Effects of different feed components and the treatment of the litter on the ammonia emission of equine urine

Abstract

The main goal of our research was to study the effects of different feed components and the treatment of the litter on the NH3 emission of equine urine. Four adult horses were used in the experiment. The basic diet consisted of 1500 g mashed oat, fed twice a day (morning and evening), and ad libitum hay. During the night the horses were kept separately in concrete floor boxes, the litter was wheat straw. The whole study was divided into 3 main periods. In the first period of the experiment the litter and the floor were treated with a probiotic supplement for two days in the evenings. In the second period of the experiment for 8 days the basic diet was supplemented with 40 ml of probiotic added to the oat. Before the third period of our study the horses were fed with their regular diet for two weeks. After that the oat was changed to a high-protein-value horse feed for 12 days. At the end of the second and third periods, the litter was treated again. Urine contaminated straw samples were collected after each period before and after the litter treatments from different places of the litter in the morning before the daily littering. From the samples, the dry matter content and the NH3 emission were measured. Statistical analysis was carried out with linear modelling. According to our results, both the probiotic treatment of the feed and the high-protein-value horse feed decreased the urine NH3 emission significantly (p<0.05). However, the NH3 emission was only slightly influenced by the litter treatment. Only in the case of probiotic feed supplement could a decrease in emission be detected, but the result was not significant. There was no difference in the dry matter content of the samples. Based on our results, we can conclude that both the high-protein-value horse feed and the probiotic supplement applied in our experiment can be useful to decrease urine NH3 emission by horses. The two-days litter treatment however seems to be too short to gain any positive effects.

The effect of a fermented herbal feed supplement on the digestion of horses

“…Our results were similar to the observations obtained in a previous experiment with a medical herb mixture conducted at the Georgikon Campus (Bartos et al, 2015), however in that trial the beneficial effect was already noticeable directly after the treatments.…”

“…The product contains only natural substances and can therefore be fed risk-free either as a reward snack or as a cure. The results of previously experiments carried out on the Georgikon Campus also greatly contributed to the development of the mentioned product (Bartos et al, 2015;Such et al, 2017). During our study, we tested the effect of the feed supplement on the digestion of horses and the microflora of the colon.…”

“…Primarily their use in sports and hobbies has come to the fore. At the same time, the unique value of animals increased significantly (Bartos et al, 2021). For the owners the health and long-term balanced usability of the horses has become even more important than before.…”

“…For the owners the health and long-term balanced usability of the horses has become even more important than before. Among our farm animals, the digestive system of the horses is the most sensitive and vulnerable, so special attention must be paid to the quality of the feed (Bartos et al, 2015). The most common disease of horses is colic (Durham, 2009).…”

“…The benefits of certain herbs on digestion have long been known, primarily in human medicine (Bernáth, 1993;Klein, 1998;Rácz andSzabó, 2012, Csupor, 2020), but the positive effects of various herbs and their mixtures are also mentioned in the case of horses (Marton, 2005;Naujoks, 2005, Bartos et al, 2015. Hilary and Whishaw (2014) described the effect of white mallow on nutrient absorption.…”