09/29/08 Earthquakes and stress fractures in horses

Earthquake seismologists could be responsible for saving the lives of thousands of horses. I'm Jeff Keane, stay tuned to learn what stress fractures and earthquakes have in common. It is amazing that a monitoring system developed by earthquake seismologist could be used to prevent fractures in horses. Here's Susan Allen. Jeff in the racing industry alone seventy percent of all young horses develop tiny bone cracks that could lead to injury or death, Sadly we all just saw witnessed this with the sweet filly Three Belles who broke both her ankles at the finish line at this year's Kentucky Derby. The same technology using sound waves that monitors earthquakes will eventually help horse owners detect bone microcracks. Jeff, this is currently being researched at Purdue University where they are working on a devise that horses would wear that would record a stress fracture the instant it occurs so the animal could be pulled from training until the bone healed. Obviously this is ideal for race horses but I would guess other high impact sports like cutting and reining could benefit as well simply because today's x-ray machines can't detect tiny fractures. Susan the racing industry looses around ten million dollars each year due to death and injuries of quarter horses, thoroughbreds and Standardbreds so I would guess these monitoring devises would be showing up on the racetrack before long, lets hope they aren't too costly for other facets of the horse industry. I'm Jeff Keane.