Many mature, non-pregnant, non-lactating equids are often kept in circumstances where they are expected to perform only light physical work or activity eg: a childs pony. Consequently their maintenance energy and protein needs can often be met at very restricted feed intake levels. Conversely, when they are housed during the winter months it is believed desirable to manage such animals on unrestricted ad libitum feeding regimes in order to allow the animals to exhibit their natural feed intake pattern and consume forage on a little and often basis throughout the daily feeding period. However, ad libitum access to the diet may lead to such animals becoming excessively fat. These conflicting needs of low energy and protein requirement coupled with the desirability of unrestricted access to the diet could both be met, at least in part, if a low quality forage is available ad libitum. This study examines the voluntary feed intake and apparent digestibility in vivo of a mature threshed grass hay offered ad libitum and determines its ability to meet the predicted energy and protein needs of mature ponies.
In vitro gas production techniques are becoming increasingly popular as tools to investigate the food quality for ruminant and monogastric herbivores. They are attractive due to their ability to measure the kinetics of digestion associated with the gut microbial fermentation of foodstuffs. It is therefore important to know and understand what factors affect the volume of gas produced, particularly as they relate to repeatability within or between laboratories. In studies involving gas pressure and volume measurement, the chemical composition of the culture medium, the nature of the microbial population and the type and amount of substrate available for fermentation all have a significant influence on gas accumulation. In this study, the manual pressure transducer technique (PTT) of Theodorou et al . (1994) was used to investigate the effect of head-space pressure on the resultant gas production profiles.
Artificially dehydrated lucerne produced in the United Kingdom has been shown to be a better source of nutrients for horses than grass hay. Horses eat more lucerne when it is pelleted, and the processing has little effect on its nutritive value. Lucerne does not appear to contain any antinutritional factors of significance to horses. Lucerne contains readily available calcium and protein and can thus be used as a cereal-balancer or to upgrade poor quality roughages. Because lucerne is a good source of digestible nutrients it has therapeutic applications, including the correction of electrolyte imbalances and hoof horn problems, and it can be used for intragastric nutrition and for feeding old horses.
The beneficial effects of feeding Biosaf Sc47 are well established in both ruminant and non-ruminant farm animals. In beef and dairy cattle, the addition of Biosaf Sc47 to the diet results in greater live weight gains and milk production. It is postulated that these benefits accrue through increased numbers of beneficial rumen micro organisms, stabilisation of rumen pH and a greater production of volatile fatty acids. Addition of Biosaf Sc47 to the diet of lactating sows and newly weaned piglets improves piglet growth rates and reduces post-weaning mortality, probably as a result of improved hindgut health.
The trace element chromium (Cr) has attracted attention because Cr supplements have been shown to benefit biological functionality and health in both humans and animals.It has been suggested that Cr decreases insulin levels and improves glucose disposal in type 2 diabetic and obese humans.Therefore, the aim of the study was to examine the effect of feeding Cr-enriched yeast on glucose metabolism in insulin-resistant ponies and horses.27 insulin-resistant ponies and horses, mean age (±SD) 13.9 (±4.8) years, mean body mass (±SD) 422 (±138) kg, mean body condition score (±SD) 7.6 (±0.8) on a scale of 1-9, were used in a placebo-controlled study.The ponies and horses were fed for four weeks either a yeast product without Cr (= placebo, N = 12), or a Cr-enriched yeast (= verum, 2 g organic Cr3+/kg yeast, 25 µg/kg BW, N = 15).During experimental period all animals were on a hay-based diet (1.2 kg hay/100 kg BW).A starch tolerance test (STT, 1.5 g starch/kg BW) was performed at the beginning and at the end of the study.Blood was collected following a standardized protocol.Plasma glucose concentrations were determined by glucose oxidase assay and plasma insulin was determined by radioimmunoassay.The STT revealed exaggerated glucose and insulin responses, reflecting an impaired glucose tolerance in all animals.Postprandial insulin responses were significant higher at the beginning of the study in the group to be fed verum when compared to the placebo group.After supplementation, plasma insulin responses were significantly modified by Cr intake (diet p < 0.05), suggesting an improved glucose regulation.Plasma glucose responses were not affected by the different treatments.Cr supplementation for four weeks improved glucose metabolism in ponies and horses suggesting that Cr facilitated insulin signaling.However, it must be emphasized that the ponies and horses still had impaired glucose regulation as indicated by supraphysiological glucose and insulin responses to the STT when compared to healthy horses.
The potential of short-cutting cycle, high temperature-dried alfalfa as a source of calcium for horses was determined by means of a 4 x 4 Latin square digestibility trial using four thoroughbred horses (mean liveweight 531 kg). The four dietary treatments were timothy hay alone, 33 per cent alfalfa and 67 per cent timothy hay, 67 per cent alfalfa and 33 per cent timothy hay, and alfalfa alone. Significantly more calcium and magnesium were absorbed from the alfalfa than from the hay. Phosphorus absorption appeared to be unaffected by treatment. Alfalfa calcium was more available than timothy hay calcium (apparent absorption coefficients of 0.78 and 0.15, respectively) and there was less variation between individual horses in their ability to absorb calcium from alfalfa. Horses fed alfalfa had significantly higher creatinine clearance ratios for calcium (P less than 0.01) and magnesium (P less than 0.001) than horses fed hay, but the creatinine clearance ratio for phosphorus was lower in horses fed hay alone.
Several studies have shown high correlations between in vtvo and in vitro degradation of fibrous feeds when preparations from either rumen fluid or ruminant faeces have been used as the inocula for the in vitro studies (El Shaer et al ., 1987; Akhter et al ., 1994 & 1995; Harris et al ., 1995). Use of an inoculum prepared from faecal material is attractive, for unlike that obtained from rumen fluid, it precludes the need to prepare and maintain fistulated donor animals. This study investigated the use of pony faeces, as an alternative to pony caecal digesta, as a source of micro-organisms for in vitro feed degradability studies.
The in situ technique has been used widely to assess the degradation of feeds in the rumen. However, very little information is available on the degradation of feeds in the digestive tract of equids. This experiment examines the degradation of unmolassed sugar beet pulp (USBP), hay cubes (HC), soya hulls (SH) and a 2:1 mixture of oat hulls:naked oats (OH) in the caecum of ponies. Four caecally fistulated Welsh cross pony geldings (approx LW 250 kg) were offered ad libitum grass hay (DM: 926, CP: 69; NDF: 649) plus 30 g/h/d of a horse mineral supplement. Two incubation bags (monofilament polyester, 6.5 x 20 cm, 41 um pores, 16 mg/cm 2 sample size) containing either USBP or HC were incubated in the caecum for fixed times according to both a forward (0,3,5,16,8,24,48) and reverse (48,24,8,16,5,3,0) incubation sequence.
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