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The Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome And The Eastern Tent Caterpillar Ii: A Toxicokinetic/Clinical Evaluation And A Proposed Pathogenesis: Septic Penetrating Setae, Thomas Tobin, J. Daniel Harkins, John Ford Roberts, Patricia W. Vanmeter, Tara A. Fuller

Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center Faculty Publications

Reviewing the mare reproductive loss syndrome (MRLS), it is proposed that the fundamental mechanism of this syndrome, which includes early fetal loss, late fetal loss, uveitis, pericarditis, and encephalitis, is tissue penetration by septic barbed setal fragments (septic penetrating setae) from Eastern tent caterpillars (Malacosoma americanum). Once ingested, these barbed setal fragments migrate through moving tissues, followed by rapid hematogenous spread of bacteria, bacterial emboli, and/or septic fragments of setae (septic penetrating setal emboli), collectively referred to as septic materials. Pathogenic bacteria, therefore, enter the horse as hitchhikers on or in the caterpillar setal fragments, and MRLS is caused by …