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Abstract
It has been suggested that maternal nutrition during gestation is involved in an offspring’s intestinal development. The aim of this study was therefore to evaluate the effects of maternal energy on the growth and small intestine development of offspring. After mating, twenty gilts (Large White (LW) breeding, body weight (BW) at 135.54 ± 0.66 kg) were randomly allocated to two dietary treatments: a control diet (CON) group and a high-energy diet (HED) group, respectively. The nutrient levels of the CON were referred to meet the nutrient recommendations by the National Research Council (NRC, 2012), while the HED was designed by adding an amount of soybean oil that was 4.6% of the total diet weight to the CON. The dietary treatments were introduced from day 1 of gestation to farrowing. At day 90 of gestation, day 1 post-birth, and day 28 post-birth, the weights of fetuses and piglets, intestinal morphology, enzyme activities, and gene and protein expressions of intestinal growth factors were determined. The results indicated that the maternal HED markedly increased the BW, small intestinal weight, and villus height of fetuses and piglets. Moreover, the activities of lactase in fetal intestine, sucrase in piglet intestine were markedly increased by the maternal HED. In addition, the maternal HED tended to increase the protein expression of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) in fetal intestine, associated with significantly increased the gene expression of IGF-1R. In conclusion, increasing energy intake could promote fetal growth and birth weight, with greater intestinal morphology and enzyme activities.
Highlights
Feeding during gestation is critical to the development and growth of the fetus and corresponding tissues
It has been confirmed that the litter body weight (BW) is important because of its positive correlation with pre-weaning mortality; small piglets are physiologically deprived of energy stores, and they are more
Sows were randomly assigned to one of two groups after mating to receive different isoprotein corn-wheat bran-soya bean meal-based diets: The control (CON) diet was designed as per the recommendations of the National Research Council (NRC; 2012) for gestating sows, and the high-energy diet (HED) exchanged fiber that comprised 4.6% of the total diet weight replaced with the same percentage of soy bean oil to increase energy intake by 13%
Summary
Feeding during gestation is critical to the development and growth of the fetus and corresponding tissues. The evolutionary biology of sows means that it is predisposed to require more energy in gestation. Increased energy intake during late gestation can positively affect fetal growth and maternal weight gain. It has been concluded that additional feed in late gestation can improve the reproductive performance, the study from which showed a greater body weight (BW) and weaned weight [1]. Kongsted suggested that pregnancy rate and litter size can be influenced by energy intake [2]. It has been confirmed that the litter BW is important because of its positive correlation with pre-weaning mortality; small piglets are physiologically deprived of energy stores, and they are more
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