Abstract:
5B MODIFIED NYLON BAG TECHNIQUE IN EQUINE NUTRITION G.J. TOMES*, G.R. POOLMAN* and R.W. GRAHAM* There is a distinct lack of information on feeds used by the Australian horse industry. Virtually none of the published feed values have been derived in metabolic studies with horses. High COSTS restrict the use of traditional in vivo methods and no reliable in vitro technique is currently available (TworJones, Sriskandarajah and Woog, 1991). Nylon bag techniques involving surgery and fistulation are commonly used in nutritional research* The authors have modified a technique used by Dr A. Jorgensen at the Danish National Institute of Science to study digestibility in pigs for use in horses. This modification involves an ord (non illvasive) administration of small samples encased in fine nylon mesh with the aid of a standard `ball gun', traditionally used in medication of large animals. Thus large numbers of samples (30 plus per horse) cm be handled in one run. Some results achieved with isoprotein diets and various digestibility techniques are presented in Tables 1 and 2. TABLE 1 Composition of experimental diets TABLE 2 Comparison of in vivo and in vitro digestibility techniques Nearly 80% (37) of original samples were recovcrcd undamaged in faeces within 72 hours of ingestion. Results were quite consistent and confirm limited capability for utilisation of fibre by equines. TREVOR-JONES, P.J., SRISKANDARAJAH, N. & WOOG, R.A. (1991) Proc. Nutr. SOC. Aust. 1654 * School of Agriculture, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 588 Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678