136 Evaluation on the occurrence of gastritis in foals during weaning

Abstract

Inflammation of the gastric mucosa, also known as gastritis, are diseases that can commonly affect foals. The hypothesis is that gastritis is present before weaning. Furthermore, foals weaned in paddocks collectively have a lower incidence of clinical gastritis compared with foals weaned individually in stalls. This study aimed to assess the occurrence of gastritis in crossbred foals submitted to 2 weaning methods. The experiment was conducted at the LabEqui, located at USP. Sixteen crossbred foals, male and female, were used, with an approximate age of 5 mo and body weight between 230 and 260 kg. During the lactation period, foals and mares were housed together in a collective paddock of 10,000 m2, without access to grass. After weaning, a group of foals was housed in individual pens, with a size of 16 m2 and a bed of wood shavings. The rest remained in the collective paddock. The experimental design used was randomized blocks. The treatments consisted of: Weaning in a paddock; Weaning in a stall. The foals were weaned abruptly (mares removed). All animals before weaning received concentrate equivalent to 0.25% of live weight in dry matter and, after weaning, 1.25% in dry matter, according to nutritional requirements. Hay, water and mineral salt were provided ad libitum. Gastric mucosal lesions were evaluated using a score for the number of lesions assessed on a scale of 0 to 4, and intensity of gastric lesions assessed on a scale of 0 to 5, through gastroscopy. The foals were evaluated once 15 d before weaning and once 15 d after weaning. The results were subjected to ANOVA and means compared by Tukey test, at 5% significance level, using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS (9.0, Cary, NC). There was no difference (P > 0.05) between treatments for the number of gastric lesions, before weaning, with an average score of 3.00 for paddock and 1.56 for stall, as well as, after weaning, with averages of 1.75 for paddock and 1.25 for stall. However, there was a difference (P