Low unavoidable losses of phosphorus in foals
Knowledge of the phosphorus requirements of horses at different ages is important. On the one hand, phosphorus is a vital nutrient and a valuable natural resource, and on the other hand, overfeeding can contribute to eutrophication as excess is excreted in the faeces.
This study investigated how much phosphorus young horses inevitably lose via faeces, regardless of their daily intake. The researchers also investigated whether a marker of skeletal bone degradation could be used to identify phosphorus underfeeding.
Six weaned foals were fed three different diets with low (underfeeding) to recommended phosphorus content. The diets were fed in varying order for 17 days each to each foal and faecal samples were collected at the end of each feeding period.
It was concluded that the foals' unavoidable phosphorus losses are low and no support for changing the current daily intake recommendations was observed. No correlation between the bone degradation marker and the underfeeding of phosphorus could be shown.
The study was funded by the Swedish Agricultural Research Foundation and the Swedish-Norwegian Foundation for Equine Research.
Link to the publication
https://doi.org/10.1111/jpn.13809
Reference
Ögren, G., Ragnarsson, S., & Jansson, A. (2023). Effects of forage phosphorous content on faecal phosphorous excretion and possible markers of low phosphorous intake in foals fed forage-only diets. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 107, 1103–1109.
Contact
-
Person