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Osteochondrosis (OC) is a term used to describe a wide range of different skeletal lesions between different species. Osteochondrosis is a problem that affects fast growing animals and it has been defined as a failure in the endochondral ossification of the articular-epiphyseal cartilage. This failure leads to cartilage thickening and retention, basal necrosis, subchondral bone damage and loose bone fragments in the articular joint. Osteochondrosis is a multifactorial disease in which nutritional, hereditary, endocrine factors, biomechanical influences, and failures of blood supply to growth cartilage play an important role. The aim of this review is to offer an updated approach to the knowledge of the mechanisms that intervene in the pathogenesis of osteochondrosis, as well as alternatives to its diagnosis and treatment.

The conjunctival normal microflora, formed by fungi, yeast and bacteria, of 50 clinically healthy horses from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, was identified using three to 12 year-old horses of different breeds and gender. Samples were taken from the conjunctival sac of both eyes (n =100 eyes) using a cotton swab under sterile conditions. No eye was negative to the presence of the microorganism. There were differences in colony types in each eye of the same animal. One hundred percent were positive to fungal and bacteria colonies in both eyes, while 60% were positive to yeast. In the present study Serratia marcescens, a pathogenic, opportunist and multidrug-resistant organism, is reported for the first time in the conjunctival sac in horses. Serratia marcescens was isolated from 21 clinically healthy horses (42%) with a number of colony forming units (cfu) that ranged from 9 to 42.