2015 ACVIM Forum Research Abstract Program

The objective of this study was to compare CBG concentrations among healthy foals of various ages, septic foals, and healthy adult horses. We hypothesized that sick foals have significantly lower CBG concentrations than healthy foals or adult horses, and that healthy foals have significantly lower CBG concentrations than adult horses, with the lowest concentrations being at birth. CBG concentrations in serum samples were measured using a commercial equine CBG ELISA validated for this study (% recovery = 92.86%, intra-assay coefficient of variation = 8.80%, inter-assay coefficient of variation = 7.32%). Healthy foals (n = 7) were sampled at birth, 36-48 hour, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 8 weeks, and healthy horses (n = 7) were sampled once. For the septic foal group (n = 29), archived serum samples collected from sick foals ≤7 days of age with a diagnosis of sepsis based on a positive blood culture and/or sepsis score ≥ 11 at hospital admission were used. Data were compared with ANOVAs, with statistical significance set at P < 0.05. There was no significant effect of age on CBG concentration in healthy foals (P = 0.390). Healthy foals at all ages had significantly lower serum CBG concentrations than adult horses (P < 0.001). Septic foals had significantly lower serum CBG concentrations than adult horses or healthy age-matched foals (P < 0.001).