Abstract
Simple SummaryNutrition plays a major role in enhancing reproductive efficiency in pigs. Sows mobilize sufficient energy from their body tissue stores for fetal nutritional demands. Dietary fats are used in late gestation and/or lactation diets as sources of energy and essential fatty acids. Our results suggested that fat supplementation during gestation improved colostrum composition and plasma concentration of prolactin at farrowing, associated with altered intestinal morphology and innate immunity in newborn offspring.Various fats are used in swine diets as sources of energy and essential fatty acids. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of fat supplementation during gestation on reproductive performance, milk composition of sows and intestinal development of their offspring. Fifty sows were randomly allocated into two groups receiving the control (CON) and high-fat diets (HF diet) during gestation. After farrowing, all sows received the same lactation diet and were fed ad libitum until weaning at day 20 of lactation. The results showed that being fed the HF diet did not markedly improve the performance of sows and their offspring. However, the HF diet increased (p < 0.05) the colostrum contents of protein and no-fat solids, and the plasma concentration of prolactin at farrowing. Moreover, piglets born of sows fed the HF diet had higher (p < 0.05) jejunal villous height, as well as deeper (p < 0.05) jejunal and colonic crypt depths compared with piglets born of sows fed the CON diet. In addition, piglets born of sows fed the HF diet had markedly increased (p < 0.05) mRNA abundances of innate immunity-related genes on toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4), toll-like receptor 9 (TLR-9) and myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) in ileum compared with piglets born of sows fed the CON diet. These findings indicated that dietary fat supplementation during gestation did not markedly improve the performance of sows and their offspring, but improved colostrum quality and concentration of prolactin on the day of farrowing, associated with modifications of intestinal morphology and innate immunity of their offspring.
Highlights
It is widely accepted that fetal nutritional demands are greatly increased during late gestation and lactation, and maternal reserves change to a catabolic condition during this period, when dietary energy supply is insufficient to meet requirements [1]
The total number of pigs born, born alive, stillborn, as well as the number of low body weight (BW) piglets, individual birth weights and mean litter weight at birth were unaffected between the two dietary treatments
Results from the present study showed that fat supplementation during gestation did not markedly affect reproductive performance
Summary
It is widely accepted that fetal nutritional demands are greatly increased during late gestation and lactation, and maternal reserves change to a catabolic condition during this period, when dietary energy supply is insufficient to meet requirements [1]. Dietary fats are used in late gestation and/or lactation diets as sources of energy and essential fatty acids to improve milk yield or fat content [2,3], prevent excessive body reserve mobilization [4] and improve offspring survival rate [5]. Our recent study showed that fat supplementation during gestation could modulate fetal gene expressions and related signal transduction on intestinal immunity and metabolism [11]. For these studies, the biological responses may relate to fatty acid supply, and the greater energy intake when fat supplementation was at higher levels. The data are limited when it comes to indicating whether dietary isoenergetic intake, but using fat as an energy source during the whole gestation, affects sow performance and their milk composition, as well as intestinal development in offspring
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