Pre and Probiotics in Horse Feed
While scanning information about various horse feeds, you may have come across the phrase ‘contains prebiotics and probiotics.’ And while that sounds impressive, you may be wondering what these are and why are they important?
Pre- and probiotics are considered “functional ingredients” that are added to horse feed to provide benefits to your horse. Let's talk about what that means for the digestive tract and overall wellbeing of your horse.
It Starts with the Gut
The environment of the intestine contains naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms commonly called "bugs." Gut bugs are found in all species, including humans, and are essential to the digestion process. For the horse, gut bugs work to break down components of forage and feed as they pass through the digestive tract. The bugs deconstruct complex molecules within feedstuffs, which releases nutrients and allows the synthesis of energy substrates and important vitamins. Those nutrients are then absorbed through the intestines into the bloodstream, where they become available to cells in the body to support basic maintenance, growth and activity.
Probiotics
Feed that is broken down and digested more completely allows for more nutrients to be readily available for absorption. This is essentially what probiotics do. Adding probiotics to a horse feed means adding more beneficial bugs to the existing population in the horse’s gut. Probiotics such as yeast culture work with the naturally occurring bug population to enhance the digestive process, further breaking down complex protein and fiber fractions in the gut and making them more available for absorption into the blood stream.
As a probiotic, yeast culture has also been shown to balance and stabilize the digestive microbial ecosystem in the cecum of the horse and to help prevent the colonization of bad bacteria in the gut. A stable microbial ecosystem is beneficial to the horse beyond improvements in digestive and absorption efficiency, though. It also reduces the risk of digestive upset -- such as gas colic -- that a horse might experience with changes in feed or hay, or while under stress from transportation, shows, and changes in weather.
Prebiotics
Prebiotics can be thought of as an energy jolt for the gut bugs. Prebiotics are a rich nutrient source for the gut bugs (e.g., lactobacilli, bifidobacterial) which stimulates their growth and activity, making them more effective at their job. Research has shown that prebiotics help stabilize the population of gut bugs even through sudden changes in the diet, which helps to reduce incidents of digestive upset. For performance horses who require energy-dense diets that include higher levels of starches and sugars, prebiotics can help reduce the incidence of digestive disorders and support optimal performance. Prebiotics such as inulin and oligofructose are selectively fermented by the gut bugs, stimulating their growth and activity, which benefits the horse by enhancing the absorption and retention of certain minerals -- which in turn supports the immune system, skeletal tissue, and more.
In summary, pre- and probiotics work with the naturally occurring gut bugs to support optimal gut health, aid in the digestion process, as well as provide a buffer against negative bacteria. And because the population of bugs in the gut is sensitive to changes in the intestinal environment brought on by stress, illness, or ingestion of undesirable materials, adding pre- and probiotics to a horse's diet can reduce the likelihood of digestive upset and diarrhea and improve quality of life regardless of your horse's life stage or activity level.
If you need help selecting a feed ration with adequate pre- or probiotics, talk with one of us the next time you stop by. We'll be happy to point you in the right direction!
NOTE: This post is adapted (with permission) from content proudly brought to you by our partners at Nutrena and Cargill Animal Nutrition. The original article appears here.