Effect of tourist transport work on physiological parameters and muscle stress markers in horses in Cartagena de Indias

Background: Cartagena de Indias is recognized as a tourist city, where coach horses become one of the main means of transportation for visitors. However, overexploitation has led to horses being exposed to long work hours, and inadequate health management conditions, causing deleterious effects on the animal. Objective: determine the effect that the work performed by coach horses has on physiology, hematology, blood biochemistry and muscle stress indicators. Methods: 60 coach horses were studied under normal working conditions. The evaluation of muscle stress indicators was carried out in a group of 12 animals (6 with prolonged rest and 6 with loading activity) with similar age, weight, sex, body condition and clinical diagnosis. Results: 8% of the animals presented morphometric measurements within normal ranges. The average values of total, direct bilirubin, GOT, GPT and ALT in 100% of the animals evaluated were within the reference values except for FAS, while 84% presented values of leukocytes and erythrocytes outside the values. reference. When comparing between groups, there were significant changes in serum values (P ≤ 0.05). The difference in plasma concentrations of CK and LDH peaked between 8 to 10 hours after carrying out the activities; However, 28 hours after work (rest period) these plasma values did not differ statistically. On the other hand, a correlation of total CK with AST and ALT and between AST and ALT was found (P ≤ 0.05, r = 0.44 and P ≤ 0.05, r = 0.43, P ≤ 0.01, R=0.60). Conclusion: The physiological and biochemical variables showed a possible adaptation to the work of coach horses, although were not sufficient to diagnose a welfare problem in most of the animals.