Effect of Dietary Supplementation of Linseed oil on Palatability and Nutrient Utilization in Marwari Horses

The present study was aimed to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of linseed oil on palatability and nutrient utilization in Marwari horses. The feeding trial was conducted at ICAR-National Research Centre on Equine, Equine Production Centre, Bikaner for 60 days. Eight Marwari horses divided randomly into 2 treatment groups of four horses each were adapted to consume experimental diets consisted of ground nut straw as a sole source of roughage in both the groups and concentrate mixture with no linseed oil (Low Fat Concentrate) and with 8% linseed oil/kg (High Fat Concentrate) in T1 and T2 groups, respectively. Effect of linseed oil on palatability, feed consumption i.e. dry matter and organic matter intake in terms of kg/d, kg/100kg and g/kgW0.75, periodical live body weight, digestibility and on practical nutritional worth of diet were recorded. Dry matter and organic matter intake were significantly lower on linseed oil supplementation in terms of kg/d whereas, the dry matter and organic matter intake in terms of kg/100kg BW and g/kgW0.75 demonstrated significantly lower values for horses supplemented with linseed oil only during IV fortnight interval. The inclusion of linseed oil in the concentrate mixture had no adverse effect on the palatability of diet; in fact, it offered a good acceptability by the horses. Regarding body weight gain, the differences were observed to be non-significant. Linseed oil significantly (P<0.01) increased the apparent digestibility of dry matter (64.13 vs 60.31%), ether extract (79.72 vs 62.47%) and neutral detergent fiber (54.56 vs 48.88%) of the diet. In addition to this, linseed oil tended to significantly increase the TDN (670.83 vs 626.36 g) and ME (2.42 vs 2.26 Mcal) content of diet, however, a non-significant effect on DCP content of diet was observed. It can be concluded from the study that dietary supplementation of linseed oil at the rate of 8% in the concentrate mixture of horses is an easy and safe way to increase energy density of diet and at such inclusion rate; no negative effect on digestibility and feed intake was observed.