Pushing the boundaries of equine neurology in the field and the lab
Balancing clinical care with scientific inquiry, Penn Vet’s Amy Johnson leads efforts to decode the complexities of neurologic diseases in horses.
2 min. read
Amy Johnson from the School of Veterinary Medicine was the first American veterinarian and the second in the world to receive dual certification in neurology and large animal internal medicine from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Her work targets one of the field’s most elusive challenges: diagnosing neurologic diseases in living horses.
Partnering with pathologists across institutions, Johnson, the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor of Equine Medicine, is mapping brain lesions, investigating behavioral changes, and preparing to introduce brain proton emission tomography imaging to equine medicine. The results promise to transform how veterinarians understand and treat neurologic dysfunction, advancing equine welfare and offering parallels to human neurodegenerative research.
Amy Johnson with client horse Cartier in New Bolton Center’s Equine Performance and Evaluation Facility arena.
Johnson says her research career has focused on improving veterinarians’ ability to diagnose neurologic diseases in horses. “The development of diagnostic tests, imaging equipment, and surgical techniques for neurologic problems has lagged in horses compared to other species because of their large size,” she says. “Historically, diagnosis relied heavily on postmortem examination, with limited ability to confirm diagnoses in living horses and subsequent difficulty in enacting successful treatment protocols.
“However, we still have a lot to learn about neurodegenerative disease, commonly termed equine degenerative myeloencephalopathy (EDM) or equine neuroaxonal dystrophy (eNAD). Neurodegenerative disease is one of the primary causes of neurologic dysfunction in horses, with many commonalities to human neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson disease, Alzheimer disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig disease). It typically causes progressive loss of coordination and strength as well as changes in demeanor and behavior that can cause the horse to manifest unpredictable and undesirable behaviors,” says Johnson. “I would like to identify biomarkers in spinal fluid or blood as well as an imaging technique that would permit diagnosis in my clinical patients. That would provide earlier detection, evaluation of treatment strategies, and better decision-making surrounding the future of potentially affected horses.”
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