Insect bite hypersensitivity in Icelandic horses: the latest advances in pathomechanisms, differential diagnosis and treatment (a literature review), and the comorbidity with equine asthma (a clinical data analysis)

• Main Author: Lindlbauer, Kathrin
• Other Authors: Cavalleri, Jessika-M., Pali, Isabella, Panakova, Lucia
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:3120

Diploma thesis - University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna - 2023 The aim of this thesis was to summarise the latest advances in IBH with a focus on current knowledge regarding the pathomechanisms and the latest therapeutical options. The second part was about a clinical data analysis at the Universities of Veterinary Medicine of Vienna and Munich in order to investigate (i) the prevalence of horses affected by IBH and EA, and (ii) potential co-morbidities. The literature review for the first part was conducted with help of the search engines PubMed, Google scholar and Scopus and with the following search terms: “Sommerekzem”, “sweet itch”, “sweet itch symptoms“, “sweet itch histology“, “insect bite hypersensitivity”, “equine asthma”, and “RAO”. The data collection for the second part took place at the Universities of Veterinary Medicine of Vienna and the Veterinary Faculty of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. All digitally stored patient records of Icelandic horses presented at the clinics between the period of 1 January 2014 until 31 May 2022 were included. The records were then screened for the horses’ age, their sex, the reason why they were presented at the hospital and whether they had IBH and/or EA. Descriptive statistics and descriptive graphics were conducted with the software Microsoft-“EXCEL”. Furthermore, the Chi square test was calculated with the software Microsoft “EXCEL”. To show the outcomes the percentage of the horses for each categorie was calculated and presented. Additionally, the mean age as well as the minimum and maximum age was determined. Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is one of the most common allergic problems in horses, and it appears nearly everywhere in the world. Because of the non-appearance of the allergy causing Culicoides in Iceland, Icelandic horses transported to other countries are more often affected by this disease. The first signs of IBH show up in spring when the Culicoides start to appear. Pruritus is the main sign of IBH and causes self-harming, ...