YEAST AS A FEED ADDITIVE FOR TRAINING HORSES Leveduras como aditivo nutricional para cavalos em treinamento

ABSTRACT This research analyses the yeast supplementation effect on the digestibility of nutrients and metabolic performance intraining horses. Twelve horses were assigned into 2 groups: Pr (20 g of probiotics daily per horse) and control. The diet consisted ofroughage (haylage) and commercial rations and all horses were trained for 6 weeks. LIPE ® indicator was used during 7 days and fecescollected for five days to determine nutrient digestibility. DM, CP, DE, P, NDF, ADF, HCEL and lignin were determined. All horseswere subjected to incremental ergospirometry test before and at the end of training. Horses that received live yeast showed an increase(p<0.05) of 4.1% in the digestibility of HCEL. After training, both horse groups presented higher tolerance to fatigue, with an increasein AT and VO2max. The training improved animal performance, hemicellulose digestibility and DE was higher in Pr, but theseincreases did not improve the performance of these animals. Index terms: Nutritional additives, equine, exercise, probiotics.