Effect of floating on intake, nutrient digestibility, and intake of hay

Whenever looked at closely, the floating of horses’ teeth does not help the average horse eat and digest food. To many, this is a very controversial statement. We cover this perspective in some detail in the parent article to this topic.
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Effect of odontoplasty on intake, nutrient digestibility, and intake time of tifton hay in ponies
J Equine Vet Sci. 2024 May:136:105067. doi: 10.1016/j.jevs.2024.105067. Epub 2024 Apr 7.
Authors
Francielli Pereira Gobbi 1 , Gabriela Bravim Lemos 2 , Gabriel Carvalho Dos Santos 2 , Inácio Silva Viana 2 , Maurício Netto Machado 2 , João Victor Bersot Gomes 2 , Paula Alessandra Di Filippo 2 , Tadeu Silva de Oliveira 2 , Célia Raquel Quirino 2
Affiliations

1 Darcy Ribeiro State University of Norte Fluminense, UENF, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Electronic address: franci_gobbi@hotmail.com.
2 Darcy Ribeiro State University of Norte Fluminense, UENF, Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

PMID: 38588755
DOI: 10.1016/j.jevs.2024.105067

Abstract

We aimed to evaluate the effects of dental correction on voluntary nutrient intake, time of intake, apparent digestibility and fecal particle size in Brazilian ponies. Twelve mares, with no history of previous dental treatments, housed in individual pens and fed a diet based on tifton 85 were used. The study comprised two consecutive experimental phases, pre and post dental treatment. Each phase consisted of 15 days for adaptation to the pen and treatment and 5 days for data collection, totaling 20 days. To calculate nutrient intake and digestibility coefficients, samples of diets, leftovers, and feces were analyzed for dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), crude fat (CF), mineral matter (MM), organic matter (OM), and non-fiber carbohydrates (NFC). Food intake time was recorded using a digital video recorder. Fecal particles were analyzed by wet sieving. Dental correction did not influence the intake of DM, CP, NDF, CF, and OM by the animals. However, there was an increase in NFC intake from 0.12 kg to 0.14 kg and in food intake time from 654.50 ± 138.98 to 774.95 ± 167.14. There was a decrease in the digestibility of CP from 0.08 kg to 0.04 kg and an increase in the digestibility of NDF from 0.65 kg to 0.82 kg. Although odontoplasty increased the time of hay intake and the digestibility of the fibrous fractions of the feed of ponies, it did not influence the intake of nutrients and the size of the fecal particles.

Keywords: Dental correction; Equine; Nutrition.

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests. None of the authors has any financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or be perceived to influence the content of the paper.