Equine Research
Our Mission: Ensuring the continued improvement of equine health and reproduction, nutrition and performance.
Faculty, students and staff in our department conduct research that advances our understanding of factors that link health, nutrition and management with athletic and reproductive performance in horses. In addition, we have the capability of studying the impact on the equine industry of critical issues like economics, nutrient management and the national animal identification system. Penn State is uniquely suited to study these topics due to our faculty’s expertise in these areas. In addition we have horses and facilities that allow us to conduct controlled research trials on campus.
Equine Research Faculty:
Current Research Emphasis:
Optimizing equine growth and development
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Improving milk quality through modification of dietary energy and nutrient choices for the broodmare
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Developing nutritional management strategies to avoid detrimental perturbations to growth in foals
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Investigating high starch diets and their influence on skeletal development
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Characterizing breed specific growth curves
Equine forage nutrition
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Identifying novel forage sources to improve health in Pennsylvania’s horses
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Studying grazing behavior and forage species preferences for horses in Pennsylvania
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Examining ways of improving hay production for Pennsylvania’s growing horse population
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Understanding the impact of high and low starch diets on equine health and metabolism
National animal identification system(NAIS)
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Evaluation of equine industry perception of NAIS
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Active educational program with 4-H youth focused on NAIS
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Micro-chipping horses in Pennsylvania
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Development of premises identification and tracing
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Controlled study evaluating health impacts to microchipped horses
- More on this project...
Equine nutrient management
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Evaluate the impact of current equine operations on nutrient runoff in Pennsylvania’s Chesapeake Bay watershed
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Develop an equine specific nutrient management plan that can be used on individual operations
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Establish pasture and farm management procedures to minimize nutrient runoff from equine operations
- More on this project...
Investigation of factors affecting equine health and immunology
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Comparison of adaptive immunity following vaccination of foals against West Nile Virus using two commercially available vaccines
Penn State Equine Research Team:
- The undergraduate equine research team is composed of students and faculty interested in equine research.
Penn State Equine Research Team Page
Recent Publications:
- L.A. George, W. B. Staniar, K. H. Treiber, P. A. Harris, and R. J. Geor. 2009. Insulin sensitivity and glucose dynamics during pre-weaning foal development. Dom. Anim. Endo. 37:23-29.
- R. A. Carter, R. J. Geor, W. B. Staniar, T. A. Cubitt, and P. A. Harris. 2008. Apparent adiposity assessed by standardized scoring systems and morphometric measurements in horses and ponies. Vet. J. 179:204-210.
- Swinker, A. M, Vanderman, K., Graeff, A., Vines, K. and Gill, B. 2008. Equine show and event manager survey of resistance to the implementation of national equine identification. J. Anim. Sci. 86:432.
- Vanderman, K., Swinker, A. M., McKernan, H., Gill, B. and Radhakrishna, R. 2008. United States equine owner’s survey on the implementation of national equine identification. J. Anim. Sci. 86:432.
- More recent publications...
All research is conducted in compliance with the guidelines set forth by The Pennsylvania State University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
