Neonatal Infection: Section I: Bacterial Sepsis

Documentation of sepsis in the neonatal foal is well established and is a clinically relevant disease entity. Sepsis in foals is a common cause of morbidity and mortality in the early neonatal period and is also an important comorbidity of other neonatal diseases such as neonatal encephalopathy and prematurity. Risk factors for development of sepsis can partly be founded on published information, but many proposed risk factors are based on anecdotal clinical experience. Outside of clinical intuition, the main diagnostic tools available for identifying septic foals are blood cultures and the equine sepsis score. The equine neonate is exposed to a wide range of potential pathogens in the first months of life. Although colostrum-derived maternal antibodies protect foals from many systemic pathogens, viral infection at mucosal surfaces occurs with high frequency and can cause significant morbidity and mortality.