder neck than the riding school horses. sEMG measures and neck "roundness" seemed therefore to be reliable indicators of back disorders, easy to evaluate in field conditions. This highlights the accuracy of using postural elements to evaluate the animals' general state and has important implications for animals' welfare evaluations.
format	article
author	Clémence Lesimple Carole Fureix Emmanuel De Margerie Emilie Sénèque Hervé Menguy Martine Hausberger
author_facet	Clémence Lesimple Carole Fureix Emmanuel De Margerie Emilie Sénèque Hervé Menguy Martine Hausberger
author_sort	Clémence Lesimple
title	Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
title_short	Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
title_full	Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
title_fullStr	Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
title_full_unstemmed	Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).
title_sort	towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (equus caballus).
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2012
url	https://doaj.org/article/f88a7013ff04459da376cdf7d5da946d
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Towards a postural indicator of back pain in horses (Equus caballus).

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