Intracecal endotoxin and lactate during the onset of equine laminitis: a preliminary report.

Summary

# Editorial Summary When horses are subjected to carbohydrate overload, the caecal environment undergoes dramatic biochemical changes that may precipitate laminitis. Moore and colleagues administered excess carbohydrate to two adult horses and measured endotoxin, lactate, and pH in caecal fluid samples collected at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 hours post-overload using the limulus amebocyte lysate assay—a sensitive marker of gram-negative bacterial endotoxin. Endotoxin concentrations rose significantly across all three sampling intervals, whilst lactate accumulated and pH fell, indicating a shift towards anaerobic fermentation and acidosis within the caecum. Both horses subsequently developed clinical acute laminitis, establishing a temporal correlation between these biochemical disturbances and disease onset. These findings strengthen the hypothesis that carbohydrate fermentation triggers pathogenic gram-negative bacterial proliferation and endotoxaemia as a primary mechanism in acute laminitis, offering practitioners a clearer mechanistic rationale for strict feed discipline and why early intervention following suspected overload may be critical to preventing laminitis development.

Read the full abstract on PubMed

Key Findings

• •Cecal fluid endotoxin concentrations increased significantly at 3, 6, and 12 hours following carbohydrate overload compared to baseline
• •Concurrent increases in cecal fluid lactate concentrations and decreases in pH occurred during endotoxin elevation
• •Both horses developed clinical acute laminitis following the documented biochemical changes

Conditions Studied