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You don't see this across the POND, because they don't want to breed bleeders. Easy that way
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The same number of Thoroughbred horses seem to bleed in England, France, Japan, Australia as bleed in the US. Check the research (google, PubMed, etc)
We in the US are allowed to try and prevent bleeding by administering medication before a race, the other countries do not allow that (the horse is allowed to bleed while racing)
Here's the AAEP general comment on EIPH:
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Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) or bleeding
This occupational disease is a major lower respiratory problem of athletic horses. Horses with EIPH bleed from the lungs during intensive exercise. Usually the hemorrhage is minor but can at times be profuse. Fatalities are extremely rare.
The cause of EIPH is unclear but several factors are evident. There is a definite relationship between small airway disease (bronchitis), alterations in the vasculature of the lung in the dorsal-caudal (upper back) tip of the lung field, and EIPH.
Until about 20 years ago, the condition was termed epistaxis (nosebleed) and the hemorrhage was thought to originate somewhere in the head. The introduction of the fiberoptic endoscope to equine veterinary practice in the early 1970s allowed the safe and effective visualization of the upper respiratory tract of horses for the first time. It showed that the blood actually originated from the lungs. Furthermore, less than one horse in 20 which has EIPH has blood at the nostrils.
University studies indicate a significant percentage of racehorses, as high as 85% in one study, experience EIPH to some degree at one time or another.
There are no indications to suggest that the incidence of EIPH has increased in recent times as the incidence of epistaxis (bleeding from the nostrils) has remained essentially constant over the last century. Only the diagnostic capabilities have improved.
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