Implicaciones de la programación prenatal en la producción de cerdo ibérico

Abstract

This article reviews several aspects of prenatal programming in the Iberian pig. Research on factors affecting adult phenotype and homeorhesis in different species has addressed both genetic predisposition and the determinant role of nutrition during the prenatal period. Both over- and undernutrition (this latter by maternal malnutrition or by placental insufficiency) may alter the genome expression and the components and functions of different body systems in the offspring, resulting in modifications of body development and composition, metabolic disorders and increased health risk. This article reviews how in swine, and specifically in the Iberian breed, the exposure of fetuses to malnutrition, commonly by maternal undernutrition or placental insufficiency, is very frequent at advanced pregnancy. Offspring exposed to maternal undernutrition during the two last thirds of gestation are smaller at birth since they are affected by intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). In lean breeds, both males and females have compromised postnatal growth and increased fat accumulation and metabolic disorders during fattening periods. In the Iberian breed, postnatal growth in case of prenatal exposure to low-energy diets depends on sex, with the postnatal growth in males being affected similarly to lean breeds, whilst their sisters evidence a compensatory growth as early as during the suckling period. After that, in response to high-energy diets during the fattening period, both males and females show increased adiposity at subcutaneous, visceral and intramuscular locations, high incidence of metabolic disorders and significant changes in intramuscular fatty-acid composition, when compared to piglets that did not suffer undernutrition during the intrauterine life.