Canadian breeders producing quality foals - North American horse owners may not be aware that Canada is the home of Linwood Ranch, an equine breeding facility that has generated peer reviewed research in recent years on subjects such as equine behaviour, equine welfare, stall design, and the requirements for lying down time for healthy horses. Linwood Ranch is a PMU or “pregnant mare urine” ranch in Manitoba, and is also where active research is conducted on many equine welfare issues affecting all of our horses.

Research from the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) has demonstrated that a chromosomal defect is responsible for a significant proportion of horse pregnancies that fail within the first two months of development. These findings will pave the way for new diagnostic tests for what could be one of the most common causes of pregnancy loss in mares.

Testing Now Available - Researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine have identified a genetic cause for the fatal condition, equine familial isolated hypoparathyroidism (EFIH), in Thoroughbreds, marking the first genetic variant for hypoparathyroidism identified in any domestic animal species. Additionally, this is the first widely available genetic test for Thoroughbreds.

On August 6, 2020, a cloned Przewalski’s horse foal was born at the Texas veterinary facility, Timber Creek Veterinary, a long-time collaborator with ViaGen Equine in Cedar Park, Texas, a world leader in cloning services. To bring a cloned Przewalski’s foal into the world, they worked together with San Diego Zoo Global’s Frozen Zoo, and Revive & Restore, a conservation organization promoting biotechnology in conservation techniques.