Postmortem findings of gastric ulcers in Swedish horses older than age oneyear: a retrospective study of 3715 horses (1924-1996)

The present study was performed to estimate retrospectively the prevalence of gastric ulceration in necropsied Swedish horses and to evaluate some pot ential risk factors. Horses (n = 3715) older than age one rear and necropsi ed 1924-1996 were included. Information about breed, gender, age, season of death, clinical signs of colic, Gasterophilus larvae and documentation of diseases in different organs was recorded. Data on size, number and anatomi cal distribution of gastric ulcers were also obtained. The cold-blooded hor ses and the Standardbreds were the 2 most dominating breeds in our material . Gastric ulcers/erosions were seen To 633 (17%) of the horses. The highest prevalence was found in Thoroughbreds (19%) and Standardbreds (19%), where as only 7% of the cold-blooded horses were affected. The cutaneous region a long the margo plicatus was the most commonly affected area (52%). Multiple ulcers were seen in 62% of the horses with gastric ulcers and concurrent u lcers in the oesophagus were reported in 6%. In the bivariate analysis, sig nificant associations were found between gastric ulcers and signs of colic (P<0.001) and gender (P<0.001), as web as between concomitant bowel (P<0.00 1), liver (P<0.05) and oesophageal (P<0.01) lesions, Using a multivariate l ogistic regression model, only year of necropsy and breed were found signif icantly to influence the risk of gastric ulceration by decreasing the Log L ikelihood test value, The present study shows clearly that gastric ulcerati on has been present in Swedish horses throughout the 20th century, which al so may be the situation worldwide.