Parâmetros fisiológicos de equinos submetidos a exercício moderado, alimentados com grão de aveia branca

Abstract

Feeding horses must be based in knowledge about digestive and exercise physiology aiming to enhance performance. Oat grain may be an alternative that can be added to the diet of these animals, allowing the reduction of feed supplied. In order to evaluate performance of adult horses fed diets with oat grains and commercial concentrate under moderate exercise, an experiment was performed in a crossover 2x4 experimental design with 2 treatments, 4 periods and 3 replicates (3 horses for each treatment). The experiment was conducted at UNEPE of Equinocultura located in the experimental farm of the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Câmpus Dois Vizinhos, Paraná. The treatments were: (A) oat grain and commercial concentrate, and (B) only commercial concentrate. Supply followed the recommendation of the manufacturer, which was 1kg of concentrate to each 100kg of live weight, oat grain was supplied as a proportion of 60% of the diet with oat grain and 40% of concentrate. The following parameters were measured during evaluation: superficial temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate, in 4 times: T0 – at rest; T1 – after 5 minutes warm up at pace and trot; T2 – after 10 minutes of exercise at gallop and; T3 – after 15 minutes of recovery from the exercise. Data were analyzed with GLIMMIX command from software SAS [marca registrada] using Poisson distribution, evaluating the statistical difference between treatments and considering the effects of period, animals and days (Saturday and Sunday). No difference was observed between treatments, but there was a period effect on heart rate, also there was day effect for respiratory rate. Oat grain can be used for horses in moderated exercise without compromising their performance.