Equine Nutrition/Proteins

Proteins
The following information was taken from https://class.coursera.org/equinenutrition-001/wiki/view?page=Week2 Equine Nutrition by Jo-Anne Murray

Protein • Required for various functions – Structural (e.g. muscle, skin, hair) – Enzymes (catalysts that affect the rate of reactions in the body) – Hormones (chemical messengers that regulate metabolic processes) – Immune compounds (for fighting infection) – Transport compounds (e.g. transport of nutrients)

• Consists of chains of amino acids

• Essential and non‐essential amino acids

• Non‐essential Protein: synthesized by the animal

• Essential Protein(need to be supplied in the diet) – Lysine (first limiting: present in the least amount relative to requirement) – Methionine – Threonine – Isoleucine – Valine – Arginine – Tryptophan – Histidine – Phenylalanine

• Protein breakdown begins in the stomach – Acidity denatures the proteins – Pepsin partially degrades proteins into smaller peptides – No protein absorption in the stomach

• Further broken down in Small Intestine – Proteases break down proteins to amino acids – Absorbed across Small Intestine gut wall

• Protein associated with the plant cell wall – fermented in Large Intestine

• Protein digested in Small Intestine – used by the horse

• No amino acid absorption in Large Intestine

• Microbes in Large Intestine degrade protein – Used for microbial growth – No biological value to horse