Impact of diet on 24-hour intragastric pH profile in healthy horses.

An electrode incorporated into a polyethylene hose was introduced under endoscopic control into the stomach of six fasting adult horses for long-lasting pH measurements. The intragastric pH was recorded every four seconds for a period of 24 hours. The Warmblood horses were assigned randomly to receive hay ad libitum (H group); 1.5 kg hay/100 kg BW/day and 1 kg concentrate/100 kg BW/ day (C group) or protocol C plus 75 g pectin-lecithin supplement/100 kg BW/day (P group). The horses were adapted to each diet for 14 days. The 24-hour median pH value for protocol H (2.69) was significantly lower compared to protocol C (3.35) and P (3.44) (p < 0.05). The horses in protocol P had a significant higher percentage (40.1 %) of 24-hour intragastric pH values ≥ 4 than in protocol C (36.2 %) or in protocol H (25.3 %) (p < 0.05).