What Is Horse Serum? (Answered!)

I was watching a documentary about farming and breeding practices for horses the other day, and one thing I kept hearing them mention was horse serum.

It seemed like a strange and vague term to me, and unfortunately a lot of the science went right over my head.

I wasn’t sure what any of it really meant beyond the absolute basics.

I was really intrigued by this notion of horse serum, though, so after the show had finished, I decided to do some research.

So, what is horse serum?

Horse serum is donor-herd collected, processed and manufactured horse plasma which is used to support the growth and immune systems of domestic horses. It essentially supports the proliferation of new and healthy cells, meaning it can aid in growth for younger horses and autoimmune responses for older horses.

It is, to put it bluntly, quite science-y and complicated.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

I’ve compiled some of the basics here that you would need to be aware of.

Essentially, though, horse serum is processed horse plasma used to aid the growth and health of horses.

Read on to find out more.

What is horse serum used for?

The simple answer is many things.

Horse serum comes in many different forms, not to mention the fact that it used to be a term to describe medicine derived from horses that humans would take.

This meaning certainly no longer applies, for the most part.

Horse serum essentially promotes the healthy growth of different types of cells.

In different formulas and processed in different ways, this can have many very different effects.

For one thing, horse serum can be used simply to promote overall growth.

Often its seen as a growth supplement, if, for whatever reason, a breeder needs particularly large horses.

More commonly, horse plasma is used to make life saving medicines and vaccines designed for horses.

Much in the same way that human vaccines are developed, plasma is extracted from horses in order to be able to derive a vaccine from them that is safe for all horses.

In science terms, horse serum is tested for its ability to support the growth of Sp2/O-Ag14 cells, which are essential tools for monoclonal antibody production—in other words, protection against disease.

Primarily, then, horse serum is used in the research of new and advanced medication.

So, which medications specifically?

What vaccine is made from horses?

Many different treatments and vaccines have been made from horse plasma over the decades.

Some of the most commonly used and well known are vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and scarlet fever.

We are talking about treating people now, but the same research goes into medications for both people and horses.

Allergy medication has also been developed from horse plasma, as well as general anti-infection and antibody protection medication.

Horses and indeed other animals were used to produce many antitoxins which were invaluable in the field of medicine.

Why is horse plasma yellow?

Within limits, it is totally normal and healthy for your horse’s plasma to be yellow, where this might indicate discoloration in other species.

This is because of the presence of carotenoids.

Carotenoids describes a class of nearly 800 naturally occurring pigments synthesized by plants and algae.

They play a huge role in photosynthesis, which explains why they are common in so many plants.

Since horses exclusively eat plants, it’s easier to understand why their plasma contains so much of it.

Obviously, horses don’t use it to photosynthesize.

They don’t necessarily ‘use’ it for anything; it just happens to color their plasma when they eat so much plant matter.

Beta-carotenes are the same chemical compound present in carrots, which gave them the reputation as helping you see in the dark.

While they don’t improve your eyesight, they will slow the degradation of your eyes.

That orange-yellow color in carrots is derived from these same carotenoids.

What color is horse serum?

Horse serum is usually a clear color, and not yellow.

This is because it is mixed with many other ingredients, and in each individual dose, horse plasma only takes up a very small amount of it.

Medications like this are often manufactured to be clear, so that it’s obvious if anything is contaminating the dose.

If they were very yellow or colorful in any way, it would be much harder to tell.

Horse serum, as we understand the term today, is horse medicine, then.

It takes various forms and serves various purposes, but it is primarily associated with immunology.

Many vaccines have been developed from the plasma of horses, and those vaccines are absolutely essential in maintaining healthy horses, especially when your horse is travelling across nations to meet up in enclosed spaces with lots of other horses.

Horse serum also supports overall healthy growth of cells, but this is tied directly to its use in immunology.