Researchers Find New Method for Monitoring Horses’ Body Fat

The new body condition index is designed to enhance the value of traditional body condition scoring.
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Obesity in horses and ponies is a big problem that requires frequent monitoring. Recently, researchers from the University of Melbourne, Australia, in collaboration with the WALTHAM Equine Studies Group in England, published a study in which they tested a new way to monitor body fat and weight loss.

The team devised a new body condition index (BCI) that works in a similar way to the body mass index used in humans. It should enhance the value of body condition scoring (BCS), which remains an important routine tool for general weight monitoring. The new work will be presented at the 2015 Equine Science Society Symposium, taking place May 26-29 in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida.

In a study of 366 horses in North Carolina, 48% were considered to be overweight or obese (a BCS of 6 to 9 on the Henneke scale), while a cross-sectional study of 300 mature horses in southwest Virginia reported that 97 horses (32.3%) were over-conditioned (a BCS of 7) and 56 (18.7%) were obese (a BCS of 8-9). A WALTHAM study of predominantly outdoor living horses and ponies in the United Kingdom showed an even higher prevalence of obesity: nearly 30% coming out of the winter and around 35% in the summer.

Obesity presents many health risks including equine metabolic syndrome and an increased risk of laminitis. Accurate assessment of fat deposits can help to identify obesity levels and enable weight loss monitoring. While body condition scoring is reasonably accurate and is a valuable way of keeping track of weight on a routine basis, especially when carried out by experienced investigators, it is subjective and therefore potentially less accurate for many owners or inexperienced assessors

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