Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, are developing a promising method to aid the diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in horses. Awareness of the prevalence of IBD in both humans and animals has increased in recent decades and the need for effective and affordable diagnostic methods has become increasingly urgent. This study is the first to demonstrate a link between gut microbiota composition and chronic forms of IBD in horses.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is becoming increasingly common in both humans and animals. IBD is now a fairly common disease, including in horses, and causes serious welfare problems such as weight loss, reduced performance and pain-related behaviour. Symptoms can lead to early retirement and even euthanasia of the horse. IBD is usually diagnosed by observing general symptoms and ultimately by endoscopy and examination of a biopsy taken from the intestinal wall.
“Diagnosing IBD is also expensive for the owner and stressful for the horse, as it requires fasting, endoscopy and usually transport to an equine hospital,” explains Academy Research Fellow Silva Uusi-Heikkilä from the University of Jyväskylä. Furthermore, endoscopy is challenging because an adult horse has a long gastrointestinal tract and most of it remains unexplored during endoscopy for practical reasons.
Composition of the microbiota examined using fecal samples from horses
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä explored the possibilities of using the composition of the bacterial community, or microbiota, in equine fecal samples as a non-invasive diagnostic tool for IBD. Studies in other species, such as humans, have shown that the composition of the gut microbiota can be used to detect IBD and the progression of the disease. Based on this knowledge, researchers analyzed the microbiota composition of horse fecal samples to determine whether it could indicate the presence of IBD.
“We observed differences in the composition of the intestinal microbiota between horses with IBD and healthy horses,” explains Uusi-Heikkilä. The relative abundances of certain bacterial groups were found to increase or decrease in horses with IBD,” she adds.
Artificial intelligence used in the research
Using assessments of microbiota composition, the researchers developed a machine learning model to predict IBD based on microbiota species composition in fecal samples.
“This AI-based neural network model predicted IBD in the test samples with 100% accuracy,” says postdoctoral researcher Tiina Savilammifrom the University of Jyväskylä. The next step is to further test the model and improve its performance with more samples, she adds.
Advantages of the new diagnostic method for humans and animals
The researchers’ promising results suggest that analyzing the species composition of microbiota in fecal samples could become an accurate, cost-effective and non-invasive method to support the screening of IBD in horses in the future. These advances could reduce the stress and financial burden associated with current diagnostic methods, benefiting both horses and their owners.
