Resumo -O objetivo deste trabalho foi verificar a influência da idade, sexo, manejo e estado gestacional sobre a atividade sérica das enzimas: aspartato aminotransferase (AST), creatina quinase (CK) e gama-glutamiltransferase (GGT) em cavalos da raça Crioula. Foram utilizados 142 eqüinos, divididos em seis grupos: potros até um ano de idade; cavalos adultos em regime de atividade livre; cavalos adultos em treinamento; machos adultos; fêmeas não gestantes; fêmeas gestantes. O valor da CK foi mais elevado em animais adultos do que em potros, o mesmo tendo ocorrido em animais em atividade livre, comparados a animais em treinamento. Fêmeas não gestantes apresentaram valores das enzimas CK e GGT maiores que os machos; o valor da CK em fêmeas gestantes foi mais elevado do que em fêmeas não gestantes. A idade, o sexo, o manejo e o estado gestacional influenciam a atividade sérica da CK, e o sexo influencia a atividade sérica da GGT.Termos para indexação: bioquímica sérica, enzimas musculares, doenças hepáticas, miopatia. AST, CK and GGT enzymes serum activities in Crioulo horsesAbstract -The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of age, sex, management and pregnancy status on aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine kinase (CK) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) enzymes serum activities of Crioulo horses. One hundred and forty-two horses, divided into six group were analyzed: yearlings; free activity of adult horses; training adult horses; male adult horses; nonpregnant and pregnant females. The CK enzyme activity value was higher in adult horses than in yearlings, and the same result was found when comparing free activity and training horses. Nonpregnant females had higher values for CK and GGT comparing to male horses, and CK values were higher in pregnant comparing to nonpregnant females. Age, sex, management and pregnancy status influence on CK serum activity, and sex influences on GGT serum activity.Index terms: serum biochemistry, muscular enzyme, hepatic disease, myopathy. IntroduçãoOs sinais clínicos presentes em distintas alterações musculares são semelhantes e bastante inespecíficos; por isso, quando isolados, eles têm limitado valor diagnóstico, o que requer, freqüentemente, o uso de exames laboratoriais complementares. Entre as enzimas, cujas concentrações séricas devem ser determinadas quando de disfunções musculares, estão aspartato aminotransferase (AST) e a creatina quinase (CK) (Da Cás et al., 2000). Além disso, a patogenia de doenças hepáticas nos animais domésticos é muito complexa, por isso, o diagnóstico dessas enfermidades também envolve testes bioquímicos, entre os quais o uso da enzima gama-glutamiltransferase (GGT) como marcador sérico primário, para doenças do sistema hepatobiliar associadas com colestase (Tennant, 1997).A aspartato aminotransferase (AST) é uma enzima citoplasmática e mitocondrial, presente em vários tecidos como fígado, músculos esquelético e cardíaco (Tennant, 1997;Frape, 1998). Tennant (1997) salienta que em todas as espécies domésticas a atividade da AST ...

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This paper consists of a brief review on equine Infectious anemia added of the results of serological diagnosis of this infection performed at the Federal University of Santa Maria, RS, Brazil, between 1979 to 1990. A total of 7,035 serum samples were tested by the agar gel immunodiffusion test (Coggins test), to which 40 (0,57%) reacted positively. This percentage of positivity is lower than in other regions of Brazil, probably due to the lack of predisposing factors for equine infectious anemia virus spread, such as, a low density of blood-sucking insects in the South of Brazil and the seldom use of massive therapies and vaccinations in the region.

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The protozoa of the genus Neospora spp. (Apicomplexa, Sarcocystidae) are capable of infecting equines causing different clinical manifestations. However, the pathogenesis of these protozoa in horses has not been fully explained yet. Two species of the genus Neospora spp. have already been described parasitizing equines -Neospora caninum and Neospora hughesi. The infection by N. caninum is mainly characterized by reproductive problems and neonatal illness, and N. hughesi is associated with myeloencephalitis (Dubey and Porterfield, 1990;Lindsay, 2001).N. caninum was firstly described in dogs in Norway (Bjerkas et al., 1984), from there on, it has been described in many warm-blooded species (Dubey and Lindsay, 1996). N. hughesi has been reported for the first time by Marsh et al. (1998) who isolated a protozoan very similar to N. caninum (however, with structural and molecular differences) from brain and spinal marrow of a horse that was showing signs compatible with equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM).The biological cycle of N. caninum was described by McAllister et al. (1998) and involves definitive (DH) and intermediate (IH) hosts. The definitive ones are dogs and coyotes (McAllister et al., 1998;Gondim et al., 2004) and, besides sheltering the agent, they are Recebido em 16 de outubro de 2010 Aceito em 25 de fevereiro de 2011 E-mail: gugatoscan@hotmail.com characterized by excreting oocysts in their feces. These oocysts sporulate in the environment becoming infective for the IH, group in which fit several mammalian species (Dubey and Lindsay, 1996).N. caninum can disseminate itself in susceptible populations by the horizontal route (sporulated oocysts), and by the vertical transmission via placenta (by tachyzoites). In the stage of tachyzoite, the protozoan is able to accomplish parasitaemia and new cells invasion. The infected IH develop cysts containing bradyzoites (slow multiplication form), and the DH are infected by eating tissues containing these cysts (Dubey et al., 2007).The biological cycle of N. hughesi was not entirely elucidated until the moment; its definitive host is unknown, as well as other possible intermediate hosts besides equines. Consequently, the infection routes for N. hughesi in horses are not determined (Hoane et al., 2006). The discovery of N. hughesi as a possible etiological agent of EPM turned out to be of great importance in its diagnosis, since Neospora spp. has been reported in cases of this pathology (Marsh et al., 1998). However, it is still undefined if both protozoan species are able to cause this kind of myeloencephalitis. Serum samples were obtained from 241 horses aging from four to 14 years old, being 91 from cart horses and the other 123 from Crioula breed horses. The blood samples were collected from jugular vein in vacutainer tubes. After the retraction of the clot, the serum was collected and kept under low temperature or frozen until processing. The cart horses were used to carry loads and most of them had no defined breed and Crioula breed horses were fro...