Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation provides an additional benefit to a low-dust diet in the management of horses with chronic lower airway inflammatory disease.

This research suggests that supplementing horses’ diets with Omega-3 fatty acid could help manage chronic lower airway inflammatory diseases. The study found that, when combined with a low-dust diet, horses suffering from chronic respiratory diseases experienced significant improvements in their symptoms.

Research Objective

The objective of this study was to evaluate the complementarity of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) supplementation in the management of horses suffering from recurrent airway obstruction (RAO) and inflammatory airway disease (IAD). The researchers hypothesized that integrating a specific amount of PUFA in their daily meals could significantly improve clinical signs, lung functions, and airway inflammation.

Methodology

• The study involved eight research horses and 35 client-owned horses. Initially, a pilot study was carried out to determine the right amount of PUFA that could alter plasma PUFA composition.
• Following that, a randomized controlled test was conducted, in which horses were kept on a diet of complete pellets with zero hay. These horses were segregated into three groups, each subject to a different treatment for two months: 30g or 60g of the supplement, or 30g of a placebo.
• The study monitored several parameters such as clinical signs, lung function, plasma PUFA composition, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) cytology to measure the impact of the treatments.

Results

• The study found that PUFA supplementation led to an increase in plasma docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) levels, which hit their peak after four weeks.
• While all horses on the clinical trial displayed some level of improvement, the group on PUFA supplements showed more substantial progress in terms of reduced coughing (improvement by 60%), improved lung function (reduction in respiratory effort by 48%), and decreased BALF neutrophils (from 23% to 9%).
• The placebo group also showed improvement; however, the effect wasn’t as pronounced, with cough score only improved by 33%, respiratory effort decreased by 27%, and BALF neutrophils increasing rather than decreasing (from 11% to 17%).

Conclusions

The research concluded that giving horses with RAO and IAD a PUFA supplement that contains 1.5-3g DHA per day for two months could add a significant benefit to a low-dust diet. However, further research may be needed to understand the optimal dosage and other potential benefits or side-effects of such dietary supplements in horses.