Cereal starch, protein, and fatty acid pre-caecal disappearance is affected by both feed technological treatment and efficiency of the chewing action in horses

Correlations were found between nylon bag passage time and observed pre-caecal disappearances of dietary constituents, hence all digestibilities were interpolated to pre-caecal disappearances at 7 h (average passage time) prior to statistical analysis. Heat treatment, chemical treatment, and physical destruction of seed coats generally increased the pre-caecal disappearance of dietary constituents from cereals. However, the effect of the feed technological treatments changed with different modelled chewing actions. The effect of the feed technological treatments was most pronounced in blended samples, which mimicked the chewing action of hasty eaters or horses with neglected teeth, probably due to the relatively smaller area open for enzymatic degradation compared to samples milled through a 1 mm screen.