Apparent digestibility of broken rice in horses using in vivo and in vitro methods.

The study investigates the digestibility of broken rice in horses by observing feces collection and using in vitro techniques. The evident result is that the addition of broken rice to the horse’s diet enhances the digestibility and confirms the high digestibility of broken rice as a by-product fed to horses.

Objective of the Study

• The focus of this research was to evaluate the apparent digestibility of broken rice in horses’ diets. It employed the utilization of feces collection and the pepsin-cellulase in vitro method.

Methodology

• The in vivo digestibility trial was carried out consecutively with five adult geldings, each averaging a weight of 555.6 kg.
• First, the horses were fed hay exclusively, then their diet was supplemented with broken rice at a forage-to-concentrate ratio of 70/30 (on dry matter (DM) basis).
• For over a 6 day period, feces were collected. This was preceded by a 14-day adaptation period to the diet.
• Alongside the in vivo trial, an in vitro trial was done using the pepsin-cellulase technique on the sampled hay and broken rice.

Determining Digestibility

• The collected data from the in vivo and in vitro trials was used to compute the digestion coefficients for Dry Matter (DM), Organic Matter (OM), Crude Protein (CP), and gross energy in both the exclusive hay and hay plus broken rice diets.
• Further, the apparent digestion coefficients for DM, OM, CP, and gross energy for the broken rice alone were calculated using the differential results between the two diets.

Findings

• The data showed that the addition of broken rice to the horses’ diet increased digestibility across all parameters.
• Notably, broken rice displayed high organic matter digestion coefficients as shown by both the in vivo and in vitro (pepsin-cellulase) methods, with percentages of 92.6% and 87.1%, respectively.
• These results underline the high digestibility of broken rice as a by-product to be included in horse diets.