How Nutrigenomics Impacts Equine Health – A Case Study of Vitamin E.

This study explores the relationship between a horse’s diet, specifically vitamin E intake, and its genetic responses. It sheds light on the concept of nutrigenomics, which is the study of how dietary nutrients affect one’s genetics, and it explores the idea of personalized nutrition, where diet advice is tailored to an individual’s genetic makeup.

Nutrigenomics and Its Importance

• The paper focuses on the field of nutrigenomics, an area of study that examines the interaction between nutrients and genes in humans and animals particularly. The primary objective is to understand how various diseases are influenced by one’s diet, and genetic composition.
• Examples from human medicine include lactose intolerance, hypercholesteremia, and caffeine sensitivity, which are all influenced by individual genetic variants.
• Similarly, in horses, diseases such as Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP) and Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy Type 1 (PSSM1) are managed through a careful and tailored diet based on the horse’s genetic makeup.

The Relationship Between Vitamin E and Equine Health

• One key aspect of this research is the close study of the relationship between vitamin E intake and response in horses. Vitamin E intake has raised considerable interest due to the wide range of responses it elicits in different horses.
• Some horses record very high serum vitamin E concentrations even with minimal intake while others need a high dosage of supplementation to maintain a normal range. This shows there is a variety in the efficiency of vitamin E absorption, and such variety is believed to be influenced by an individual’s genes.

The Impact of Genetic Variation

• Whilst diet plays a significant role in the absorption of vitamin E in horses, this study suggests that genetic variations are also involved, despite the fact that these variations have not been extensively investigated in previous studies.
• The research encourages future investigations in this domain as it has identified over 200 genetic variants in and surrounding vitamin E candidate genes in horses. This could pave the way towards a more comprehensive genetic profiling of vitamin E response in horses.

Implications for Personalized Nutrition

• This study provides valuable insights into personalized nutrition, a practice that tailors nutritional advice based on an individual’s genetic makeup. This could be a useful preventive or management tool for equine diseases linked to nutrition.
• Understanding the interaction between vitamin E and specific genetic variants in horses could greatly improve how individual horses are fed for optimal health and performance.