Prevalence of Rhodococcus Equi in equine environments in arid zone

Rhodococcus equi(R. equi) is an important animal pathogen with equines being the most susceptible host. This facultative intracellular pathogen is quite stable in nature and contaminates equine environments. Such contaminated stables can lead to systemic infection. The infections caused by R. equi are mostly subclinical for a long period of time. The clinical manifestations range from respiratory tract infections to osteomyelitis and lymphadenitis. When the symptoms are expressed the foals become untreatable. A total of 202 samples from skin and upper respiratory tract were investigated in the present study. Out of these 132 samples were from horses owned by private owners who rear one or two horses and 70 samples were from animals reared on an organized farm. A total of 37 isolates could be confirmed as R. equi. The overall prevalence of R equi was 18.31 percent. Higher isolation of R. equi was observed in horses owned by small scale owners (19.70%) as compared to that of the organized farm animals (15.71%). The percent isolation of R. equi was higher in summers i.e. 31.94% and 17.50% than that in winter season i.e. 5% and 13% in non-organized sector and organized farms respectively.