Equine Chronic Airway Disease Pathogenesis and Management

Respiratory disease is second only to musculoskeletal disease as a cause of wastage in the horse industry. While young horses are affected by infectious respiratory disease, noninfectious disease predominates in the mature and older animal. The most prevalent form of noninfectious disease is inflammation of the tracheobronchial tree, that is, the trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles. The trachea and bronchi are referred to as large airways and the bronchioles as small airways. Numerous names have been given to tracheobronchial inflammation in horses but workshops within the past decade have unified terminology to recurrent airway obstruction (a.k.a. RAO or heaves) and inflammatory airway disease (IAD). […]