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Objectives: MRSA is a known pathogen that affects horses. We investigated an equine MRSA isolate for potential antimicrobial resistance genes, classified the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) and identified the strain-specific dissemination in the horse community based on WGS.Methods: WGS, using short-read sequencing, and subsequent long-read sequencing by hybrid assembly, was conducted to obtain a complete genome sequence. Pairwise sequence alignment of relative SCCmec sequences and core-genome phylogenetic analysis were performed to highlight transmission routes of the SCCmec and MRSA strain-specific lineages.Results: In 2018, we isolated the MRSA JRA307 strain from the pus of a wound on a racehorse and the complete genome sequence suggests that it is a clinically relevant pvl-negative ST1-t127 MRSA that harbours both mecA and mecC on SCCmec-307. SCCmec-307 exhibited marked sequence identity to the previously reported SCCmec-mecC in the Staphylococcus sciuri GVGS2 strain isolated from cattle. The JRA307 mecC gene was classified as a mecC allotype of S. sciuri rather than that of Staphylococcus aureus.Conclusions: We demonstrated the complete genome sequence of equine isolate JRA307, which is a clinically relevant MRSA harbouring mecA and mecC on SCCmec-307. The finding of mecC MRSA suggests a possible SCCmec transmission between distinct staphylococcal species. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of mecC detection in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replicability is a fundamental tenet of the scientific method and scientific reporting, but there is a preponderance to publish scientific research in English to increase international recognition, regardless of the country of origin of the research. Questionnaires are widely used to assess personality in animals. These psychometric instruments are mainly published in English but can be used all over the world in other languages. However, without safeguards relating to the translation process, the replicability of the quality of the instrument may change from its originally reported value. This study focuses on the particular issue of cross-cultural reliability of psychometric instruments used for assessing animals that have been translated from their original context. We examined the replicability of the structure of a personality scale originally used in Japanese (but reported in the English literature) on an English population (n=100), and then the reliability of the structure of a French translation of the English version with additional translational safeguards (e.g. back-translation and sense checking) on a French population (n = 159 horses). Horses were rated by 3 evaluators to also allow calculation of inter-rater reliability. We found that there was greater reliability and similarity of structure between the adapted English translation and French version of the Japanese scale, than with the originally published structure of the instrument used in Japan. These results highlight the importance of never assuming the reliability and thus validity of semantic instruments used to assess animal behaviour which have been published in a different language to that in which they were originally developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Social grooming strengthens affiliative relationships between participants in many social primates. Three hypotheses regarding the function of mutual grooming in feral horses were tested: the affiliative relationship strengthening hypothesis, the worsened relationship restoring hypothesis, and the parasite removal hypothesis. All the nine horses in the "6m" herd in a Misaki feral horse (Equus caballus) herd in Cape Toi, Japan, were investigated in terms of kinship, grooming, aggression, proximity, social rank, and social network. The correlations between mutual grooming and proximity and between aggression and proximity were established mathematically. Controlling for kinship, there were significant positive partial correlations between mutual grooming and proximity and between aggression and proximity. No correlation was observed between aggression and mutual grooming. Individuals that spent less time on self-grooming invested longer times receiving grooming from other individuals. In a feral horse population, mutual grooming maintains hygiene by controlling ectoparasites and forges affiliative interactions between herd members. Although herd size, structure, stability, and social rank among Misaki feral horses have been reported, no studies have been conducted on the affiliative relationships and interactions among members in a Misaki horse herd. The validity of three hypotheses regarding the function of social grooming, the affiliative relationship strengthening hypothesis, the worsened relationship restoring hypothesis, and the grooming parasite removal hypothesis, were tested in a Misaki feral horse (Equus caballus) herd in Cape Toi, Japan. All the nine horses in the "6m" herd were investigated in terms of kinship, grooming, aggression, proximity, social rank, and social network. Mutual grooming occurred only in pairs and was almost perfectly symmetrical. For each member, there was a significant negative correlation between total grooming received from other individuals and self-grooming. Controlling for kinship, there were significant positive partial correlations between mutual grooming and proximity and between aggression and proximity. No correlation was observed between aggression and mutual grooming. The results suggest that mutual grooming symmetry may contribute that both participants simultaneously benefit from parasite removal and strengthen affiliative relationships between seasonally changing herd members; however, mutual grooming did not foster restoring the worsened relationship following aggression promoted by physical proximity. The findings of this study may elucidate the mechanisms by which interactions between herd members are maintained or strengthened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]