The effect of feeding chopped roughage...
The effect of feeding chopped roughage with starch on the insulinaemic and glcaemic response in the equine.
It is common practice to recommend the addition of roughage to a meal of concentrates to increase chews and subsequent saliva production to offset problems such as rapid consumption and gastric ulcers…
However, addition of fibre to starch meals in humans has been shown to lower blood glucose levels (the glycaemic response). The glycaemic response is a measure of how well and how quickly carbohydrates are digested in the small intestine. The effect of mixed diets on the glycaemic response in equines is unclear.
Some researchers (Stull and Rodiek, 1998; Harris et al, 2005) did not report any effect of adding fibre to a starch meal on carbohydrate digestion, whereas Radicke at al (1974) and Pagan and Harris (1999) found that adding fibre to a starch meal significantly reduced starch digestion (glycaemic response). Some of the results might have been confounded by differences in dry matter intake and quantities of starch. This trial therefore investigated the effect of adding standardised quantities of fibre to specified quantities of starch so that the only variable was the order of feeding.
