Validation of an improved insect bite hypersensitivity severity score for allergic equine insect bite hypersensitivity in horses.

BACKGROUND

Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is the most common allergic skin disease in horses, but existing clinical scoring systems lack extensive validation, limiting standardized disease monitoring and therapeutic evaluation.

HYPOTHESIS/

OBJECTIVES

Develop and validate a standardized, sensitive, and reproducible clinical scoring system for IBH in horses.

ANIMALS: Forty-four privately-owned horses with clinically diagnosed IBH examined under field conditions in Switzerland.

METHODS

In this prospective field validation study, the equine IBH severity score (EqIS) integrates a lesion severity score and an area score using a multiplicative algorithm. Six trained evaluators assessed horses independently. Primary outcomes were intra- and interobserver reliability of the lesion severity score and EqIS assessed using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Secondary analyses included agreement of the area score (Pearson correlation), correlations between owner-reported visual analog scale (VAS) scores and EqIS, and comparison between EqIS and a simplified EqIS developed for field use.

RESULTS

Intraobserver reliability was excellent (ICC = 0.995 for the lesion severity score and 0.989 for EqIS), and interobserver reliability was similarly high (ICC = 0.98 for both). The area score showed strong interobserver agreement (Pearson r = 0.86-0.94). Owner VAS scores correlated moderately with EqIS (ρ = 0.49-0.51) and strongly with each other (ρ = 0.88). The simplified EqIS demonstrated strong agreement with the validated version (R2 = 0.86).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL

IMPORTANCE

The EqIS is the first extensively validated IBH-specific scoring system and demonstrates excellent reproducibility across evaluators. It provides an objective tool for standardized disease assessment and therapeutic monitoring, whereas the simplified EqIS offers a practical alternative for routine field use.