Judith Faherty

A FOUR-year-old mare has returned to show jumping having been cured from a serious bi-lateral stifle joint disorder with the help of a newly developed biomaterial that can repair damaged cartilage.

Developed by researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) and the AMBER materials science centre, the multi-layered 3D porous material called ChondroColl acts as a scaffold to encourage and direct the body’s own cells to regenerate damaged joints and repair damaged cartilage. The biomaterial is made up with layers of collagen, hydroxyapatite and hyaluronic acid.

Beyoncé (by Ramiro B) owned by Team Ireland veterinary surgeon Will Lalor and his mother Patricia from Co Tipperary, suffered from the developmental condition known as osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) when she was a yearling, leading to significant structural damage of the cartilage in her stifles and cracks in the bone underneath.

The filly had legions 5cms long and had little chance of ever competing as she was likely to develop arthritis. Following a conversation between Lalor and Dr Florent David of UCD Veterinary Hospital, the surgeon requested the filly take part in the ‘exciting’ implant trial, which had previously been tested on goats.

Beyoncé underwent surgery at UCD where she had her damaged cartilage removed and ChondroColl inserted in its place. After months of rehabilitation, she underwent a second surgery to see how her cartilage was developing. Lalor told The Irish Field: “Beyoncé had huge chips in her stifles as a yearling leading to significant stifle OCD on the lateral trochlear ridge area and had very little chance of performing athletically in the future.”

PERFORMANCE

After a year of rehabilitation, she returned to work as a three-year-old and went to a potential event horse loose jumping qualifier for the Dublin Horse Show in 2015, narrowly missing out on qualifying. “She seems to be 100% sound now. She was campaigned lightly by Killian Browne and has got out to a few schooling shows,” said Lalor.

He continued: “She is out in the field now on a break for a few months, we will take it handy this year and I’m not sure what we will do going forward. It is a work in progress and I would be hopeful that she will stay sound, she will be given every chance.”

David Stack, a resident at UCD at the time of the surgery who also worked on the research paper, said the mare has improved drastically since the surgery. He told The Irish Field that 22 months post-surgery, the trochlear ridge that had started to crumble looked almost completely normal. At the moment the bone and cartilage look really good,” he said. “Whether it will hold up for long-term performance we are unsure but for now we are very happy.”

The Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine was published last Friday, May 20th. Dr Tanya Levingstone, honorary research lecturer at the RCSI, led the research and has indicated that the trial will now move to human cases in the coming months.