The Home of Rest for Horses has committed £141,000 to Bristol Veterinary School to find a way to alleviate sweet
itch an allergic reaction of horses to the bites of midges, which is a world-wide issue.
The bites of midges irritate most individuals (humans and horses alike) but this should not be confused with the severe reaction that occurs in allergic horses causing intense itching and rubbing.
Continual rubbing leads to weeping sores, which form scabs, especially along the mane, withers, back and at the base of the tail.
At present there is no cure for this condition and to date no current drug therapy for sweet itch is fully effective. There are ways of limiting the severity of the disease by preventing affected horses from being bitten, including the use of insect repellents, fly-proof rugs and stabling horses when midges are about. However, all these methods involve a lot of work and none is 100% effective.
A potential cure for this condition is immunotherapy. In principle, allergic horses could be cured by a course of injections similar to vaccinations (hypo-sensitised). For this to be successful the proteins that cause the allergy must be available in sufficient purity and quantity. In sweet itch, the proteins that cause the allergy are secreted in the saliva of midges as they feed on the blood of the horse.
Midges are small insects and their salivary glands are minute. To obtain sufficient quantities of pure salivary gland proteins the researchers propose to isolate the genes that code for the salivary proteins and to express them in the laboratory in cultured insect cells. This will provide an essentially limitless supply of midge salivary proteins. The proteins can then be used to enable a definitive diagnosis to be made and as a basis for a vaccine to prevent or cure sweet itch.
The bites of midges irritate most individuals (humans and horses alike) but this should not be confused with the severe reaction that occurs in allergic horses causing intense itching and rubbing.
Continual rubbing leads to weeping sores, which form scabs, especially along the mane, withers, back and at the base of the tail.
At present there is no cure for this condition and to date no current drug therapy for sweet itch is fully effective. There are ways of limiting the severity of the disease by preventing affected horses from being bitten, including the use of insect repellents, fly-proof rugs and stabling horses when midges are about. However, all these methods involve a lot of work and none is 100% effective.
A potential cure for this condition is immunotherapy. In principle, allergic horses could be cured by a course of injections similar to vaccinations (hypo-sensitised). For this to be successful the proteins that cause the allergy must be available in sufficient purity and quantity. In sweet itch, the proteins that cause the allergy are secreted in the saliva of midges as they feed on the blood of the horse.
Midges are small insects and their salivary glands are minute. To obtain sufficient quantities of pure salivary gland proteins the researchers propose to isolate the genes that code for the salivary proteins and to express them in the laboratory in cultured insect cells. This will provide an essentially limitless supply of midge salivary proteins. The proteins can then be used to enable a definitive diagnosis to be made and as a basis for a vaccine to prevent or cure sweet itch.
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