Potential of infra-red thermography for the detection of summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (sweet itch) in horses

Abstract

The feasibility of using infra-red thermography for early and out of season detection of summer seasonal recurrent dermatitis (sweet itch) was tested on 13 sensitive and six insensitive horses in Israel. In summer (June, July and September) six affected mares and two unaffected sensitive mares (one of them a pony) were clearly 'warmer' in the affected zones than three insensitive mares. In winter (February and March) unaffected sensitive horses could be differentiated from insensitive mares by the warm areas detected in the affected zones. Small numbers of Culicoides imicola bites may have been the cause of the local heat reactions of the body that were detected by the infra-red radiometer.