Photo of a female veterinarian (Miia Riihimäki, SLU) at an equine clinic with a horse passing by in the background.
Veterinarian and Associate Professor Miia Riihimäki. Photo: Lisa Chröisty, SLU

Miia Riihimäki – The veterinarian who conducts research on horses' airways in order to cure all her patients

Page reviewed:  08/10/2025

Veterinarian and associate professor Miia Riihimäki has dedicated many years to finding new methods for better diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment for all the horses that suffer from respiratory problems. A research that often begins with her patients at the UDS equine clinic and seems never ending.

Perhaps it all began when Miia Riihimäki's first pony developed asthma. The pony received a partially effective treatment, and Miia's eyes were opened to respiratory diseases, which are the second most common cause of reduced performance in horses after lameness. Miia Riihimäki has since dedicated her professional life to helping patients like this.

My pony lived to the age of 26 and received a type of treatment that was believed to be helpful at the time—but if I had been able to treat him today, his quality of life would undoubtedly have been much, much better, says veterinarian Miia Riihimäki, who since last summer has also been able to call herself an associate professor in veterinary medicine.
Associate Professor
= An academic title that indicates that a person has achieved a certain level of scientific and pedagogical competence in their profession (after completing their doctoral degree). The requirements for becoming a docent may vary slightly between different universities. As a docent, you have the opportunity to be the principal supervisor for a doctoral student, a person who is still studying, within a research project.

The combination of equine veterinarian at a clinic and researcher

Drawing inspiration from the horses Miia Riihimäki encounters in her daily life is something that has continued since that first pony. By combining her work as a clinic veterinarian with research, new ideas for research projects are constantly emerging.

Much of my research is based on my clinical patients, and the horse owners I meet never say no to their horses participating in projects—after all, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

However, the combination of working clinically with horses and conducting research at the same time is not particularly common.

Many people I encounter in the world of equine research have never even met a horse with the disease they are trying to find treatments for, and if you are a skilled researcher, that certainly doesn't matter. But for me, research is never about names and numbers in an Excel spreadsheet; I see and work for the horses behind it.
Photo of the face of a brown warmblood horse at a veterinary clinic.
One of veterinarian Miia Riihimäki's many respiratory patients at the clinic in Uppsala. Photo: Lisa Chröisty

From crime scene to sporting achievements – “always with a certain seriousness”

Well-functioning airways in horses are fundamental not only to their well-being, but also to their performance and long-term health. However, in reality, there are many diseases and conditions that can affect the respiratory tract, some of the most well-known being asthma, strangles, and viral infections such as the serious “abortion virus” (EHV-1). These are all areas that have been, and continue to be, the focus of Miia Riihimäki's research.

When it comes to respiratory diseases, there is always a certain degree of seriousness, because as a veterinarian, you always have to rule out the possibility of a contagious infection—and sometimes, that is indeed the case, she says.

The disease Strangles is one such example, which is why Miia Riihimäki describes work and research on strangles as ‘working at a crime scene’.

Everything needs to be viewed as if examining a crime scene. If we touch anything, it can become contaminated, so we need to keep what is normally a rather dirty stable environment very clean, wearing protective clothing and following strict cleaning routines between each horse and task. This is simply to ensure that we do not contaminate with bacterial DNA from the environment or equipment—or, in the worst case, transfer infections—either between horses or between objects in the environment, she says, continuing:
... modern diagnostic techniques are often based on DNA analysis and environmental contamination, which has recently been shown to be much more common than previously thought, she says.
Collage with two images, both of veterinarians working late into the evening to test horses for glanders in the stables.
“You all probably know how a detective works; we all look the same these days when it comes to crime—it's hysterically meticulous,” says Miia Riihimäki. Photo: Private

The research team's discoveries in the field of environmental contamination have shown that DNA from living and dead bacteria can remain in the horse's environment and on the horse's muzzle long after an infection. In addition, the strangles bacteria themselves can survive for a long time in a favorable environment, such as water. Another example is a common nylon halter, something that most horses wear on a daily basis. If it has been contaminated with strangles bacteria, they will only disappear when washed at 60 degrees Celsius.

The more you research strangles, the more you realize how complicated it is. It's like being in any detective story, says Miia Riihimäki.

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