Horses’ intestines can harbour many different worms, some of which can cause severe disease. It's concerning that some of these worms are becoming resistant to deworming medications. This resistance has emerged through factors such as incorrect dosing or frequent use of the same medications.
It's clear that we need to adopt a more sustainable approach to managing equine intestinal parasites.
To address this challenge, scientists are exploring different methods, including dietary changes. These diets might enhance the body's defences, regulate gut bacteria, or directly combat parasites. For example, certain foods containing plant compounds might hinder worm reproduction in the body.
A study by Noémie Laroche and colleagues, at Lab to Field, Dijon, and the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, investigated how diet affects strongyle infection in horses, focusing on immune-mediated, microbiota-mediated, or direct deworming mechanisms. The work is reported in PLos ONE.
They studied twelve adult French Trotter geldings naturally infected with strongyles. These horses were divided into two groups and fed either a high-fibre or high-starch diet, along with supplements containing polyphenol-rich pellets from dehydrated sainfoin or control pellets made from sunflower and hay.
The study revealed that horses on a high-starch diet had higher strongyle egg excretion compared to those on a high-fibre diet. However, adding sainfoin to the high-starch diet reduced egg excretion. What’s more, sainfoin supplementation decreased larval motility, regardless of the diet.
Moreover, the high-starch diet was associated with lower faecal bacterial diversity, changes in faecal microbiota structure, lower faecal pH, reduced blood acetate levels, and lower haematocrit compared to the high-fibre diet.
Overall, these findings suggest that dietary changes can be an alternative strategy for managing helminth infections.
The study highlights the importance of considering broader ecological mechanisms in parasite management strategies. The researchers emphasize that eradicating helminth infections entirely is unrealistic and could have negative effects.
They write: “… pursuing a goal of eradicating helminth infection (zero infection) is not only illusionary but also likely to produce more negative effects than benefits. Mammals have coevolved with helminths during millions of years, and in most cases, the infection does not produce severe symptoms.’
“We therefore suggest that a safer strategy to control helminth infection would be to improve host tolerance to the infection rather than pursuing a hopeless, environmentally toxic, strategy of drug-based eradication.”
For more details, see:
Laroche N, Grimm P, Julliand S, Sorci G (2024)
Diet modulates strongyle infection and microbiota in the large intestine of horses. PLoS ONE 19(4): e0301920.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0301920
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