diet

Working equid populations are mainly present in low to middle-income countries, their work directly contributing to the lives of people reliant on their presence. Although assistance from working equids is important to support people and their communities in these regions, their welfare is often poor. This study aims to provide insight into the welfare status of mules distributing supplies in the Gorkha region of Nepal; a population of working equids which has been largely overlooked and under recorded. The welfare of mules was assessed via the Equid Assessment Research and Scoping (EARS) tool using a trained assessor; livelihood surveys gathered basic demographic and ownership information; and semi-structured interviews gained the perspectives of 26 key informants. Mule body condition was found to be ideal in many cases, but their management was in the majority of cases inappropriate; characterised by integumentary trauma from equipment use and inhumane handling, unsuitable dietary provision, and insufficient access to water. This difficult situation was compounded by inadequate access to suitably qualified, experienced veterinary professionals able to offer appropriate levels of support. Organisations aiming to improve welfare in these remote locations need a multifaceted approach where owners are facilitated and empowered to improve the welfare of their own equids; in addition, industry professionals are encouraged to improve training and provision within veterinary services

Maintaining animal health and performance relies on the availability of an appropriate diet. For herbivores, accurate assessment of forage nutrient quality is critical for appropriate diet formulation and rationing, including potential supplementation. Near-Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a rapid method that is used in place of traditional chemical methodologies (wet chemistry) to predict analyte contents in forage samples. The method relies on scanning a sample with near-infrared light and predicting the analyte content by comparing the reflected spectra to a model which has been developed with samples of known analyte content measured by wet chemistry. The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of four NIRS-based methods on haylage from seven farm holdings compared with wet chemistry (the control). We analysed 64 samples for a range of analytes (dry matter (DM), pH, ash, acid detergent fibre expressed inclusive of residual ash (ADF), neutral detergent fibre assayed with a heat stable amylase and expressed inclusive of residual ash (aNDF), crude protein and water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC)) commonly assessed for haylage quality in equid nutrition. We compared results obtained by wet chemistry to corresponding NIRS-based predictions from four commercially available NIRS services. The results revealed large discrepancies amongst all five methods. For DM, average bias (mean±SD) for three reported methods was -15.5±188.4, -10.1±50.4, 12.9±33.8 g/kg respectively and for WSC reporting positive bias from four methods of 26.9±51.3, 24.8±38.2, 26.2±50.1 and 14.5±45.2, g/Kg respectively. The extent of these discrepancies from the wet chemistry also varied by analyte where for example, predictions for DM were more reliable than those for WSC and results demonstrated that predictions obtained by NIRS could result in feeding forage outside of target nutritional values.