Development of the mobile bag technique to determine the degradation kinetics of purified starch sources in the pre-caecal segment of the equine digestive tract

Previous work has shown that the mobile bag technique (MBT) can be used to study the dynamics of digestive processes in the whole tract of ponies (Hyslopet al, 1998). This experiment further develops the MBT as a method to study feed degradation dynamics over time in the pre-caecal segment of the digestive tract of ponies.Two caecally-fistulated mature Welsh-cross pony geldings (LW 270kg) were offered 4kg of dry matter (DM) per day of a 1:3 rolled barley:hay cube mix plus minerals, in 2 equal meals per day at 09:00 and 17:00h. Grass hay was also offeredad libitumbetween 17:00 and 09:00h. Two sizes of mobile bag (6 x 1 cm Ø-large and 4 x 1 cm Ø- small) made from monofilament polyester with a 7 μm pore size were used.