Please cite this article in press as: Brøkner, C., et al., Chemical and physicochemical characterisation of various horse feed ingredients. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2012.06.005 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model ANIFEE-12749; No. of Pages 12 Animal Feed Science and Technology xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Animal Feed Science and Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anifeedsci Chemical and physicochemical characterisation of various horse feed ingredients C. Brøkner a,∗ , K.E. Bach Knudsen b,1 , I. Karaman b,2 , K.L. Eybye b , A.H. Tauson a,3 a University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Sciences, Department of Basic Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Grønnegaardsvej 3, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark b Aarhus University, Department of Animal Science, Blichers Allé 20, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 31 May 2011 Received in revised form 1 June 2012 Accepted 15 June 2012 Available online xxx Keywords: Dietary fibre Crude fibre aNDFom Swelling Horse a b s t r a c t There is an increasing need for identifying energy dense fibre rich feed ingredients, because starch has shown to cause detrimental health problems in sports horses. This study aimed at evaluating feeds considered to be suitable for horses by use of comprehensive carbo- hydrate analytical methods. Eighteen feeds of diverse botanical origin ranging from apple pulp, root crops, cereal grains and roughages were analysed for dry matter, ash, crude pro- tein, fat, carbohydrates and lignin. Carbohydrates were analysed for sugar, starch, fructans, oligosaccharides and non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) using enzymatic-chemical meth- ods and lignin by gravimetry. The results for total dietary fibre (DF) were compared with conventional crude fibre (CF) and neutral detergent fibre (aNDFom) methods. The physico- chemical properties were quantified based on swelling and water binding capacity (WBC). Between 755 g and 970 g/kg DM was detected. The highest total sugar content was mea- sured in root crops with 803 g/kg DM in raw sugar beet followed by 581 g/kg DM in carrots. The starch content ranged between 343 g/kg DM and 754 g/kg DM in cereal grains. The DF method detected (P ≤ 0.04) more NSP as compared to the aNDFom and CF methods. The greatest difference between the DF and aNDFom methods was found in root crops and apple pulp in which the soluble non-cellulosic polysaccharides (S-NCP) fraction made up 350–581 g/kg of total NSP. The physicochemical properties were compared to fibre content and were associated to WBC (P = 0.04). The correlation ranged from 0.52 to 0.53 for WBC and from 0.03 to 0.16 for swelling. The S-NCP fraction is lost in the aNDFom and CF methods due to solubilisation, which explains the higher recovery of total NSP by the DF method. This illustrates that a feed’s potential as a fibre source may be underestimated depending on the analytical method. Quantifying the soluble NCP fraction is beneficial as it has been shown to have health beneficial properties and contributes to the total energy supply. These results suggest that the DF method should be used when evaluating feeds for horses. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Abbreviations: ATP, adenosine triphosphate; DF, dietary fibre; GI, glycemic index; I-NCP, insoluble non-cellulosic polysaccharides; I-NSP, insoluble non-starch polysaccharides; NSP, non-starch polysaccharides; S-NCP, soluble non-cellulosic polysaccharides; S-NSP, soluble non-starch polysaccharides; SCFA, short chain fatty acids; WBC, water binding capacity; PCA, principal component analysis; CO, concentrate; FO, forages; RC, root crop and carrots; P ′ , transposed loading matrix; E A , error matrix; N, number of samples; A, number of principal components; K, number of variables; X, mean centred matrix; T, score matrix. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +45 35332510; fax: +45 35332547. E-mail addresses: stinne@life.ku.dk (C. Brøkner), KnudErik.BachKnudsen@agrsci.dk (K.E. Bach Knudsen), Ibrahim.Karaman@agrsci.dk (I. Karaman), Karin.Eybye@agrsci.dk (K.L. Eybye), aht@life.ku.dk (A.H. Tauson). 1 Tel.: +45 8715 8063; fax: +45 8715 6076. 2 Tel.: +45 8715 4259. 3 Tel.: +45 3533 3039; fax: +45 3533 3020. 0377-8401/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2012.06.005