Cardiovascular Diseases of Donkey and Mule

The donkey (Equus asinus) is an important working animal in many areas of the world. In Europe, donkeys and mules are predominantly companion or leisure animals. Donkeys have recently gained significant interest from both veterinarians and owners. The rediscovery of their abilities as working, sport, and companion animals has led to increased awareness of their well-being and care. However, the available literature on their cardiovascular characteristics and the incidence of heart and vascular diseases remains limited compared to that for horses (Burden F, Thiemann A (2015) Donkeys are different. J Equine Vet Sci 35(5):376–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jevs.2015.03.005; Mendoza FJ, Toribio RE, Perez-Ecija A. J Equine Vet Sci 65:86–97, 2018). Since donkeys and mules are not commonly used as riding animals throughout the world, cardiovascular diseases are likely underdiagnosed (Roberts SL, Dukes-McEwan J. Vet Rec 179:384, 2016a).Several cardiac acquired and congenital anomalies have been documented in donkeys (Roberts SL, Dukes-McEwan J. Vet Rec 179:384, 2016a; Roberts SL, Dukes-McEwan J. Vet Rec 179:332, 2016b), but clinical information and echocardiographic findings are sparse and not well described (Decloedt A. Vet Rec 179:382–383, 2016). Moreover, much of the existing literature on cardiovascular diseases is based mainly on post-mortem findings (Morrow LD, Smith KC, Piercy RJ, du Toit N, Burden FA, Olmos G, Gregory NG, Verheyen KL. J Comp Pathol 144:145–156, 2011; Roberts SL, Dukes-McEwan J. Vet Rec 179:332, 2016b).