Environmental Influence on a Horse's Stress Response and Disease Risk

An overview of ongoing research representing a subsection of a larger project examining genetic and epegentic associations with stress adaptability in Thoroughbred horses will be provided. The focus of the research project is to assess the relationship between the early life environment, exercise, behavioural plasticity and disease risk in Thoroughbred horses. The benefits of exercise for health and well-being are well established, positively influencing clinical presentation and resolution of a variety of neurological, musculoskeletal and metabolic diseases. An emerging theme in our equine exercise genomics research suggests a link between the exercise response and behavioural plasticity. It is becoming increasingly apparent that environmental stimuli can have profound effects on cell, tissue and organismal biology through epigentic regulatory mechanisms. Our research group aims to characterise the exercise interactome in the skeletal muscle of horses generated during the early post-natal period and later influenced by exercise that may modulate behavioural adaptations and risk of disease such as recurrent exertional rhabdomyolysis.