Jean-Yin Tan

1 INTRODUCTION According to the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) in 2018, more than 50% of recent graduates in equine practice leave the equine field by the fifth year after graduation.

Anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease caused by the bacterium Anaplasma phagocytophilum (formerly known as Ehrlichia phagocytophila and Ehrlichia equi) that infects white blood cells. It’s commonly confused with Potomac horse fever (PHF), which causes similar signs. Scientists have determined the Anaplasma organism typically infects horses from late fall to early spring and is spread via Ixodes ticks (deer tick and Western black-legged tick), which also spread Lyme disease.

As our horses’ life expectancies extend beyond what we would have predicted 20 years ago, we expect similar longevity from their athletic careers. To help this happen, we must adjust our equine management practices. One of the most common performance-limiting conditions affecting geriatric horses that we can manage is asthma, previously known as recurrent airway obstruction (RAO, or heaves) an inflammatory lower airway disease.