Vitamin E is a general term for compounds with the biological activity of alpha tocopherol. Tocotrienols are a recently discovered group of compounds that also have vitamin E activity similar to tocopherols. Vitamin E is a broad-spectrum lipid antioxidant that functions in cell membranes and can improve the immune response in horses.

Vitamin E is an effective antioxidant in both feeds and body tissues. Acetate forms of vitamin E are stable until digested in the intestine and are the most common forms in feeds. One international unit (IU) vitamin E is equal to 1 mg of dl-alpha tocopherol acetate.

Deficiency of vitamin E can result in several diseases in horses, including equine degererative myeloencephalopathy (EDM) and equine motor neuron disease (EMND), a condition which resembles Lou Gehrig's disease in humans.

Vitamin E supplementation of 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day is recommended for healing of nerve tissue for the treatment of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). Vitamin E is also recommended for horses prone to tying-up or exertional rhabdomyolysis and for improvement of reproductive function.

According to the National Research Council's "Nutrient Requirements of Horses," each horse should receive at least 80-100 IU of vitamin E/kg diet dry matter daily. Horses fed added fat rations probably will benefit from additional supplemental vitamin E. Recent research at Purdue University lead to recommendations of 1000 IU/day of Natural-Source Vitamin E for all horses not on pasture.

Signs of vitamin E toxicity have not been reported in horses. Recent studies show that natural source vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol acetate) is about 3-4 times more effective in horses than synthetic sources (dl-alpha tocopherol acetate). Wheat germ, stabilized rice bran and soybean oil are excellent natural sources of vitamin E.

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