Topic:Mare's Milk
Mare's milk is the natural lactation product of female horses and serves as the primary source of nutrition for foals in the early stages of life. It provides essential nutrients, including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, necessary for the growth and development of young horses. The composition of mare's milk can vary based on factors such as the mare's diet, health, and stage of lactation. Researchers study mare's milk to understand its nutritional profile, its role in foal development, and its potential applications in equine nutrition and management. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the composition, benefits, and variations of mare's milk in equine science.
Ultrasonic echography in the mare. Ultrasonic echography in the mare allows pregnancy diagnosis as early as Day 14 after ovulation. In the 1980 and 1981 breeding seasons, a total of 7438 examinations of 4688 mares were performed on several farms with the same apparatus. The accuracy of positive pregnancy diagnosis was estimated to be greater than 95% and of non-pregnancy diagnosis greater than 84%. When abnormal pictures of vesicles are found, it has to be decided whether it is a conceptus or a cystic structure. Most small vesicles do not develop, whereas large ones, deformed shapes, presence of some echoes, or a division insid...
Vitamin A profiles of equine serum and milk. Serum and milk samples from mares and serum samples from their foals were taken at parturition and on d 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 21 postpartum. The samples were assayed for retinyl (r.) palmitate, r. acetate and retinol by high performance liquid chromatography. Peak vitamin A activity in milk occurred 1 d postpartum and preceded by 3 d the maximum vitamin A activity in foal serum and the lowest vitamin A activity in the mare serum. Mare serum contained approximately a 65:35 ratio of retinol:r. palmitate and less than 1% r. acetate. Retinyl palmitate was the predominant form of vitamin A in milk unt...
Seasonal and individual effects on ovarian and endocrine responses of mares to a synchronization treatment with progestagen-impregnated vaginal sponges. The 8 saddle-type mares were treated with progestagen-impregnated vaginal sponges for 8 days and prostaglandin on the day of sponge removal. The treatment was given at random days of the cycle in April, May, July and September. Sponge insertion induced a sharp decrease in LH levels; at sponge removal, there was an immediate increase in LH and a large FSH rebound. Ovulation was synchronized 11 +/- 2 . 8 days (s.d.) after the end of treatment. In April the interval from sponge removal to ovulation was longer (14 days compared with 10 . 1, 10 . 7 and 10 . 2 days), the basal and peak LH levels low...
[Nature of the vitamin composition of mare’s milk and koumiss depending on the time of year]. It was shown that the content of vitamins E, C, thiamine, riboflavin and niacin in mare's milk and kumyss varies depending on the season. The highest level of vitamins E, C and niacin was noted in May-June. The technological processing of mare's milk leads to the decreased content of vitamin C and niacin. Mare's milk and kumyss were found to contain dehydroascorbic acid in a considerable amount, especially in summer.
Vaginal pH during estrus in mares. Vaginal hydrogen ion concentration of Saddlebred mares was measured throughout the behavioral estrous period. The mean pH on the day of ovulation was significantly (P = <.01) lower than on all other tested days of estrus. Follicular development and vaginal pH values in pony mares at time of slaughter were highly correlated. A significant decrease in vaginal pH values, determined through a series of carefully monitored measurements during estrus, was found to be characteristic and indicative of ovulation.
Comparison of milk and blood plasma progesterone concentrations in cycling and pregnant mares. Progesterone concentrations were measured in milk and blood plasma for 15 mares throughout a normal estrous cycle and early pregnancy to determine the feasibility of utilizing progesterone in milk as an indicator of pregnancy. Samples were obtained daily from foaling until diagnosis of pregnancy by rectal examination at 30 to 35 days of gestation. Progesterone in milk and blood plasma was quantified by radioimmunoassay. Mean progesterone concentrations (+/- SE) in plasma from foaling to foal heat and during estrus, luteal phase and pregnancy were .51 +/- .09 ng/ml, .53 +/- .08 ng/ml, 3.88 +/- ...
[Estimation of milk production in the nursing mare by labeling the body water of the foal]. Female milk production was related to offspring water turnover, estimated by a tracer method (fig. 1). After deuterium oxide was injected into the blood of the offspring, we measured the decrease of its concentration in time. Milk intake was calculated by equations taking into account the weight gain of the offspring. The reliability of this method was checked in 28 bottle-fed lambs with known milk intake; the correlation between the actual intakes and our estimates was 0.98 with an error means of 5.6 p. 100. The error on the mean of 28 lambs was 0.5 p. 100 (table 1). The milk production of 6 ...
Torsion of the uterus–a cause of colic in the mare. A case of uterine torsion in a mare with colic is described in which an early diagnosis was made and the torsion successfully reduced through a standing laparotomy with survival of both the mare and the foal. This case is used to stress the importance of thorough examination of all pregnant mares with colic in order to differentiate uterine torsion from other causes of abdominal pain, thereby avoiding delay in surgical correction and reducing the risk of fetal and/or maternal death. The advantages of the standing laparotomy are presented in support of this method of treatment of torsion of the...
Immunochemical studies on beta-lactoglobulins. precipitin reactions of sow’s and mare’s mammary secretions against anti – bovine beta – lactoglobulin antiserum. By double diffusion in agarose gel, in well defined experimental conditions, cross reactions were observed between porcine beta-lactoglobulins and anti-bovine beta-lactoglobulin antisera. The immunological reactivity between these beta-lactoglobulins from a monogastric and the ruminant anti beta-lactoglobulin antiserum thus implies a certain degree of similarity between the monomeric beta-lactoglobulins examined and the dimeric of the ruminants. With the same antisera it also proved possible to demonstrate the presence of beta-lactoglobulins in the mammary secretions of another monogastric, na...
Interaction of oestradiol and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone on LH release in the mare. Acyclic mare given oestradiol for 3 days to simulate the preovulatory plasma oestradiol surge showed a non-significant 37% decrease in plasma LH during treatment. When GnRH analogue injections were given with oestradiol on Days 1--3, oestradiol had no effect on each GnRH-induced LH increase, but LH increases were more prolonged following subsequent GnRH injections on Days 4--7 when oestradiol was no longer being given. A much greater prolongation of LH release occurred when the course of GnRH injections was commenced after oestradiol treatment ceased; the LH response was almost identical to th...
Sources of variation in response intervals after prostaglandin treatment in mares with functional corpora lutea. Sixty-two non-cycling mares were classified according to the size of largest follicles at the time of treatment with Prostalene, an analogue of prostaglandin (PG) F-2 alpha. Although oestrus occurred in only 77.4% of mares, 98.4% ovulated at an average of 6.8 days after treatment. Greatest variance of interval to ovulation was observed in mares having follicles greater than or equal to 40 mm at the time of treatment. This was due to regression of large follicles about one-third of the time and later ovulation of a succeeding follicle. This resulted also in greatest uncertainty of prediction of...
Influence of ovaries and photoperiod on reproductive function in the mare. A 16 h daily photoperiod hastened the onset of the ovulatory season (first ovulation); gonadotrophin and follicular changes prior to the onset were similar in intact light-treated and control mares. A preovulatory decline in FSH concentrations before the onset of the ovulatory season preceded the decrease in number of follicles (15--25 mm) and the rise in LH concentrations which was temporally associated with the growth of an ovulatory follicle. Seasonal changes of FSH and LH concentrations were found in ovariectomized mares and were influenced by photoperiod. During the anovulatory season, th...
Monitoring of plasma and milk progesterone for evaluation of postpartum estrous cycles and early pregnancy in mares. Plasma and milk progesterone concentrations in 13 mares were determined 3 times a week for 5 months, beginning at parturition. The estrous cycle was divided into 2 phases. Estrus was considered to occur when the plasma progesterone concentration was less than 1 ng/ml, with diestrus occurring when plasma progesterone content was greater than or equal to 1 ng/ml. Based on this classification, the period of estrus averaged 8.9 days, diestrus averaged 13.9 days, and the estrous cycle averaged 22.8 days. During estrus, the progesterone concentration in plasma averaged 0.4 ng/ml and in milk averaged...
Studies on the equine placenta. III. Ultrastructure of the uterine glands and the overlying trophoblast. Ultrastructural studies of the uterine glands at intervals during pregnancy in the mare show that secretory activity continues after formation of the placental exchange units. The nature of the glandular secretion appeared initially to be proteinaceous, but cellular debris was also present during the last third of gestation. These secretions were absorbed by the trophoblast overlying the mouths of the glands. The fate secretions and their significance for the fetus and placenta are unknown.
[Strongyloides westeri Ihle, 1917 (Nematoda: Strongyloididae). I. Parasitological features of natural infection (author’s transl)]. Patent S. westeri infection is particularly common in unweaned foals (61.2 per cent). It is much less common in foals which have been weaned (15.4 per cent). Examination of the faeces of ten artificially reared foals (free from worms) did not supply any evidence of possible prenatal (intra-uterine) helminth infection. In one Shetland pony mare, larvae of S. westeri were found to be present in the milk on the tenth, twenty-fourth and thirty-second day after parturition. Larvae were not detected in the milk of the other mares but all foals showed patent S. westeri infection within from thirteen ...
Practical methods of determining serum immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G concentrations in foals. Serum concentrations of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG) can be determined in the horse with a satisfactory degree of accuracy, using commercially available reagents. Selected lots of anti-human IgM can be used in precipitation tests to detect and quantitate equine IgM. Commercially available anti-equine IgG tended to overestimate the amount of IgG in single radial immunodiffusion tests. Even with these limitations, commercial reagents can be used to differentiate immunodeficiency disorders of foals, including combined immunodeficiency and failure of passive transfer of colost...
Heterogeneity in whey proteins of mare’s milk. The possible existence of multiple forms in the whey proteins of mare's milk was investigated. When individual milk samples from over 300 animals of various breeds were examined, four forms of an undescribed whey protein could be observed. Based on chemical properties and electrophoretic behavior, this protein has been identified tentatively as Whey1 (Wh1). A single case of heterogeneity in mare's alpha-lactalbumin also was observed. Previously described variation in beta-lactoglobulin could not be confirmed. The results of this study provide further evidence of the widespread, perhaps univers...
Fetal electrocardiography in the mare as a practical aid to diagnosing singleton and twin pregnancy. Fetal electrocardiography (FECG) in the mare has been investigated by several workers (Holmes and Darke 1968, Kanagawa and others 1967). This short paper seeks to evaluate previous work, present new findings, and provide a practical technique enabling veterinary surgeons to diagnose singleton and twin pregnancies in the latter part of pregnancy.