Abstract

CRUZ AMAYA, Jorge Mario; SANCHEZ V., Jorge Alberto  and  VERA HERNANDEZ, Luis Guillermo. Characterization and Prevalence of Oral Diseases in Creole Horse, Department of Caldas, Colombia. Rev. Med. Vet. [online]. 2012, n.23, pp.39-50. ISSN 0122-9354.

The purpose of this paper is to characterize and estimate the prevalence of oral diseases in working horses in the Department of Caldas, Colombia. The variables, presence or absence of a disease in the oral cavity, body condition (BC), age, gender, species (mule or horse) and type of food were recorded. To analyze the information, four age groups were created: young adult, mature, old. They were divided into three groups according to BC: poor or thin (1-2-3), healthy (4-5-6) and obese (7-8-9), and three feeding groups were observed: type 1, forage; type 2, forage + concentrated food, and type 3, forage + products made from sugar cane (cachaza). All the analysis were performed using SAS software. The prevalence of each disease was calculated using Chi-square (c²). The effect of age groups, BC and feeding on the various oral diseases was evaluated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). The significance level was set at p <0.05. The prevalence of oral disease found was 76.5% (n = 400). Thirty-two (32) different oral abnormalities were diagnosed. BC and age had a significant effect on the likelihood of association to oral disease (p < 0.01). The effect of feeding type on the likelihood of oral disease was significant (p = 0.04), while the effects of gender and species were not. The horses studied had not received any previous dental treatment, which is an important field for professionals in the region.

Keywords : Horses; oral diseases; dentistry; dental anatomy.

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