Growth rates of Thoroughbred foals and in vitro gut health parameters when fed a cereal or an all fibre creep feed.

Moore-Colyer, Meriel, Tuthill, P, Bannister, I and Daniels, Simon (2020) Growth rates of Thoroughbred foals and in vitro gut health parameters when fed a cereal or an all fibre creep feed. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science. ISSN 0737-0806

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Abstract

Abstract Traditions and the economic advantage when producing big athletic TB yearlings for sale, encourages owners to feed high levels of cereals. Such diets can predispose gastric ulceration and developmental orthopaedic diseases, impacting negatively on future careers. Study aims: 1. Determine if an all fibre creep feed (TMFR) would sustain equal growth rates in TB foals versus a cereal based stud cube (SC); 2. Compare pH and lactate produced by SC and TMFR in in vitro foregut and hind gut conditions. Eight TB foals in matched-pairs were fed SC or TMFR for 18 weeks. Weight gain (ADG), height at wither and hip, heart girth and body length were recorded weekly. Similar growth rates were recorded for all measurements. ADG of 1 and 1.1kg/head/d for TMFR and SC respectively. In vitro foregut incubation of SC and TMFR at 37oC in pepsin HCl solution for 6 hours, produced higher pH 5.84 (TMFR) compared with 5.33 (SC) (P<0.05). Gas production measured fermentation rate, acidity and lactate from TMFR and SC, incubated with faecal inoculum from the foals on the same diet. Fermentation rates and lag times were equal for both feeds; total gas produced, t 50 and Y50 were greater (P<0.05) for SC. Lactate and pH levels were lower and higher respectively for the TMFR. This study showed that similar growth in TB foals was achieved on the TMFR feed and that potentially better gut health, denoted by higher pH and lower lactate levels could be maintained by fibre compared with cereal feed.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Horses, foals, fibre, growth rates, creep feeding
Divisions:	Equine Management and Science
Depositing User:	Prof Meriel Moore-Colyer
Date Deposited:	23 Jul 2020 08:42
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2022 15:11
URI:	https://rau.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/16410

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