What is Nutrigenomics?

The future of feeding horses is here: Learn how diet can impact your horse right down to his genetic core.
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What is Nutrigenomics?
Nutrigenomics researchers are trying to uncover interactions between diet and gene expression. | Photo: Courtesy Alltech

The future of feeding horses is here: Learn how diet can impact your horse right down to his genetic core.

The field of equine nutrition has become quite sophisticated since the age when most horses roamed grasslands, wild, grazing day in and day out. In the years following their widespread domestication, most horses were allotted only a small area of land to graze and their diets were supplemented with grains and other concentrates. Now, some horses hardly graze at all and instead receive a complete balanced ration twice or thrice daily.

One look at the hundreds of feed and supplement options available shows us we’re not in our parents’ feed store, either. Yet even with all of the advancements, we are on the cusp of a new era: the nutrigenomics generation. 

“Researchers are studying how nutrients, forms of nutrients, and nutritional strategies can influence an animal’s genome,” explains Kristen Brennan, PhD, project leader for equine nutrition and animal nutrigenomics at international animal health company Alltech Inc. “Our team measures what genes are turned on or off in response to feeding of nutrients, which allows them to better understand the science behind the idea that ‘you are what you eat

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Written by:

Stacey Oke, MSc, DVM, is a practicing veterinarian and freelance medical writer and editor. She is interested in both large and small animals, as well as complementary and alternative medicine. Since 2005, she’s worked as a research consultant for nutritional supplement companies, assisted physicians and veterinarians in publishing research articles and textbooks, and written for a number of educational magazines and websites.

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