Assessment of the minimum protein requirement of adult ponies.

This research study was aimed at determining the minimum protein requirements for adult ponies using nitrogen-balance trials. The findings suggested that the dietary protein minimum for these animals is 1.7 grams of digestible crude protein per kilogram of body weight raised to the power of 0.75 per day.

Methodology of the Study

• The research used literature data from previous nitrogen-balance trials conducted on adult ponies. Nitrogen balance refers to the difference between the intake and output of nitrogen in an organism, used to measure the protein requirement levels.
• In addition to the use of existing data, new measurements were also taken on three adult ponies that were fed low and high protein diets based on a cross-over design. This refers to a type of experimental setup where the subjects receive alternative treatments over different periods, thereby acting as their own controls.

Study Findings

• While on a low protein diet, which provided only 1.1 grams of digestible crude protein (DCP) for each kilogram of body weight raised to the power of 0.75 each day, the plasma albumin and total protein concentrations in the ponies decreased insignificantly by about 6%.
• Nonetheless, the group’s mean nitrogen balance was negative, indicating that nitrogen output was higher than intake. This suggested that the low protein diet was insufficient for the ponies.
• Combining data from the present study and six other studies, the researchers calculated the total endogenous fecal and urinary nitrogen losses to be about 166mg for every kilogram of bodyweight raised to the power of 0.75 each day.

Conclusions and Recommendations

• Based on these results, the researchers estimated a minimum protein requirement of 1.7g DCP/kg raised to the power of 0.75 per day in ponies.
• However, they acknowledged that this estimated value has a low precision and recommended that this aspect should be considered when setting the protein allowance for adult ponies.