FREE SHIPPING over $40
OVER 10000 FIVE-STAR REVIEWS
5% OFF ALL SUBSCRIPTIONS
100% HAPPINESS GUARANTEE
Analyze Diet
0
Journal of veterinary internal medicine2022; 37(1); 302-314; doi: 10.1111/jvim.16621

Carbohydrate pellets to assess insulin dysregulation in horses.

Abstract: A glycemic challenge test is used for the diagnosis of insulin dysregulation (ID) in horses and ponies. Different forms of the test exist where the administrative route and dose of glucose vary, which makes interpretation of results challenging. Objective: To evaluate the palatability of, and blood glucose and insulin responses to, carbohydrate pellets fed as an oral glucose test (OGT), and to establish the diagnostic threshold for ID when using the pellets. Methods: University and privately-owned horses and ponies (n = 157) comprised of 31 breeds and both sexes. Methods: Multicenter cohort study. A custom-produced glycemic pellet was offered for free intake at 0.5 g/kg BW soluble carbohydrate and serum insulin and blood glucose concentrations measured before and after (60, 120, and 180 minutes) the pellets were offered. Pellet acceptance and intake time (those that finished within 10 minutes) were determined to assess palatability. Results: The pellets were palatable to 132/157 animals, and ponies found the pellets more (P = .004) palatable than horses. The median intake time (4 [3-6] minutes) was positively correlated with acceptance grade (r = .51; P < .0001). Consumption of the pellets elicited peak blood glucose (6.6 [5.8-7.8] mmol/L) and serum insulin (40.5 [19-99.8] μIU/mL) responses at 120 minutes. At 120 minutes the optimal cut-off was 83 μIU/mL (95% CI: 70-99 μIU/mL) for the IMMULITE 2000XPi assay. Conclusions: The pellets were palatable and a suitable, novel carbohydrate source for the OGT.
© 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica Gmbh. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.
Get Full Text
Publication Date: 2022-12-30 PubMed ID: 36583553PubMed Central: PMC9889680DOI: 10.1111/jvim.16621Google Scholar: Lookup
The Equine Research Bank provides access to a large database of publicly available scientific literature. Inclusion in the Research Bank does not imply endorsement of study methods or findings by Mad Barn.
LinkedInCopy
  • Multicenter Study
  • Journal Article

Summary

This research summary has been generated with artificial intelligence and may contain errors and omissions. Refer to the original study to confirm details provided. Submit correction.

This research article seeks to understand the effectiveness of carbohydrate pellets as an oral glucose test for diagnosing insulin dysregulation in horses. The experiment involved 157 horses and ponies from a variety of breeds, and it involved observing glucose and insulin responses over time after offering the animals the test pellets.

Methodology

  • The study was a multicenter cohort study involving both university and privately-owned horses and ponies from 31 different breeds. The number of animals involved was 157.
  • A custom-produced glycemic pellet was administered as an oral glucose test. This was given for free intake at a dose of 0.5g/kg body weight of soluble carbohydrate.
  • To gauge the results of the test, blood glucose and serum insulin concentrations were measured, before and 60, 120, and 180 minutes after the pellets were consumed. This helped to establish the animals’ reactions and responses to the carbohydrates in the test pellets.
  • Additional secondary assessments included the animals’ acceptance of the pellets and the time it took for them to consume them. This was to assess how palatable the animals found the test pellets and to offer insights into any variance in response to them, such as if ponies were more likely to consume them readily than horses.

Results

  • The glycemic pellets were palatable to the majority of the animals in the test. Of the 157 animals, 132 found the test pellets palatable. In addition, it was observed that ponies found the pellets more palatable than horses did.
  • The median time taken by the animals to consume the pellets was around 4 minutes. There was a positive correlation noted between the intake time and the grade of acceptance of the pellets, with an increase in acceptance corresponding with a decrease in the time taken to consume them.
  • Responses to the pellets, in terms of blood glucose and serum insulin, reached a peak at 120 minutes after consumption. At this point, the optimal cut-off for the concentration of insulin was determined to be 83 μIU/mL, calculated with a confidence interval of 95% (70-99 μIU/mL) using the IMMULITE 2000XPi assay.

Conclusion

  • The study concluded that the carbohydrate pellets used as part of an oral glucose test were suitable and effective for diagnosing insulin dysregulation in horses and ponies. They were also found to be palatable to the majority of animals tested, making them a viable option for this sort of testing.

Cite This Article

APA
de Laat MA, Warnken T, Delarocque J, Reiche DB, Grob AJ, Feige K, Carslake HB, Durham AE, Sillence MN, Thane KE, Frank N, Brojer J, Lindase S, Sonntag J. (2022). Carbohydrate pellets to assess insulin dysregulation in horses. J Vet Intern Med, 37(1), 302-314. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvim.16621

Publication

Journal of veterinary internal medicine
ISSN: 1939-1676
NlmUniqueID: 8708660
Country: United States
Language: English
Volume: 37
Issue: 1
Pages: 302-314

Researcher Affiliations

de Laat, Melody A
  • Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Warnken, Tobias
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, Ingelheim, Germany.
  • Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany.
Delarocque, Julien
  • Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany.
Reiche, Dania B
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, Ingelheim, Germany.
Grob, Anne J
  • Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany.
Feige, Karsten
  • Clinic for Horses, University of Veterinary Medicine, Hannover, Germany.
Carslake, Harry B
  • Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Durham, Andy E
  • Liphook Equine Hospital, Liphook, UK.
Sillence, Martin N
  • Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Thane, Kristen E
  • Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA.
Frank, Nicholas
  • Department of Comparative Pathobiology, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA.
Brojer, Johan
  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Lindase, Sanna
  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Sonntag, Johanna
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, Ingelheim, Germany.

MeSH Terms

  • Female
  • Male
  • Horses
  • Animals
  • Insulin
  • Blood Glucose
  • Glucose Tolerance Test / veterinary
  • Cohort Studies
  • Glucose
  • Horse Diseases / diagnosis

Grant Funding

  • Boehringer Ingelheim

Conflict of Interest Statement

Tobias Warnken, Dania B. Reiche and Johanna Sonntag are employees of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, Germany. During the time of the study Tobias Warnken was employed by the Clinic for Horses at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany. No other authors have a conflict of interest.

References

This article includes 37 references
  1. Durham AE, Frank N, McGowan CM, Menzies-Gow NJ, Roelfsema E, Vervuert I, Feige K, Fey K. ECEIM consensus statement on equine metabolic syndrome.. J Vet Intern Med 2019 Mar;33(2):335-349.
    pmc: PMC6430910pubmed: 30724412doi: 10.1111/jvim.15423google scholar: lookup
  2. Frank N, Tadros EM. Insulin dysregulation.. Equine Vet J 2014 Jan;46(1):103-12.
    pubmed: 24033478doi: 10.1111/evj.12169google scholar: lookup
  3. Karikoski NP, McGowan CM, Singer ER, Asplin KE, Tulamo RM, Patterson-Kane JC. Pathology of Natural Cases of Equine Endocrinopathic Laminitis Associated With Hyperinsulinemia.. Vet Pathol 2015 Sep;52(5):945-56.
    pubmed: 25232034doi: 10.1177/0300985814549212google scholar: lookup
  4. Treiber KH, Kronfeld DS, Hess TM, Byrd BM, Splan RK, Staniar WB. Evaluation of genetic and metabolic predispositions and nutritional risk factors for pasture-associated laminitis in ponies.. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2006 May 15;228(10):1538-45.
    pubmed: 16677122doi: 10.2460/javma.228.10.1538google scholar: lookup
  5. Coleman MC, Belknap JK, Eades SC, Galantino-Homer HL, Hunt RJ, Geor RJ, McCue ME, McIlwraith CW, Moore RM, Peroni JF, Townsend HG, White NA, Cummings KJ, Ivanek-Miojevic R, Cohen ND. Case-control study of risk factors for pasture-and endocrinopathy-associated laminitis in North American horses.. J Am Vet Med Assoc 2018 Aug 15;253(4):470-478.
    pubmed: 30058970doi: 10.2460/javma.253.4.470google scholar: lookup
  6. Bertin FR, de Laat MA. The diagnosis of equine insulin dysregulation.. Equine Vet J 2017 Sep;49(5):570-576.
    pubmed: 28543410doi: 10.1111/evj.12703google scholar: lookup
  7. Jocelyn NA, Harris PA, Menzies-Gow NJ. Effect of varying the dose of corn syrup on the insulin and glucose response to the oral sugar test.. Equine Vet J 2018 Nov;50(6):836-841.
    pubmed: 29504630doi: 10.1111/evj.12826google scholar: lookup
  8. Schuver A, Frank N, Chameroy KA, Elliott SB. Assessment of insulin and glucose dynamics by using an oral sugar test in horses.. J Equine Vet 2014;34:465‐470.
  9. Warnken T, Delarocque J, Schumacher S, Huber K, Feige K. Retrospective analysis of insulin responses to standard dosed oral glucose tests (OGTs) via naso-gastric tubing towards definition of an objective cut-off value.. Acta Vet Scand 2018 Jan 19;60(1):4.
    pmc: PMC5775575pubmed: 29351765doi: 10.1186/s13028-018-0358-8google scholar: lookup
  10. de Laat MA, Sillence MN. The repeatability of an oral glucose test in ponies.. Equine Vet J 2017 Mar;49(2):238-243.
    pubmed: 27038020doi: 10.1111/evj.12579google scholar: lookup
  11. Warnken T, Huber K, Feige K. Comparison of three different methods for the quantification of equine insulin.. BMC Vet Res 2016 Sep 9;12(1):196.
    pmc: PMC5016943pubmed: 27613127doi: 10.1186/s12917-016-0828-zgoogle scholar: lookup
  12. Henneke DR, Potter GD, Kreider JL, Yeates BF. Relationship between condition score, physical measurements and body fat percentage in mares.. Equine Vet J 1983 Oct;15(4):371-2.
    pubmed: 6641685doi: 10.1111/j.2042-3306.1983.tb01826.xgoogle scholar: lookup
  13. Carter RA, Geor RJ, Burton Staniar W, Cubitt TA, Harris PA. Apparent adiposity assessed by standardised scoring systems and morphometric measurements in horses and ponies.. Vet J 2009 Feb;179(2):204-10.
    pubmed: 18440844doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2008.02.029google scholar: lookup
  14. Hackett ES, McCue PM. Evaluation of a veterinary glucometer for use in horses.. J Vet Intern Med 2010 May-Jun;24(3):617-21.
    pubmed: 20337908doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1676.2010.0481.xgoogle scholar: lookup
  15. Copas VE, Durham AE. Circannual variation in plasma adrenocorticotropic hormone concentrations in the UK in normal horses and ponies, and those with pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction.. Equine Vet J 2012 Jul;44(4):440-3.
    pubmed: 21848531doi: 10.1111/j.2042-3306.2011.00444.xgoogle scholar: lookup
  16. Öberg J, Bröjer J, Wattle O, Lilliehöök I. Evaluation of an equine‐optimized enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay for serum insulin measurement and stability study of equine serum insulin.. Comp Clin Pathol 2012;21:1291‐1300.
  17. Cohen J. A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales.. Educ Psychol Meas 1960;20:37‐46.
  18. Carstensen B, Gurrin L, Ekstrøm C. MethComp: Functions for Analysis of Agreement in Method Comparison Studies.. R Package Version 122; 2013.
  19. Chiu D, Talhouk A. diceR: Diverse Cluster Ensemble in R.. 1.1.0 edR Package; 2021.
  20. Charrad M, Ghazzali N, Boiteau V. NbClust: Determining the Best Number of Clusters in a Data Set.. 3.0 edR Package; 2015.
  21. Thiele C. cutpointr: Determine and Evaluate Optimal Cutpoints in Binary Classification Tasks .. 1.1.1 edR Package; 2021.
  22. Jackson C. Multi‐State Modelling with R: The msm Package. ; 2007.
  23. Lee L. NADA: Nondetects and Data Analysis for Environmental Data.. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2020.
  24. Hastie T, Tibshirani R, Narasimhan B. Imputation for Microarray Data.. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2022.
  25. Fitzgerald DM, Anderson ST, Sillence MN, de Laat MA. The cresty neck score is an independent predictor of insulin dysregulation in ponies.. PLoS One 2019;14(7):e0220203.
    pmc: PMC6655749pubmed: 31339945doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220203google scholar: lookup
  26. Warnken T, Schaub C, Delarocque J. Evaluation of Glycemic Carbohydrate Formulations for Assessment of Insulin Dysregulation in Equines.. Phoenix Arizona: American College of Veterinary Medicine Forum; 2019.
  27. Smith S, Harris PA, Menzies-Gow NJ. Comparison of the in-feed glucose test and the oral sugar test.. Equine Vet J 2016 Mar;48(2):224-7.
    pubmed: 25582152doi: 10.1111/evj.12413google scholar: lookup
  28. Knowles EJ, Harris PA, Elliott J, Menzies-Gow NJ. Use of the oral sugar test in ponies when performed with or without prior fasting.. Equine Vet J 2017 Jul;49(4):519-524.
    pubmed: 27381044doi: 10.1111/evj.12607google scholar: lookup
  29. Van den Berg M, Giagos V, Lee C. The influence of odour, taste and nutrients on feeding behaviour and food preferences in horses.. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2016;184:41‐50.
  30. Jankunis ES, Whishaw IQ. Sucrose Bobs and Quinine Gapes: horse (Equus caballus) responses to taste support phylogenetic similarity in taste reactivity.. Behav Brain Res 2013 Nov 1;256:284-90.
    pubmed: 23973764doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2013.08.024google scholar: lookup
  31. Randall RP, Schurg WA, Church DC. Response of horses to sweet, salty, sour and bitter solutions.. J Anim Sci 1978 Jul;47(1):51-5.
    pubmed: 711642doi: 10.2527/jas1978.47151xgoogle scholar: lookup
  32. Hawkes J, Hedges M, Daniluk P, Hintz HF, Schryver HF. Feed preferences of ponies.. Equine Vet J 1985 Jan;17(1):20-2.
    pubmed: 3979369doi: 10.1111/j.2042-3306.1985.tb02031.xgoogle scholar: lookup
  33. Daly K, Al-Rammahi M, Arora DK, Moran AW, Proudman CJ, Ninomiya Y, Shirazi-Beechey SP. Expression of sweet receptor components in equine small intestine: relevance to intestinal glucose transport.. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2012 Jul 15;303(2):R199-208.
    pubmed: 22552794doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00031.2012google scholar: lookup
  34. Schaffer A, Caicoya AL, Colell M, Holland R, von Fersen L, Widdig A, Amici F. Neophobia in 10 ungulate species-a comparative approach.. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2021;75(7):102.
    pmc: PMC8219784pubmed: 34177046doi: 10.1007/s00265-021-03041-0google scholar: lookup
  35. Jacob SI, Geor RJ, Weber PSD, Harris PA, McCue ME. Effect of age and dietary carbohydrate profiles on glucose and insulin dynamics in horses.. Equine Vet J 2018 Mar;50(2):249-254.
    pubmed: 28833406doi: 10.1111/evj.12745google scholar: lookup
  36. Banse HE, McFarlane D. Comparison of three methods for evaluation of equine insulin regulation in horses of varied body condition score.. J Equine Vet 2014;34:742‐748.
  37. McFarlane D. Diagnostic Testing for Equine Endocrine Diseases: Confirmation Versus Confusion.. Vet Clin North Am Equine Pract 2019 Aug;35(2):327-338.
    pubmed: 31076223doi: 10.1016/j.cveq.2019.03.005google scholar: lookup

Citations

This article has been cited 4 times.
  1. Delarocque J, Feige K, Carslake HB, Durham AE, Fey K, Warnken T. Development of a Web App to Convert Blood Insulin Concentrations among Various Immunoassays Used in Horses. Animals (Basel) 2023 Aug 24;13(17).
    doi: 10.3390/ani13172704pubmed: 37684968google scholar: lookup
  2. Espinosa-López EM, Ortiz-Guisado B, Diez de Castro E, Durham A, Aguilera-Tejero E, Gómez-Baena G. Quantitative proteomics unveils potential plasma biomarkers and provides insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying equine metabolic syndrome. BMC Vet Res 2025 Jul 2;21(1):425.
    doi: 10.1186/s12917-025-04879-6pubmed: 40604814google scholar: lookup
  3. Nolen-Walston RD, Kulp JC, Stefanovski D, van Eps AW. Evaluation of an Automated Fluorescence Enzyme Immunoassay for Quantification of Equine Insulin and Comparison to Five Other Immunoassays. J Vet Intern Med 2025 Mar-Apr;39(2):e70038.
    doi: 10.1111/jvim.70038pubmed: 40048611google scholar: lookup
  4. Thane K, Sonntag J, Warnken T, Reiche D, Uricchio C, Frank N. Comparison of a customized glycemic pellets challenge with the oral sugar test to measure glycemic and insulinemic responses in horses. J Vet Intern Med 2024 Nov-Dec;38(6):3281-3287.
    doi: 10.1111/jvim.17191pubmed: 39463160google scholar: lookup
Subscribe to our newsletter
Join 99,780 horse owners like you who receive our email updates on horse health and nutrition.