PHYSICAL PARAMETERS IN SALERNITANO NORMAL NEWBORN FOALS

Neonatal survival is the ending purpose of the reproductive process in all species. In the horse, in which gestation is particularly long and only one kid is usuallly delivered each time, neonatal survival is foremost important for the successful of reproduction. To survive, the mammalian newborn should cope with the transition from the intra- to the extra-uterine life, that is assured by a complex process known as neonatal adaptation. The neonatal adaptation includes many physiologic factors, such as maturity, viability and a timed series of behaviors leading to a prompt respiration, stand up, colostrum intake and escretion. In the horse and other equids, the most important physical parameters for a newborn evaluation include the Apgar score, the birthweight, the assessment of the time from birth to stand up and to first suck, and time for meconium expulsion, widely studied in the horse. Among the horse breeds, in Italy some breeds are actually sublitted to programmes for biodiversity conservation. Among them, the Salernitano breed is one of the breeds included in the preservation programmes. The Salernitano is a saddle meso-dolichomorphic horse, reared in the south of Italy, especially in the Campania region, weighing 450-500 kg, with minimum 158 cm in males and 150 cm in females height at the withers at 42 months. The conservation programmes should include all the aspects of reproduction efficency improving, with neonatal evaluation as a main step. This study was aimed to define the main neonatal physical parameters in Salernitano horses in order to detect any possible peculiarities for a better management of the newborns. The study was done on 52 healthy newborn foals born by eutocic spontaneous supervised foaling. Neonatal physical parameters evaluated were: the Apgar score, the birthweight (BW)(kg), gender, time (min) to stand up (TSU), time (min) for first suck (TFS), time (min) for meconium expulsion (TME). Pregnancy length (PL)(d) was also recorded. The results showed that the 52 foals, 31 females and 21 males, were born mature after an average PL of 330±8.49 d (331.7±8.09 in males and 328.9±8.70 in females). Mean Apgar score was 9.4±0.61 (9.3±0.73 in males and 9.5±0.51 in females); BW 45.3±3.59 kg (45.6±4.03 in males and 45.2±3.38 in females); TSU 48.4±24.78 min (47.5±23.69 in males and 49.0±25.86 in females); TFS 85.6±39.66 min (82.5±32.74 in males and 87.7±44.13 in females); TME 109.6±48.40 min (107.6±44.36 in males and 111.0±51.64 in females). The statistical analysis showed a significant correlation between TSU and TFS (Pearson’s r =0.744; p<0.001), between TSU and TME (Pearson’s r =0.687; p<0.001), and between TFS and TME (Pearson’s r =0.923; p<0.001). The foal’s BW was significantly correlated to PL (Pearson’s r =0.779; p<0.001). None of the parameters was influenced by the foal’s gender. The results showed that the main neonatal parameters in normal Salernitano foals agree with data reported in literature (Stoneham). Notably, differently to what generally reported for horses (PL>320 d) (Rossdale, 1976), PL was shorter than 320 d in 6 mature, alive and viable foals (303-318 d). This agrees with the reported between individual range of 301-388 for gestations resulting in viable foal (Heck).