Improving Horses' Diets with AquacidTM

Report by The Royal Agricultural College

Investigation of the buffering action and fermentation activity of AquacidTM when

incubated in vitro with fibre and concentrate diets. Study carried out for Saracen
Horse Feeds Ltd and Celtic Sea Minerals.
Author: Dr Meriel Moore-Colyer
Royal Agricultural College

Summary
The addition of AquacidTM to four different fibre:concentrate diets
in vitro resulted in stimulated hind gut fermentation, indicated by
an increase in lactate production in the first 18 hours of
incubation. There was also an effective buffering capacity as the
pH remained constant during the initial fermentation period
despite the rise in lactate production. The results indicate that
AquacidTM could be a suitable in vivo feed supplement for horses
by increasing hind gut fermentation while buffering any unwanted
excess acid production in the gut.
Fermentation bottle connected via syringe & 3-way valve
to pressure transducer showing reading of 2.6 psi

Introduction
Stomach ulcers and hind gut acidosis are two sub-clinical conditions that adversely affect all categories
of performance horses. It is well known that animals such as race horses, being fed high amounts of
cereals, suffer from stomach ulcers. It is less appreciated, however, that even para-equestrian dressage
horses (80% at the Hartpury International in 2007; Fisher, pers comm.) also suffered from this condition.
Several ant-acid preparations have been released on to the market to combat stomach acidity and while
some have proved effective; others have only a short-term effect and a few hours after feeding the
condition returns.
AquacidTM is a supplement designed to combat gastric ulceration in horses and is produced by Marigot
Ireland Ltd. It has a honeycomb structure that provides a surface area of >10m2 per gram and due to the
slower release of bio-available minerals, calcium, magnesium and silicon, it has a longer buffering action
than limestone flour or sodium bicarbonate.
In this study AquacidTM was added to four fibre:concentrate diets and the buffering capacity, rate and
extent of fermentation were measured using an in vitro Gas Production technique (Theodorou et al.,
1994).

Methods and materials

The manual pressure transducer technique enables kinetic information to be gathered by recording the
amount of gas produced during fermentation in a closed system. The trials used four diets; a
commercially available fibrous feed Releve and a concentrate feed Race Mix (Saracen Horse Feeds Ltd.)
in the following ratios:
100
70:30
30:70
100

Releve
Releve : Race Mix
Releve : Race Mix
Race Mix

1g of each feed was fermented in 125 ml culture bottles with microbial inoculum made from horse
faeces. Ten replicate bottles of each food were prepared, 5 with AquacidTM and 5 without. Four bottles
were fermented for 68 hours; the remaining 6 were removed (two at a time) at three different time points,
6 hours, 12 hours and 18 hours for lactate and pH measurements. The AquacidTM supplement was
subjected to a pre-digestion treatment to mimic fore gut digestion. 0.02g of the pre-treated AquacidTM
was then added to half the bottles making 1.02g of substrate in the feed + bottles and 1g in the feed
only bottles. Thus AquacidTM was added at a rate of 2% of the diet (which was approximately double the
recommended feeding rate, to ensure accurate weighing and to determine if the supplement had any
effect at all). Gas volume and pressure readings were made at 6, 12, 18, 23, 28, 34, 44, 56, 68 hours
post-inoculation using equipment shown in the photograph. The data were analysed using analysis of
variance Genstat 10 (Lawes Agricultural Trust, 2008)

Results
ln the graph, each value represents the mean of two bottles, while the line indicates the profile as
described by the France et al. (1993) model.

ml gas / g substrate

300

Releve
Releve fitted
Releve +
Releve + fitted
70:30
70:30 fitted
70:30 +
70:30 + fitted
30:70
30:70 fitted
30:70 +
30:70 + fitted
Race mix
Eace mix fitted
Race mix +
Race mix + fitted

250
200
150
100
50
0
0

20

40

60

80

Incubation time (hrs)

Cumulative gas production profiles for forage (100%) and forage:concentrate (70:30 and 30:70) and
concentrate (100%) diets when incubated in vitro with equine faecal inoculum with (+) or without
AquacidTM supplement.

Three sets of further tests were carried out on the four diets to measure dry matter loss, lactate
concentrations (Table 1) and pH concentrations (Table 2).
Table 1. Lactate concentrations (mmol/l) from 4 diets when incubated with an equine faecal inoculum for
6, 12 and 18 hours in the presence or absence of AquacidTM
Time

Feed

Treatment

abcd

6 hours

12 hours

18 hours

s.e.d

9.60b

10.24b

7.61a

0.917

100 Releve

70:30

30:70

Race mix

6.38b

9.22b

10.40b

10.59b

No Aquacid

+ Aquacid

8.21a

10.08b

1.059

0.79

Values in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)

The addition of AquacidTM to the feeds significantly increased the production of lactate by 1.87 mmol/l.

Table 2. pH concentrations from 4 diets when incubated with an equine faecal inoculum for 6, 12 and
18 hours in the presence or absence of AquacidTM
Time

Feed

Treatment

abcd

6 hours

12 hours

18 hours

s.e.d

6.772c

6.555b

6.491a

0.0251

100 Releve

70:30

30:70

Race mix

6.693b

6.635b

6.570a

6.527a

No Aquacid

+ Aquacid

6.613

6.599

0.0289

0.205

Values in the same row with different superscripts are significantly different (P<0.05)

Conclusions
The gas production profiles of the fibrous feed Releve and the concentrate feed Race mix reflect the
potential degradability of each feed. The beneficial effect of the AquacidTM seems to be most
pronounced in the first 20 hours of incubation showing that despite stimulated lactate production
indicating enhanced fermentation, the pH did not show a concomitant drop. This indicated that the
AquacidTM was indeed buffering the production of H+ ions during the first 18 hours of fermentation.
Incubation of AquacidTM with solutions designed to mimic fore gut acid hydrolysis did not prevent the
action of the buffering capacity of this supplement. Therefore AquacidTM could be a suitable feed
supplement for increasing hind gut fermentation while buffering excess acid production in horses.

References
France J., Dhanoa, M S, Theodorou, M K, Lister, S J, Davies, D R, and lsac, D (1993) A model to interpret gas accumulation
profiles associated with in vitro degradation of ruminant foods, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 163: 99-111.
Theodorou, M K, Williams, B A, Dhanoa, M S, McAllan, A B and France, J (1994). A simple gas production method using a
pressure transducer to determine the fermentation kinetics of ruminant foods. Animal Food Science and Technology,
48: 1 85-197
Disclaimer
Although great care is taken to ensure that the information in this document is correct, the
Royal Agricultural College cannot be held responsible for the outcome of any actions
taken arising from the information it contains.

RAC Project Report 020

October 2009
Editors John Conway and
Michael St John