INVITRO FERMENTATION OF FECES FROM NORMAL AND CHRONICALLY DIARRHEAL HORSES

  • 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 41  (4) , 564-567
Abstract
Feces from 13 healthy horses and 8 horses with chronic diarrhea were subjected to an in vitro fermentation procedure that was developed for rumen fluid. Fermentations were conducted over 6 h in a closed system, with and without an essential amino acid (EAA) mixture being added to the basic starch-buffer medium. The addition of EAA caused no significant difference in results of fermentation of feces from healthy horses. For diarrheic animals, there was a significant (P < 0.01) increase in gas and total volatile fatty acids production whether EAA were present or not, and .alpha.-amino nitrogen was utilized in significantly (P < 0.01) greater amounts only if EAA was present. Fermentations were repeated on feces from 5 of the 8 diarrheal horses after they were treated with oral iodochlorhydroxyquin for 1 wk, and showed desirable clinical response. A significant difference was not shown between pre- and posttreatment fermentations, except for decreased butyrate production. Chronic equine diarrhea evidently is a colonic disease. Colonic maldigestion may, in part, be responsible for excess fecal H2O.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: