Nonspecific immune response of peripheral blood neutrophils in two horse breeds (Anglo-Arabian and Spanish-Arabian): response to exercise.

The aim of the present paper was: (1) to find out if there were any differences in the nonspecific immunological pattern of peripheral blood neutrophil between two breeds of horses (AA and SA); (2) to evaluate the effects of an exercise in the aerobic-anaerobic threshold. This has been observed in a group of 11 untrained horses (6 SA and 5 AA) of 2.5 years old. No statistically significant differences were found in the different stages of immune response between the rest and immediately after physical exercise to two breeds. However, the chemotaxis was significant higher at rest in the AA than SA breed. A positive correlation was found at rest between the phagocytic and oxidative metabolism activity for AA breed and a negative correlation too between the adherence and chemotaxis with phagocytic capacity, immediately after exercise test, for the same breed.