Effect of feed type and essential oil product on equine chewing activity

Abstract

The ingestive and post-digestion effect of a blend of special essential oil compounds (EO) on eating, chewing and faecal parameters were measured in horses. Ingestive effects appear after no adaptation. Post-digestion effects appear after adaptation. Six Icelandic horses were assigned to two groups in a Latin Square subplot design with EO treatments to four different roughage types and four different concentrates. The horses were fed four different roughage meals and two different concentrate meals on each of the four sampling days. Eating time and saliva were observed during meals. Jaw movements (JM) were recorded using a special chewing halter. Eating time was derived from JM and related to DM intake. The size characteristics of faecal particles were measured by using image analysis. All chewing characteristics measured were significantly affected by roughage (p < 0.001) and concentrate type (p < 0.01). EO had a significant ingestive effect on the frequency of observed saliva during concentrate meals. No significant (p < 0.05) post-digestive or ingestive effect of EO was found for any measured chewing characteristic, which was reflected in the absence of effect on faecal particle dimensions. In conclusion, effect of type of roughage and concentrate was more significant than potential effects of EO.

Electromyographic evaluation of masseter muscle activity in horses fed (i) different types of roughage and (ii) maize after different hay allocations

“…Feed intake times and chewing frequencies for maize and different types of roughage were within the ranges already described by others (e.g. Meyer and Coenen, 2002;Brøkner et al, 2008). Furthermore, even haylage qualities with a similar DM content (81.5%) but a lower CF content (26.6% in DM) than fed in our study revealed comparable results (Lengwenat et al, 1999).…”

“…Mastication is the first major process involved in food breakdown that creates food particles and then mixes them with saliva to form a bolus for swallowing. In horses, feed intake time and chewing frequency for different feedstuffs are well described; concentrates are consumed rapidly in contrast to forages that take longer to eat (Meyer and Coenen, 2002; Brøkner et al., 2008). In particular, the rate of intake varies from approximately 10 min/kg for concentrates to approximately 45 min/kg for roughages.…”

“…In particular, the rate of intake varies from approximately 10 min/kg for concentrates to approximately 45 min/kg for roughages. Chewing frequency ranged from 67–90 chews/min for concentrates to <90 chews/min for different types of roughage (Brüssow et al., 2005; Brøkner et al., 2008).…”

Comparative ingestive mastication in domestic horses and cattle: a pilot investigation

“… Chewing frequency in relation to body mass of cattle and horses of this study, of hay‐fed horses from the literature (Meyer et al., 1975; Shingu et al., 2001; Brüssow, 2006; Brøkner et al., 2008; Bochnia, 2009), and of a variety of mammals (regression line from Shipley et al., 1994). …”

The effect of different feed delivery methods on time to consume feed and the resulting changes in postprandial metabolite concentrations in horses1

“…However, actual bite rates and feed consumption rates were not determined in either study. Further investigation of the effect of rate of feed intake on metabolic responses to feeding could be determined by combining the feed delivery methods of this research and methods to detennine chewing activity, such as those described by Brokner et al (2008).…”