Two things inspired Stephanie Bond to become an equine researcher: a desire to improve the health of horses, and her innate curiosity to "figure out how things work."
Stephanie Bond and PhD supervisor, Dr. Renaud Léguillette
Bond is investigating the cause of mild equine asthma, the impact it has on a horse's performance and the effectiveness of common treatments.
© 2018 by Riley Brandt/University of Calgary
Those two factors led a 12-year-old thrilled to help a veterinarian on her family’s farm in Australia to her present-day career. Bond, who earned a veterinary degree in 2013, is working on her PhD at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM), supervised by Dr. Renaud Léguillette, associate professor and Calgary Chair in Equine Sports Medicine.
And Bond’s dual passions have earned her the prestigious 2018 Storm Cat Career Development Award. The award, from the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation in Lexington, Kentucky, is designed as "an early boost to an individual considering a career in equine research." It’s named after retired champion Thoroughbred stallion Storm Cat.
Bond researches a breathing condition affecting more than half of the horse population
“The research which led to this award is focused on inflammatory airway disease, or mild equine asthma,” says Bond. “It’s a disease of the lower respiratory tract and affects up to 66 per cent of the equine population.”
While the cause of the disease isn’t fully understood, it’s thought to share similarities with a more serious form of the disease known as recurrent airway obstruction, or heaves. Bond is investigating the cause of mild equine asthma, the impact it has on a horse’s performance and the effectiveness of common treatments.
“We’re looking at the inflammatory responses that develop in horses with both acute and chronic airway inflammation, and measuring how they are modified in response to treatment,” explains Bond. “We also investigated the effect of dexamethasone on bacteria in the lower respiratory tract and found there was a clear treatment effect. This research may assist in the development of novel targeted treatments for mild equine asthma.”