I have just read an interesting article about using bovine colostrum in horses. I have a special interest, as they said it is very good for IR horses. It helps with immune response (laminitis was mentioned) and in converting fat to muscle. My mare is IR and I would like to try anything I can to help her.
http://equimed.com/news/health/colos…r-adult-horses
Has anyone used it? What have the results been like?
I really don’t understand how colostrum in adult animals is supposed to work?
Gut permeability to large molecules closes shortly after birth. Colostrum would be broken down to its components in adults, sugars and amino acids (its composed of glycoproteins) and then absorbed. These components aren’t novel and will be competing for use of the same transporters as dietary sources of various sugars and amino acids.
Im open to theories but have trouble seeing how these products can affect an immune response or redirect nutrient partitioning from fat to muscle.
Read the article and googled the topic. I had never heard of this, but apparently bovine colostrum is currently being tested to some degree scientifically, and also used as a fad nutracuetical in humans. Apparently it retains some ability to transmit antibodies in adults. Julie Getty seems to be extrapolating from human uses to horse uses.
If I was contemplating a new treatment for my horse (or me) I would want to find the actual scholarly research that proved its value, and would discount any articles that appeared on sales sites for supplements.
I have Julie Getty’s basic nutrition book which is very solid, but this isn’t the first time that a blog or tweet or short article by her on emerging issues in nutrition has ended up on COTH and not seemed 100 % credible to me.
OK, I went back to her article, and had a look at the work cited page. She cites studies on colostrum in humans, and studies on ulcers in horses, but I don’t see a study on bovine colostrum in horses specifically.
Then I saw that she is also selling bovine colostrum as a horse supplement.
So I am filing this in the category of “unproven fad/ viral marketing, revisit in 5 years to see if anyone has real data now.”
Apparently there are actually lots of studies using bovine colostrum in humans and other animals. Just not a lot of studies in horses. It isn’t about the gut permeability at this point (obviously), but rather the rest of what makes up bovine colostrum that can/may/might help fight off certain things. Bovine appears to be better for horses because of the low level of lactose.
I have no idea how it would work with an IR horse but it really helps their immune system! Works with people too!
I have a horse with chronic scratches. A former barnmate told me she had once owned a horse with chronic scratches that cleared up when treated with bovine colostrum. I’m tempted to give it a try.
It sounds like it can’t hurt, and if it is not expensive, harmless to try. I can’t however see how it would influence IR, and I don’t believe that anyone says it can reverse diabetes in humans, which would be the closest comparison.
But do note that the article linked by OP is written by someone marketing bovine colostrum for horses, though that is not disclosed in the main article, only in the work cited page that you need to click through to from the article.
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