Mendoza Francisco J, Toribio Ramiro E
Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, Veterinary Faculty, University of Cordoba, 14014 Cordoba, Spain.
Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Jul 6;15(13):1986. doi: 10.3390/ani15131986.
The number of donkey-breeding farms is variable around the world despite the growing popularity of this species as working animals, companion pets, for show events, in asinotherapy for children and adults with physical and mental disorders, and as a source of high-quality nutritional products. Despite this, due to the low foaling rate, long foaling interval, and high neonatal mortality rate, the number of donkey foals every year has been decreasing. This is a major problem for breeds in danger of extinction, where each foal is highly valuable. Although there is extensive information on equine foals, data on donkey foals is scarce. Donkey foals are afflicted by the same disorders as equine foals, with sepsis, failure of transfer of passive immunity, dysmaturity, and umbilical disorders being the most common ones. The diagnosis and therapeutic approaches for these conditions are similar to equine foals, but inter-species differences should be taken into consideration. Therefore, there is an increasing need for studies on healthy and sick donkey neonates, because this information will not only increase our understanding of their physiology but it will also impact the prevention and treatment of conditions affecting these animals, therefore improving survival rates.
尽管驴作为役用动物、伴侣宠物、用于展览活动、用于患有身心障碍的儿童和成人的驴疗法以及作为优质营养产品的来源越来越受欢迎，但世界各地的养驴场数量却各不相同。尽管如此，由于产驹率低、产驹间隔长和新生儿死亡率高，每年的驴驹数量一直在减少。这对于濒临灭绝的品种来说是一个重大问题，因为每一匹驴驹都非常珍贵。虽然有大量关于马驹的信息，但关于驴驹的数据却很稀少。驴驹所患疾病与马驹相同，败血症、被动免疫转移失败、发育不全和脐带疾病最为常见。这些病症的诊断和治疗方法与马驹相似，但应考虑种间差异。因此，对健康和患病的驴新生儿进行研究的需求日益增加，因为这些信息不仅会增进我们对它们生理状况的了解，还会影响对影响这些动物的病症的预防和治疗，从而提高存活率。
