A SURVEY CONCERNING THE EQUINE FESCUE TOXICOSIS MALADY

The objective of this research was to determine the scope of equine fe scue toxicosis, current procedures to control the disease, and to gain veterinary insight to possible new therapies. A survey was developed with help from experts in the area of fescue toxicosis. From a list of members of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), a samp le was obtained by selecting large animal/equine veterinarians from st ates where fescue toxicosis is common. These states included: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi , North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. One-fifteenth of the veterinarians (515 total) were mailed q uestionnaires; 207 responded. Veterinarians were grouped into regions based on latitude. Region 1 included veterinarians practicing north of 39.0 degrees latitude; Region 2 included veterinarians practicing bet ween 365 degrees and 39.0 degrees latitude; and Region 3 included vete rinarians practicing south of 36.5 degrees latitude. A majority of hor se pasture in the area of the survey is comprised of at least 50% fesc ue, with approximately 70% of the pasture being at least partially com prised of fescue. Almost 50% of the brood mares in the area of the sur vey are exposed to endophyte-infected fescue. Many gravid brood mares in the area of the survey were suffering from acute and subacute sympt oms, with over 43% warranting some kind of management technique to pre vent toxicity from occurring. A large majority of veterinarians in the area of the survey feel that fescue toxicosis is, to some level, a pr oblem. Current management techniques can be tedious and expensive. New management techniques and/or therapies are needed to handle the probl ems associated with equine fescue toxicosis. A large majority of veter inarians in the area of the survey feel an effective drug therapy woul d be valuable in treating equine fescue toxicosis. If a drug therapy w ere developed, a daily feed additive or an oral gel would be the most popular method of dosing with veterinarians. As a result of trends not iced in the rates of equine fescue toxicosis in different areas, stati stical analyses were conducted on data generated from this survey alon g regions that seemed to have different infection rates. There was no difference (P > 0.05) in levels of fescue in pastures, mare exposure t o the endophyte, and mare expression of acute or subacute symptoms bet ween regions 2 and 3. There was a difference (P < 0.05) between region 1 and regions 2 and 3 for all of the factors tested except for number of mares seen by veterinarians.