Risk Factors associated with the Incidence of Foal Mortality in a Pregnant Mare Urine Herd
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the
incidence of neonatal mortality in a large pregnant mare
urine (PMU) herd and determine what risk factors were
involved in foal mortality. For a 6 week period between
April 18, 1994 and May 31, 1994, 334 foals were born, of
which 74 died before reaching 10 days of age, giving an
overall mortality of 22% for this period. Seventy four
percent of the foal deaths occurred within 48 hours of
parturition. The major causes of foal mortality included
starvation/exposure 27%, septicemia 26%, and dystocia
20%. Weekly incidence varied significantly ranging from
67% for week 1 to 14% for week 5 (p< 0.01). Other risk
factors which were associated with foal death included
failure of passive transfer (p< 0.0001), poor mothering
ability (p< 0.0001), the presence of dystocia (p<
0.0001), low birth weight (p< 0.05), lack of rainfall
(p< 0.01), and low temperatures (p< 0.1). The effect
of sire, mare
age, mare body condition score and foal sex
were not significant risk factors for foal survival (p>
0.1). Further studies are
required to determine if
changing management procedures will be effective in
reducing the incidence of neonatal foal mortality in PMU
herds.