Are Probiotics Worth The Hype?

Probiotics have their fair share of both devotees and naysayers. Why do the devotees keep probiotics in their medicine cabinet? For diarrhea, primarily. Approximately 80 percent of foals develop diarrhea sufficiently severe to threaten growth and, depending on its severity, survival. Adult horses develop diarrhea for several reasons, including physical and mental stress, disease, and certain medications.

Treating diarrhea medicinally may resolve the condition, but some medications have unwelcome side effects: inappetence, skin reactions (wheals, swelling), and kidney toxicity. The benefits of administering probiotics for treating or preventing diarrhea remain largely theoretical despite the widespread availability of the products.

To shed light on the actual, rather than perceived, benefits of probiotics in horses, Australian researchers conducted a thorough review of the available scientific literature. After combing through many relevant research papers, they selected 18 that examined the safety, tolerability, and efficacy of probiotics in horses and foals. Some of the key findings of this study were:

  • Probiotics appeared well tolerated in adult horses with few safety concerns;
  • Substantial concerns were noted in foals. High doses of multistrain probiotics appeared to aggravate diarrhea, particularly when products similar to those designed for humans were used. When the probiotic contained organisms more closely related to the microbes normally found in the equine microbiome, the incidence of foal diarrhea nearly halved; and
  • Single probiotic interventions appear less effective than multispecies probiotics.

In addition to managing diarrhea, owners sometimes give probiotics to horses whose diets contain large grain meals.

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“High-grain diets can disturb intestinal function, leading to hindgut acidosis, a condition characterized by unusually low pH in the cecum and colon. This drop in pH can change the microbiome, reducing digestibility of feed. Hindgut acidosis may result in loose manure, decreased appetite, behavior changes, colic, and laminitis,” explained Peter Huntington, B.V.Sc., M.A.C.V.Sc., director of nutrition at Kentucky Equine Research.

To combat plummeting pH in the hindgut, researchers looked at offering a probiotic to improve the microbiome and increase digestive function. However, two separate studies failed to identify any benefit in feeding a probiotic to horses given high-grain diets.

“This finding leaves room for more research and alternate approaches to controlling pH in the hindgut. Using hindgut buffers such as the research-proven hindgut supplements created by Kentucky Equine Research are potentially better than using probiotics for this purpose,” Huntington recommended.

While the role of probiotics for intestinal conditions remains unclear, researchers found beneficial effects of probiotics in exercising Standardbred horses. Specifically, those researchers stated that “administration of multistrain bacterial formulations to increase stamina in exercising horses shows promise.”

Huntington added, “Supplemented horses had lower blood lactate levels, which may delay fatigue in exercising horses. At this time, though, researchers are unclear as to how probiotics lower blood lactate levels.”

Also noteworthy, the number of studies examining probiotics in horses was extremely small compared to those for humans. As such, much of the information used to support probiotics intended for horses is actually extrapolated from human studies.

“The anatomy and physiology of the equine digestive tract are very different from that of the human, which makes data extrapolation inappropriate. Using human data for horses may at least partly explain the lack of reported efficacy of probiotics in horses,” Huntington said.

Instead of extrapolating from human medicine, scientists should consider equine-specific research, as many questions remain unanswered. For example, what species of bacteria and yeast should be included in probiotic supplements, and what multistrain products will have the most benefit? How much should be given? How long should horses be given the supplements?

Quality concerns also persist. Do commercial over-the-counter probiotics contain the type or amount of ingredient they claim? The live bacteria that went into the package or syringe may not be viable when actually fed, which negates its usefulness.

“While probiotics may exert positive gastrointestinal and extraintestinal effects, using poor-quality products or administering probiotics incorrectly may delay more appropriate treatments or interventions and are economically draining for horse owners,” summarized Huntington.

*Cooke, C.G., Z. Gibb, and J.E. Harnett. The safety, tolerability and efficacy of probiotic bacteria for equine use. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 99:103407.

Article reprinted courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research (KER). Visit equinews.com for the latest in equine nutrition and management, and subscribe to The Weekly Feed to receive these articles directly (equinews.com/newsletters).   

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Minimize Gastric Ulcers In Rapidly Growing Weanlings

The prevalence of gastric ulcers among Thoroughbreds in training and racing is well known, but gastric ulcers also occur frequently in Thoroughbred foals and yearlings. Reports suggest one-quarter to one-half of foals have gastric ulcers.

“Ulcers compromise the health of the horse, affecting appetite and feed conversion efficiency. In young foals, growth rates can be negatively affected. As many horse owners know, diagnosis with a gastroscope and treatment with omeprazole are expensive, so preventing ulcers is vital,” explained Clarissa Brown-Douglas, Ph.D., a Kentucky Equine Research nutritionist.

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In addition to the general stress associated with weaning, the type of feed a foal is offered, such as high-starch concentrate, can also contribute to the development of equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS).

Tradition dictates feeding weanlings high levels of grain-based concentrates (such as oat-, corn-, and barley-based feeds) to achieve the accelerated growth required by Thoroughbred yearlings for sales. However, these high-starch feeds are linked to rapid growth rates and implicated in the manifestation of developmental orthopedic disease, including osteochondritis, angular limb deformities, and physitis.

Considering the potential negative effects of high-starch diets in young, growing horses, there is evidence that the same level of growth can be achieved by feeding a diet in which the energy is provided by fiber as opposed to cereals.

A recent report showed similar growth rates in foals born in the United Kingdom and fed either an all-fiber or a traditional cereal-based creep feed.* In this study, average daily gain, height at the withers and hip, heart girth, and body length were all similar between the groups of weanlings fed either the all-fiber or high-cereal creep feed for 18 weeks. Specifically, the average daily gain was in line with other reported growth rates of Thoroughbreds at the same age.

This study also examined the effect of the two different feeds on stomach pH of the weanlings. Horses fed the all-fiber feed maintained a more consistent and less acidic gastric pH compared with those fed the cereal-based feed. The researchers deduced that the high-fiber ration had the potential to help reduce the incidence of acid-precipitated gastric ulceration.

“This work supports several other studies that have reported a high incidence of gastric ulcers in weanlings, suggesting high-fiber diets protect against gastric ulcers in horses of all ages. Many feed companies are now producing feeds for young, growing horses containing high levels of digestible fiber, including beet pulp and soy hulls, with less reliance on cereal grains,” Brown-Douglas relayed.

In sum, this study adds to the increasing pool of data supporting the use of high-fiber diets to achieve growth rates comparable to traditional cereal-based diets in young horses.

Reducing the risk of the incidence of gastric ulcers in weanlings during their rapid growth can be achieved in one of two ways: by offering a high-fiber feed rather than a traditional cereal-based feed and by supplementing their diets with Triacton, a research-proven supplement developed by Kentucky Equine Research.

Triacton contains a specific source of calcium proven to buffer the gastric and hindgut environments, restoring gastrointestinal normalcy. Triacton features the added benefit of boosting bone mineral density, which is advantageous for growing foals.

*Moore-Colyer, M., P. Tuthill, I. Bannister, and S. Daniels. 2020. Growth rates of Thoroughbred foals and in vitro gut health parameters when fed a cereal or an all-fiber creep feed. Journal of Equine Veterinary Science 93:103191.

Read more here.

Reprinted courtesy of Kentucky Equine Research. Visit ker.com for the latest in equine nutrition and management, and subscribe to Equinews to receive these articles directly

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Change In Diet From Grass To Hay Hard On Horse’s Hindgut

Horses that have abrupt changes to the grass and hay in their diets have changes in the microbial population of their feces. The change from hay to grass has a higher risk of causing problems in the equine gut than swapping from grass to hay. These changes may alter the gut microbiota, which may cause digestive or metabolic disturbance.

Drs. Anna Garber, Peter Hastie, David McGuinness, Pauline Malarange and Jo-Anne Murray created an experiment to test the microbiota of six Welsh ponies that were changed from pasture to hay and grass back to hay. For 30 days before the experiment began, the ponies were on pasture.

The study used two 14-day periods; in the first period, the ponies were taken off pasture and fed hay for 14 days. The ponies were then turned back out on pasture and given unlimited hay as well. Fecal samples were collected at the start of each phase and then on days 1, 2, 3, 7 and 14 after the changes to the diet were made. The samples were analyzed to determine how many microbiota were present as well as to characterize the microbiome.

The scientists found that the microbiota in the fecal samples were diverse, but that their abundance changed with abrupt dietary changes. Ponies fed the diet of restricted hay had microbiota similar to those ponies fed just grass, but they differed widely with regards to abundance.

They conclude that abrupt changes from hay to grass may pose a higher risk for hindgut pH to drop and cause gastric disturbances compared to the dietary change from grass to hay.

Read the full article here.

Read more at HorseTalk.

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Concrete Results Found Between Transportation And Equine Ulcers

It has long been known that there is a relationship between transportation and gastric stress in horses.  Researchers in Italy and Australia now have some definitive answers—and some surprising results–between transportation, gastric pH and gastric ulcers in horses, reports The Horse.

Drs. Babara Padalino, Sharanne Raidal and Georgina Davis carried out a two-part study to find out if transportation would lead to an ulceration of the squamous cell mucosa in a horse's stomach and if it would be more severe in horses that were fasted beforehand.

In the first part of the study, the team fasted 12 confined horses overnight and placed nasogastric tubes to aspirate gastric fluid every two hours. They also collected blood before and after the horses were confined and completed a gastroscopy directly after confinement and again 60 hours after confinement.

The second part of the study evaluated the effects of transportation on 26 horses that were shipped 546 miles. The scientists collected blood and performed the same gastroscopy routine as with the horses that were confined.

The scientists found:

  • Average gastric fluid pH was much higher during transport than during confinement
  • Squamous ulcers were more prevalent in horses that were transported (and some of those horses had severe ulceration)
  • Severity of squamous cell ulceration was inversely related to the amount of feed retained in the stomach during transport; the less feed in the stomach, the more severe ulcers the horses had
  • The researchers were surprised that the pH of the stomach became higher during transport and that after 12 hours of fasting that some horses still had feed in their stomach

Read more at The Horse.

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