What You Should Know About Anaerobic Fungi in Horses
Anaerobic fungi live in our horses’ hindguts and they are responsible for an estimated 30-40% of the fibre fermentation that occurs there. As well as thinking about how diet might affect our horse’s hindgut bacterial populations, we also need to think about how it might affect their anaerobic fungal populations.
The problem is that we know so little about them that we don’t know what is good and not so good for the anaerobic fungi in our horses. Information on what we know so far was presented at EEHNC by Dr. Joan Edwards. Dr. Edwards described the fungi as having potent fibre-degrading enzymes, giving them an important role in a horse’s digestion process.
These anaerobic fungi can survive outside of the horse’s gut, too, and are seemingly resistant to both oxygen (which kills many anaerobic bacteria that live in the hindgut) and desiccation (drying out).
One theory is that by looking after the bacteria in a horse’s hindgut, you will also look after the fungi. So keep your horse’s diet high in low fructan forage, keep grain and starch out of the hindgut by feeding only well-cooked grains where necessary and in as small meals as possible, and by making changes to the diet slowly.
Interested in learning more about the ongoing research in the exciting area of anaerobic fungi in horses? Read more below.
(PDF) Anaerobic fungal communities differ along the horse digestive tract (researchgate.net)
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