by Melissa Weber

Columbus, OH — A devastating disease made a household word by a famous horse, laminitis is an inflammatory and extremely painful condition affecting the soft tissues between the hoof and coffin bone (laminae). This condition, which eventually claimed the life of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, is a complex and poorly understood pathogenesis.

The Ohio State University took another important step toward helping to solve the puzzle of laminitis in November when faculty members, residents and students from the College of Veterinary Medicine participated in the Fourth International Conference on Laminitis and Diseases of the Foot. Attendees included veterinarians, farriers and horse owners, trainers and caretakers.

“Due to the tragic demise of Barbaro, the awareness of this disease has reached a new apex,” said conference director James Orsini, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, of the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center. As reported on www.thehorse.com, Dr. Orsini termed the conference, which was a joint venture between the University of Pennsylvania, The Ohio State University, and the University of Florida, “the centerpiece of a multi-pronged campaign against laminitis.” This year marked the first time that Ohio State and Florida were co-sponsors of the event.

“It’s really part of my vision of this event to get synergy through the participation of many schools,” said Dr. Orisini. “Laminitis is too big of a problem to solve on our own. We need to build collaborative partnerships and work together to better understand the disease. This is one of the few continuing education conferences open to everyone in the equine industry — from horse lovers to managers and researchers to trainers. Much of the credit for this event goes to Mr. and Mrs. John K. Castle.”

The conference continues to be supported financially through the generosity of the Castles, in loving memory of their wonderful horse, Spot. Two awards are presented each year at the conference in Spot’s name. Rustin Moore, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS and Professor and Chair of the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University, who served as the Program Director for the conference, presented Roy and Gretchen Jackson, owners of Barbaro, the Spot Castle Awareness Award for their role in bringing immense attention and awareness to the importance and impact of laminitis and the need for more research.

Several other prestigious awards were given, including the Pfizer Scientific Award for outstanding laminitis research and scientific achievement.

The Pfizer award was presented to James Belknap, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVS and Associate Professor of Veterinary Clinical Sciences from The Ohio State University Galbreath Equine Center. Dr. Chris Pollitt, another highly accomplished equine laminitis researcher and assistant director of the conference, and Lynn Johnson from Pfizer, presented the award to Dr. Belknap in recognition of his “scientific contributions to the collective understanding of the pathophysiology of laminitis.”

In introducing Dr. Belknap, whose laminitis research is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, Inc., and Morris Animal Foundation, Dr. Pollitt called this award the “Nobel Prize for Laminitis Research”.

“Ohio State has become an important player in explaining and treating this disease,” said Fran Jurga, Editor, Hoofcare and Lameness Journal, and co-chair of the conference program. “I can’t say enough about the importance of Dr. Moore’s involvement and participation in this conference.”

“Many people said this was the best program ever,” added Dr. Orsini. “We had the largest number of participants and the largest number of attendees ever. We have had participants from Ohio State before, and Dr. Moore’s participation as program organizer made an important impact.”

Both the scientific and the practical tracks featured sessions on prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“I thought the conference was great,” said Trey Green, Certified Journeyman Farrier, who works with equine clinicians at Ohio State. “I’ve been to conferences in the past that seemed to be mere soapboxes for the speakers. This one was very different. It was very informative and effectively integrated farriers and veterinarians. I learned a lot. I saw a lot of theories and techniques that I hadn’t really thought would work, but I had learned about when I was apprenticing. Even if you learn what you don’t want to do, you are still learning.”

Dr. Moore presented “Evidence based treatment of laminitis — What works?” and Dr. Belknap presented “More Pieces to the Laminitis Puzzle” during the scientific session.

During the “More Pieces to the Laminitis Puzzle” session speakers from several universities including Missouri, Florida, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Georgia, Queensland (Australia), Louisiana State, and Ohio State gave summaries of the results of recent research that has been performed at their universities and that added to the collective knowledge regarding the cause, prevention and treatment of laminitis.

“My presentation was based on our work involving inflammatory signaling in laminitis,” explained Dr. Belknap. “Much of the work includes collaborations with some phenomenal investigators including Drs. Gerard Nuovo and Elliott Crouser from The Ohio State University Medical Center, Dr. Sam Black (University of Massachusetts), Dr. Jim Moore (University of Georgia), and Dr. Chris Pollitt (University of Queensland, Australia). These collaborations have really introduced to the veterinary world that the pathophysiology of laminar failure in the septic horse has many similarities to organ failure in human sepsis. These similarities can likely be exploited by veterinary researchers and clinicians for the discovery of an effective drug regimen(s) for this devastating disease.”

John A. E. Hubbell, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVA, who is a Professor of Veterinary Anesthesiology at Ohio State spoke on “Systemic Pain Management Strategies for Horses with Laminitis.” He focused on the competing difficulties between managing pain and encouraging healing in cases of laminitis.

“Providing comfort for the horse is a key part of the successful treatment of laminitis,” said Dr. Hubbell. “But complete analgesia such as that produced by local anesthetics can lead to overloading and could potentially hasten the progression of the disease. A balance must be struck between providing analgesia and limiting the weight and force that the horse places on its hooves by constantly standing.”

“This was a great conference,” said Dr. Moore. “We were particularly pleased to integrate and involve more students and residents in the conference through their participation in the inaugural “Foot Bowl,” which was an inter-collegiate trivia contest focused on the horse’s foot. The OSU Foot Bowl team was comprised of Drs. Teresa Burns and Jarred Williams, residents in equine internal medicine and surgery, respectively, and Erika Wierman and Trina Westerman, veterinary students. The team was coached by Dr. Belknap and Trey Green.

“The Foot Bowl was lots of fun,” added Fran Jurga. “The students from Ohio State really knew their stuff!”