Summer is long behind us, and with it the grazing season and access to lush green grass. Worse still, by the end of winter, stable hay supplies also leave much to be desired. It is worth looking at your horse's health from... the other end. Much has already been said about feeding, but in recent years more research has focused on what probiotics for horses are and how they can be used. They are widely used in cattle and poultry farming and increasingly discussed in human health, yet their benefits in horse nutrition are only just being discovered. Find out what probiotics for horses are and how they work!
Prebiotics are simple compounds (oligosaccharides) that nourish the bacteria and yeasts known as probiotics; you could call them food for microorganisms. By definition, they are substances selectively fermented by the microflora with a proven beneficial effect on changes in digestive tract microflora. The important part of that definition is proven beneficial changes.
Using prebiotics has no negative effects on the body. This means their effects have been studied and beneficial outcomes experimentally confirmed (such as increased milk production in cows). Examples of prebiotics include inulin, fructans and lactans, all of which are complex forms of sugars.
Probiotics, on the other hand, are living microorganisms added to food to enrich intestinal microflora. These mainly include yeasts (Saccharomyces sp., Kluyveromyces sp.), fungi (Aspergillus sp) and bacteria (Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus and Lactococcus species). By definition, probiotics are microorganisms that benefit their host when given in appropriate quantities.
In a completely healthy body, all resident microorganisms are saprophytic, meaning friendly to their host. As herbivores, horses eat food largely composed of cellulose, a component of plant cell walls that neither we nor any other mammal can digest. Yet cows, for example, somehow manage to digest cellulose, since they eat nothing but grass or hay.
In cows, their largest stomach compartment, the abomasum, contains saprophytic flora capable of digesting cellulose through fermentation, allowing nutrients from partially digested plant cells to be absorbed in the remaining stomach compartments. Horses have a very small stomach, but nature has equipped them with a very large caecum, which serves the role of a cow's four stomach compartments (specifically the largest, the 140-litre abomasum).
Rabbits have a similar digestive tract structure. Various species of bacteria, fungi and yeasts living in the hindmost sections of the digestive tract help them digest plant cell walls.
Ideally, all these microorganisms live in balance, with some inhibiting the growth of others so that the digestive tract is not dominated by just one type of bacterium or fungus. This happens mainly through maintaining the right pH in the digestive tract, and disturbances in pH are the main cause of instability in this delicate system of digestive microflora.
When horses are fed mainly high-fibre forage, digestion does not cause major pH changes, the intestinal organisms have plenty of material for fermentation, and balance is maintained.
However, for ridden horses, the digestible energy available from grass or hay alone, meaning the energy they can absorb from food, is too low to meet the demands of ridden work. This is why concentrates, mainly oats, are used in horse feeding. Oats contain substantial amounts of starch, whose digestion acidifies the digestive contents. Add a reduction in dietary fibre, or forage, and you have a ready-made recipe for destabilising the system.
The initial fall in pH kills microorganisms that live at a higher pH and encourages those that prefer acidic conditions to multiply. Reduced nutrient supplies for microorganisms further encourage this process. The more acid-loving bacteria there are in the digestive tract, the more they acidify their surroundings, causing further losses of organisms that prefer a more alkaline pH. From there, events can develop in different ways.
One organism belonging to the saprophytic flora may grow out of control and colonise the host's digestive tract, causing a saprophytic infection. However, nature abhors a vacuum, so pathogenic microflora often occupy the space left by organisms unable to cope with pH changes. These are usually disease-causing bacteria that multiply very quickly, generally thrive at low pH and can cause considerable harm. One example is the development of gastric ulcers, which, if untreated, can lead to severe colic and death.
A similar situation can arise during antibiotic treatment: the antibiotic clears the host's microbial population, and it becomes first come, first served. The digestive tract may be recolonised by saprophytic flora, but also by pathogens. In either case, restoring balance takes time and may slow recovery.
To summarise, digestive microflora can be disturbed by:
· dietary changes
· too little fibre in the diet
· high dietary energy levels
· medication (mainly antibiotics, but also non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)
- stress (travelling to competitions, going without food)
Having described this disastrous chain of events, the question is how to prevent it. Carefully choosing your horse's diet is certainly the key to success. Unfortunately, you cannot provide green meadows all year round or a stress-free life, and anyone involved in equestrian sport sometimes wants to compete away from home.
Fortunately, horses are not entirely defenceless: their bodies always strive towards homeostasis, or internal balance. Providing supportive substances can make this process easier.
This is exactly how prebiotics and probiotics work. Feeding prebiotics, the nutrients for intestinal microflora, supports microorganisms that prefer a higher pH. It supplies substrates for fermentation while also stabilising pH through the presence of these substances in the digestive contents. With compounds such as inulin or lactans in the food, the fall in pH after concentrate feeding is smaller, and bacteria that raise pH can steer fermentation towards more alkaline conditions, restoring balance much faster.
Adding probiotics for horses improves the process further. Adding acidity-regulating bacteria, fungi and yeasts to food allows the microflora to regulate the entire process itself. As the microorganisms remain in balance, some push pH towards acidity and others towards alkalinity, while the overall system stays at its optimum pH.
The same applies to lactating mares: increased milk production has been observed in those fed yeast. Another positive effect is the production of B vitamins by certain microorganisms.
The best-known B vitamins are B1 - thiamine, B2 - riboflavin, B6 - pyridoxine and B12 - cobalamin. The last two in particular affect the body's energy reserves. Vitamin B6 is a precursor of many enzymes, while vitamin B12 is essential for red blood cell production. Deficiencies can cause anaemia, leading to lethargy and reluctance to work.
When your horse becomes lethargic, an owner's first reaction is to increase concentrates to provide more dietary energy. If the lethargy is caused by anaemia resulting from disturbed digestive microflora, this is actually adding fuel to the fire.
The more starch in the diet, the more acidic the digestive contents become and the more unstable the microflora. This leads to the death of bacteria that produce B vitamins through fermentation, poorer absorption and further lethargy. Further increases in feed rations only drive this process, potentially damaging the digestive lining and causing ulcers. Diarrhoea is also common, and in the worst case colic poses a direct threat to your horse's life.
To summarise, the effects of disturbed digestive microflora include:
· lethargy
· diarrhoea
· poorer coat quality
· anaemia
· ulcers and colic
Winter and the lack of access to nutritious pasture with plenty of forage destabilise this delicate system, so consider supplements for your horse's feed. Sometimes, instead of adding another scoop of high-energy feed, all you need is probiotics for horses and to let the body tackle the cause of the problem.
What is a probiotic?
First, what exactly are they? Prebiotics and probiotics are substances introduced into the diet to encourage healthy gut flora. However, they should not be confused: one consists of living organisms, while the other provides simple nutrients for them. Let us start with prebiotics.Prebiotics are simple compounds (oligosaccharides) that nourish the bacteria and yeasts known as probiotics; you could call them food for microorganisms. By definition, they are substances selectively fermented by the microflora with a proven beneficial effect on changes in digestive tract microflora. The important part of that definition is proven beneficial changes.
Using prebiotics has no negative effects on the body. This means their effects have been studied and beneficial outcomes experimentally confirmed (such as increased milk production in cows). Examples of prebiotics include inulin, fructans and lactans, all of which are complex forms of sugars.
Probiotics, on the other hand, are living microorganisms added to food to enrich intestinal microflora. These mainly include yeasts (Saccharomyces sp., Kluyveromyces sp.), fungi (Aspergillus sp) and bacteria (Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus and Lactococcus species). By definition, probiotics are microorganisms that benefit their host when given in appropriate quantities.
Probiotics for horses have beneficial nutritional uses, which we will discuss further later in this article.
Are probiotics important in horse nutrition?
But why feed bacteria to your horse? A little background on the digestive tract will help. Each of us, just like every animal, carries trillions of microorganisms in and on our bodies, known as saprophytic flora. In both humans and horses, the digestive tract houses the greatest number of microorganisms, which help digest food.In a completely healthy body, all resident microorganisms are saprophytic, meaning friendly to their host. As herbivores, horses eat food largely composed of cellulose, a component of plant cell walls that neither we nor any other mammal can digest. Yet cows, for example, somehow manage to digest cellulose, since they eat nothing but grass or hay.
In cows, their largest stomach compartment, the abomasum, contains saprophytic flora capable of digesting cellulose through fermentation, allowing nutrients from partially digested plant cells to be absorbed in the remaining stomach compartments. Horses have a very small stomach, but nature has equipped them with a very large caecum, which serves the role of a cow's four stomach compartments (specifically the largest, the 140-litre abomasum).
Rabbits have a similar digestive tract structure. Various species of bacteria, fungi and yeasts living in the hindmost sections of the digestive tract help them digest plant cell walls.
Ideally, all these microorganisms live in balance, with some inhibiting the growth of others so that the digestive tract is not dominated by just one type of bacterium or fungus. This happens mainly through maintaining the right pH in the digestive tract, and disturbances in pH are the main cause of instability in this delicate system of digestive microflora.
When horses are fed mainly high-fibre forage, digestion does not cause major pH changes, the intestinal organisms have plenty of material for fermentation, and balance is maintained.
How should you use probiotics for horses?
However, for ridden horses, the digestible energy available from grass or hay alone, meaning the energy they can absorb from food, is too low to meet the demands of ridden work. This is why concentrates, mainly oats, are used in horse feeding. Oats contain substantial amounts of starch, whose digestion acidifies the digestive contents. Add a reduction in dietary fibre, or forage, and you have a ready-made recipe for destabilising the system.
The initial fall in pH kills microorganisms that live at a higher pH and encourages those that prefer acidic conditions to multiply. Reduced nutrient supplies for microorganisms further encourage this process. The more acid-loving bacteria there are in the digestive tract, the more they acidify their surroundings, causing further losses of organisms that prefer a more alkaline pH. From there, events can develop in different ways.
One organism belonging to the saprophytic flora may grow out of control and colonise the host's digestive tract, causing a saprophytic infection. However, nature abhors a vacuum, so pathogenic microflora often occupy the space left by organisms unable to cope with pH changes. These are usually disease-causing bacteria that multiply very quickly, generally thrive at low pH and can cause considerable harm. One example is the development of gastric ulcers, which, if untreated, can lead to severe colic and death.
A similar situation can arise during antibiotic treatment: the antibiotic clears the host's microbial population, and it becomes first come, first served. The digestive tract may be recolonised by saprophytic flora, but also by pathogens. In either case, restoring balance takes time and may slow recovery.
To summarise, digestive microflora can be disturbed by:
· dietary changes
· too little fibre in the diet
· high dietary energy levels
· medication (mainly antibiotics, but also non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs)
- stress (travelling to competitions, going without food)
Having described this disastrous chain of events, the question is how to prevent it. Carefully choosing your horse's diet is certainly the key to success. Unfortunately, you cannot provide green meadows all year round or a stress-free life, and anyone involved in equestrian sport sometimes wants to compete away from home.
Fortunately, horses are not entirely defenceless: their bodies always strive towards homeostasis, or internal balance. Providing supportive substances can make this process easier.
This is exactly how prebiotics and probiotics work. Feeding prebiotics, the nutrients for intestinal microflora, supports microorganisms that prefer a higher pH. It supplies substrates for fermentation while also stabilising pH through the presence of these substances in the digestive contents. With compounds such as inulin or lactans in the food, the fall in pH after concentrate feeding is smaller, and bacteria that raise pH can steer fermentation towards more alkaline conditions, restoring balance much faster.
Adding probiotics for horses improves the process further. Adding acidity-regulating bacteria, fungi and yeasts to food allows the microflora to regulate the entire process itself. As the microorganisms remain in balance, some push pH towards acidity and others towards alkalinity, while the overall system stays at its optimum pH.
Probiotics for horses - benefits
Feeding probiotics has additional benefits. Large numbers of good bacteria enable efficient fermentation and, consequently, better nutrient availability from food. Studies in cows and chickens demonstrate significantly increased productivity after adding yeast to the diet (greater weight gains and higher milk yields).The same applies to lactating mares: increased milk production has been observed in those fed yeast. Another positive effect is the production of B vitamins by certain microorganisms.
The best-known B vitamins are B1 - thiamine, B2 - riboflavin, B6 - pyridoxine and B12 - cobalamin. The last two in particular affect the body's energy reserves. Vitamin B6 is a precursor of many enzymes, while vitamin B12 is essential for red blood cell production. Deficiencies can cause anaemia, leading to lethargy and reluctance to work.
When your horse becomes lethargic, an owner's first reaction is to increase concentrates to provide more dietary energy. If the lethargy is caused by anaemia resulting from disturbed digestive microflora, this is actually adding fuel to the fire.
The more starch in the diet, the more acidic the digestive contents become and the more unstable the microflora. This leads to the death of bacteria that produce B vitamins through fermentation, poorer absorption and further lethargy. Further increases in feed rations only drive this process, potentially damaging the digestive lining and causing ulcers. Diarrhoea is also common, and in the worst case colic poses a direct threat to your horse's life.
To summarise, the effects of disturbed digestive microflora include:
· lethargy
· diarrhoea
· poorer coat quality
· anaemia
· ulcers and colic
Probiotics for your horse at VETfactory!
More and more products containing probiotics for horses and prebiotics are appearing on the market. Used in the daily diet, they regulate processes in the horse's digestive tract. Available ulcer products often also contain added prebiotics to support saprophytic microflora.Winter and the lack of access to nutritious pasture with plenty of forage destabilise this delicate system, so consider supplements for your horse's feed. Sometimes, instead of adding another scoop of high-energy feed, all you need is probiotics for horses and to let the body tackle the cause of the problem.
