Cargando…

Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot

Barefoot racing is a common practice within the harness racing industry, but not all horses have hooves of sufficient quality to race sustainably without shoes. There is currently no objective approach available to assess whether a horse’s hooves are suitable for barefoot racing, raising animal welf...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor, Jansson, Anna, Pökelmann, Mette, Pickova, Jana, Ringmark, Sara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10601914/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37814393
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad346
_version_ 1785126290211209216
author Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor
Jansson, Anna
Pökelmann, Mette
Pickova, Jana
Ringmark, Sara
author_facet Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor
Jansson, Anna
Pökelmann, Mette
Pickova, Jana
Ringmark, Sara
author_sort Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor
collection PubMed
description Barefoot racing is a common practice within the harness racing industry, but not all horses have hooves of sufficient quality to race sustainably without shoes. There is currently no objective approach available to assess whether a horse’s hooves are suitable for barefoot racing, raising animal welfare issues if trainers misjudge the functional qualities of hooves. This study compared chemical composition of the hoof wall and fatty acid (FA) composition of the digital cushion in a group of horses that had raced barefoot often (RB) and a group of horses that could not race barefoot and therefore raced with shoes (RS). Trimmings from the hind hoof wall were collected from the lateral quarters in one sub-cohort postmortem and in another sub-cohort of live horses and analyzed for macro- and microelements, nitrogen, dry matter (DM), and total and free amino acid content. For the postmortem horses, samples of the digital cushion were also collected and analyzed for total and free FAs. RB horses had lower concentrations of copper in the hoof wall (17.5 ± 3.9 vs. 32.8 ± 4.7 mg/kg DM, P = 0.02) than RS horses. RB horses also tended (P < 0.1) to have higher concentrations of nitrogen (164.2 ± 0.2 vs. 163.5 ± 0.3 g/kg DM) and sulfur (22.9 ± 0.2 vs. 22.3 ± 0.3 g/kg DM). RB horses had higher hoof wall concentrations of arginine (10.51 ± 0.05 vs. 10.34 ± 0.06 g/100 g DM, P = 0.03) and showed a trend (P < 0.1) for higher hoof wall concentrations of cysteine (6.14 ± 0.10 vs. 5.82 ± 0.13 g/100 g DM) and proline (4.62 ± 0.05 vs. 4.49 ± 0.06 g/100 g DM). There were no differences between the groups for any other element or amino acid analyzed. There were also no differences between the two groups in terms of FA composition of the digital cushion. These results indicate that chemical composition, especially with respect to copper, arginine, nitrogen, sulfur, cysteine, and proline, may be important for the functional qualities of the hoof capsule and the ability to race barefoot without wearing the hoof down. However, chemical analysis of hoof wall tissue and of the fat content of the digital cushion does not seem to be a definitive method for distinguishing horses that have hooves suitable for barefoot racing from those that do not.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10601914
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-106019142023-10-27 Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor Jansson, Anna Pökelmann, Mette Pickova, Jana Ringmark, Sara J Anim Sci Animal Health and Well Being Barefoot racing is a common practice within the harness racing industry, but not all horses have hooves of sufficient quality to race sustainably without shoes. There is currently no objective approach available to assess whether a horse’s hooves are suitable for barefoot racing, raising animal welfare issues if trainers misjudge the functional qualities of hooves. This study compared chemical composition of the hoof wall and fatty acid (FA) composition of the digital cushion in a group of horses that had raced barefoot often (RB) and a group of horses that could not race barefoot and therefore raced with shoes (RS). Trimmings from the hind hoof wall were collected from the lateral quarters in one sub-cohort postmortem and in another sub-cohort of live horses and analyzed for macro- and microelements, nitrogen, dry matter (DM), and total and free amino acid content. For the postmortem horses, samples of the digital cushion were also collected and analyzed for total and free FAs. RB horses had lower concentrations of copper in the hoof wall (17.5 ± 3.9 vs. 32.8 ± 4.7 mg/kg DM, P = 0.02) than RS horses. RB horses also tended (P < 0.1) to have higher concentrations of nitrogen (164.2 ± 0.2 vs. 163.5 ± 0.3 g/kg DM) and sulfur (22.9 ± 0.2 vs. 22.3 ± 0.3 g/kg DM). RB horses had higher hoof wall concentrations of arginine (10.51 ± 0.05 vs. 10.34 ± 0.06 g/100 g DM, P = 0.03) and showed a trend (P < 0.1) for higher hoof wall concentrations of cysteine (6.14 ± 0.10 vs. 5.82 ± 0.13 g/100 g DM) and proline (4.62 ± 0.05 vs. 4.49 ± 0.06 g/100 g DM). There were no differences between the groups for any other element or amino acid analyzed. There were also no differences between the two groups in terms of FA composition of the digital cushion. These results indicate that chemical composition, especially with respect to copper, arginine, nitrogen, sulfur, cysteine, and proline, may be important for the functional qualities of the hoof capsule and the ability to race barefoot without wearing the hoof down. However, chemical analysis of hoof wall tissue and of the fat content of the digital cushion does not seem to be a definitive method for distinguishing horses that have hooves suitable for barefoot racing from those that do not. Oxford University Press 2023-10-10 /pmc/articles/PMC10601914/ /pubmed/37814393 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad346 Text en © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Animal Science. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
spellingShingle Animal Health and Well Being
Spörndly-Nees, Ellinor
Jansson, Anna
Pökelmann, Mette
Pickova, Jana
Ringmark, Sara
Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title_full Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title_fullStr Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title_full_unstemmed Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title_short Chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
title_sort chemical composition of horse hooves with functional qualities for competing barefoot
topic Animal Health and Well Being
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10601914/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37814393
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad346
work_keys_str_mv AT sporndlyneesellinor chemicalcompositionofhorsehooveswithfunctionalqualitiesforcompetingbarefoot
AT janssonanna chemicalcompositionofhorsehooveswithfunctionalqualitiesforcompetingbarefoot
AT pokelmannmette chemicalcompositionofhorsehooveswithfunctionalqualitiesforcompetingbarefoot
AT pickovajana chemicalcompositionofhorsehooveswithfunctionalqualitiesforcompetingbarefoot
AT ringmarksara chemicalcompositionofhorsehooveswithfunctionalqualitiesforcompetingbarefoot