Abstract
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with asthma development and severity of symptoms in humans, but whether the same occurs in horses is unknown. We aimed to determine whether the serum vitamin D levels differ in horses with asthma compared to control animals and, secondarily, to explore clinical, respiratory, and environmental parameters associated with its concentration in equids in a retrospective cross-sectional study. The total serum vitamin D (25(OH)D) was measured by radioimmunoassay in 45 serum samples from the Equine Respiratory Tissue Biobank (15 control animals, 14 horses with mild or moderate asthma (MEA), and 16 horses with severe asthma (SEA)). Descriptive clinical and environmental parameters, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cytology, and lung function data were extracted. There was no difference in serum 25(OH)D levels between healthy controls, horses with MEA, and horses with SEA (respectively, means of 57.9 ± 11.6, 55.6 ± 20.0, and 64.6 ± 14.5 nmol/L; p = 0.3), suggesting that this micronutrient does not play a major role in equine asthma pathophysiology.