HORSES

ORC Death Registry:  2003-2013 postmortem summaries  

Josepha DeLay

The Ontario Racing Commission Death Registry has been in place for 11 years and continues to provide excellent data regarding the causes of morbidity and mortality in racehorses in this province.  Fewer fracture cases were submitted from 2008 to 2012, but these are again receiving more attention.  The breed distribution continues to be ~50:50 Standardbred:Thoroughbred, with occasional Quarter Horses.  See Table 1 for summaries of diagnoses.   

 

Table 1.  Postmortem diagnoses of ORC Death Registry submissions by body system, 2003-2013.

Diagnosis by body system:

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Fracture / limbs

53

69

48

42

54

16

4

9

6

2

23

Fracture / other

10

4

7

13

10

5

0

3

6

2

2

Non-fracture musculoskeletal

8

6

6

8

6

5

2

3

1

0

3

Gastrointestinal

15

19

17

16

18

5

4

7

5

6

4

Respiratory, including EIPH

21

17

9

11

16

9

21

6

9

7

4

Cardiovascular

5

6

5

5

2

4

6

2

4

1

7

CNS

6

11

7

4

1

1

2

0

5

4

3

Integumentary

0

0

1

2

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

Renal

0

2

0

0

2

0

1

0

0

0

0

Hematopoeitic

2

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

Whole body, e.g., septicemia

1

7

5

2

9

0

4

0

6

6

2

Cause of death undetermined

4

0

4

4

2

5

0

2

4

6

0

Total

125

142

110

107

122

51

45

32

46

34

48