Digestibilidade de dietas com gramineas tropicais em equinos: uma revisão sistemática

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the digestibility of tropical grasses of the genera Cynodon and Panicum in equine feeding through a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol, with searches conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, without restrictions on language or publication period, using the PICo strategy to define population, interest, and context. Of the 767 publications initially found, after screening using exclusion criteria (duplicates, non-article works, publications prior to 2005, and title and abstract evaluation), seven studies remained for analysis, all involving the Cynodon genus. No studies on the Panicum genus were found. Most of the studies were conducted in Brazil (n=6) and predominantly used the in vivo digestibility method (n=6). The studies analyzed digestibility coefficients for dry matter (n=7), organic matter (n=4), crude protein (n=5), neutral detergent fiber (n=6), and acid detergent fiber (n=6), showing that forage quality, maturation stage, conservation method, cutting age, cultivar, and evaluation method directly influence the results. The average digestibility coefficients observed for Cynodon forages in horses were 56.5% for dry matter, 53.5% for organic matter, 80.9% for mineral matter, 76.7% for crude protein, 61.0% for crude extract, 54.9% for ether extract, 48.5% for neutral detergent fiber, and 43.5% for acid detergent fiber, demonstrating the importance of forage management and characteristics in equine nutrition.