HOW A MARE’S DIET MAY INFLUENCE HER FOAL LATER IN LIFE

New research may help explain why foals produced by mares that receive excessive nutrition during late gestation are predisposed to metabolic disease later in life.

Researchers at Texas A&M University divided 16 in-foal Quarter Horse mares into two equal groups: Half were fed a diet that met established nutritional requirements, while the other half received rations that exceeded recommended nutrient levels by 40 percent. Although previous studies have linked the overfeeding of mares during late gestation to metabolic disease in the resulting foals, the specific mechanism for how this happened was unknown.

After the study foals were born, researchers analyzed their pancreatic tissues, looking for differences between the two groups. They discovered distinctive characteristics in the tissues of the offspring of the overfed mares: Compared to youngsters in the control group, the foals produced by overfed mares had larger and more numerous islets of Langerhans, collections of endocrine cells within the pancreas that are responsible for releasing insulin and other hormones that help regulate blood sugar and play a role in energy utilization. This, the researchers say, “may lead to adult-onset metabolic disease.”