Protein requirements of mature working horses

Eighteen mature horses were used to study proteins requirements of working horses. Treatments included intense exercise, medium exercise and maintenance in a 3 X 3 factorial arrangement with three levels of calculated dietary crude protein (CP; 8.5, 7.0 and 5.5%). The horses were on the various exercise-protein treatments for 60 d, then fasted 4 d to evaluate their N status after the treatment period. Exercise had no significant effect on body weight over the feeding and fasting periods. No one exercise or protein treatment expressed the classical low plasma albumin or total protein concentrations of protein-deficient or malnourished animals. Plasma urea N (PUN) concentrations reflected the amount of protein in the diet, with the horses fed the high-protein treatment having the highest PUN concentration (P less than .05). Fasting brought about a significant rise in the urinary percentage of urea + NH3 N, with the highest protein treatment excreting the highest percentage (P less than .05). Because plasma protein concentrations were maintained and labile protein reserves were apparently not depleted, it appears that the lowest protein diet containing 1.9 g digestible protein/W.75 was adequate, regardless of work load.