Comparative ingestive mastication in domestic horses and cattle: a pilot investigation.
Abstract: It is often assumed that horses chew food more intensively during ingestion than cattle, which - as ruminants - complete part of the mastication during rumination. This has been proposed as a reason for more robust mandibles, larger masseter insertion areas and larger masseter muscles in horses as compared to cattle and other grazing ruminants. In this study, we evaluate results of comparative feeding trials with three horses (338-629 kg) and three cows (404-786 kg), on four different roughages. Ingestion time (s/g dry matter) and chewing intensity (chews/g dry matter) differed among animals within a species, indicating an influence of body mass, and differed significantly between different forages. However, although numerical differences clearly suggest that horses have longer ingestion times and higher chewing intensities on high-fibre roughage than do cattle, this could not be proven in this dataset, most likely because of the small number of individuals sampled. Further studies are required to corroborate the suspected ingestive behaviour difference between equids and ruminants.
© 2010 Blackwell Verlag GmbH.
Publication Date: 2010-07-29 PubMed ID: 20662959DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0396.2010.01030.xGoogle Scholar: Lookup
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- Journal Article
Summary
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This research suggests that horses might chew their food more intensively than cows, but due to the small sample size used in this study, further research is necessary to confirm this behaviour.
Objective and Background
- The objective of the study was to analyze and compare the eating habits, specifically the mastication process, of horses and cows.
- Previous assumptions suggested that horses chew their food more intensively than cows, which are known to carry out part of the mastication during the rumination process.
- This intensive chewing in horses, as previously suspected, would explain their more robust mandibles, larger masseter insertion areas and masseter muscles compared to cows and other grazing ruminants.
Methodology
- The researchers conducted feeding trials with three horses and three cows, all feeding on four different types of roughages.
- The variables evaluated in this trial were the ingestion time, measured in seconds per gram of dry matter, and the chewing intensity, measured in chews per gram of dry matter.
Results
- The results indicated a certain level of variation within both species. This variation suggested that the body mass of an animal could influence both the ingestion time and the chewing intensity.
- The type of forage also significantly affected the ingestion time and chewing intensity.
- Although there was a numerical indication that horses spent more time eating and chewed their food more intensively when consuming high-fibre roughages compared to cows, this could not be definitively proven due to the small sample size used in the study.
Conclusion
- Despite the interesting preliminary findings, the researchers acknowledged that their sample size was too small to provide definitive results.
- Therefore, further studies involving larger numbers of horses and cows are necessary to conclusively determine whether there is a significant difference in the ingestive behaviour between horses (equids) and cows (ruminants).
Cite This Article
APA
Janis CM, Constable EC, Houpt KA, Streich WJ, Clauss M.
(2010).
Comparative ingestive mastication in domestic horses and cattle: a pilot investigation.
J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl), 94(6), e402-e409.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0396.2010.01030.x Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
MeSH Terms
- Animal Feed / analysis
- Animals
- Cattle / anatomy & histology
- Cattle / physiology
- Feeding Behavior / physiology
- Horses / anatomy & histology
- Horses / physiology
- Mandible / anatomy & histology
- Mastication / physiology
- Pilot Projects
- Time Factors
Citations
This article has been cited 5 times.- Sterkenburgh T, Schulz-Kornas E, Nowak M, Staszyk C. A Computerized Simulation of the Occlusal Surface in Equine Cheek Teeth: A Simplified Model.. Front Vet Sci 2021;8:789133.
- Glatter M, Bochnia M, Wensch-Dorendorf M, Greef JM, Zeyner A. Feed Intake Parameters of Horses Fed Soaked or Steamed Hay and Hygienic Quality of Hay Stored following Treatment.. Animals (Basel) 2021 Sep 18;11(9).
- Karme A, Rannikko J, Kallonen A, Clauss M, Fortelius M. Mechanical modelling of tooth wear.. J R Soc Interface 2016 Jul;13(120).
- Ravosa MJ, Scott JE, McAbee KR, Veit AJ, Fling AL. Chewed out: an experimental link between food material properties and repetitive loading of the masticatory apparatus in mammals.. PeerJ 2015;3:e1345.
- Tennant JP, MacLeod N. Snout shape in extant ruminants.. PLoS One 2014;9(11):e112035.
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