In an area devoted to trotting horse breeding industry we carried out a series of studies to define factors that could ameliorate athletic longevity of racehorses in training and that could reduce the percentage of withdrawals from competitions. A specific research has been conducted on a large cohort of racehorses in training over five years in order to identify the incidence of fatigue musculoskeletal injuries leading to training suspension in this breed. We reported a case series describing, for the first time, incidence of interference injuries occurred at high speed and time to recover successfully from this lesions. A large cohort of racehorses was analyzed along their racing career to determine the impact of musculoskeletal injuries in term of training suspension and retirement. We have recently described epiphyseal dysplasia of the distal aspect of femur in weanling standardbred horses. This developmental abnormality has been identified responsible for the clinical manifestation of instability and luxation of the patella and studies on possible association of torsional and angular abnormalities of femur and tibia are currently under investigation in this breed. We are studying the role of different racetrack surface on foot landing stress and its association in the generation of bone trauma. A large study has been conducted to investigate kinetic of bone and joint biomarkers in young standardbred racehorses. We used this knowledge to perform a study on the efficacy of medical treatment of traumatic osteoarthritis of the metacarpo(tarso)-phalangeal joint in this breed.

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• Ricerca Locale, Università degli Studi di Torino

• Bertuglia A., Bullone M., Rossotto F. & Gasparini M. - Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries in a population of harness Standardbred racehorses in training - (2014) BMC veterinary research, 10(1), 11.
• Dabbene I., Pagliara E., Riccio B. & Bertuglia A. - Profiling long-term consequences of interference injuries to the palmar aspect of the forelimbs in Standardbred racehorses in training - (2016) In European College of Veterinary Surgeons, 25th Annual Scientific Meeting (pp. 78-78).
• Dabbene I., Bullone M., Pagliara E., Gasparini M., Riccio B. & Bertuglia A. - Clinical findings and prognosis of interference injuries to the palmar aspect of the forelimbs in Standardbred racehorses: A study on 74 cases - (2018). Equine veterinary journal, 50(6), 759-765.
• Bertuglia A., Pagliara E., Grego E., Ricci A. & Brkljaca-Bottegaro N. - Pro-inflammatory cytokines and structural biomarkers are effective to categorize osteoarthritis phenotype and progression in Standardbred racehorses over five years of racing career - (2016) BMC veterinary research, 12(1), 246.

• Prof. Mauro Gasparini (Politecnico di Torino)