Effect of offering maize, linseed or tuna oils throughout pregnancy and lactation on sow and piglet tissue composition and piglet performance

Abstract

The effects of different dietary essential fatty acids on piglet tissue composition at birth and performance until 7 days post weaning were investigated by offering the sow diets containing (17·5 g oil per kg diet) either maize oil (MO) as a control treatment, tuna oil (TO) as a source of long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly 22:6 n-3, or a mixture of maize and linseed oils (LO) which supplied the same amount of n-3 acids as TO but in the form of 18:3 n-3. Ten sows were allocated to each treatment which was offered throughout pregnancy and lactation. Compared with MO, offering TO increased sow plasma and subcutaneous adipose tissue 22: 6 n-3 proportions whereas LO increased 18: 3 n-3 and, to a much lesser extent than TO, 22: 6 n-3. Offering TO to the sow increased the proportions of 20: 5 n-3 and 22: 6 n-3 in piglet brain and liver at birth and decreased the n-6 acids, 20: 4, 22: 4 and 22: 5. LO only increased piglet liver 20: 5 n-3 proportions but to a lesser extent than TO; however, LO also decreased the proportions of 20: 4, 22: 4 and 22: 5 n-6 in piglet tissues. Offering the pregnant sow dietary 18: 3 n-3 therefore increased deposition of 22: 6 n-3 in foetal piglet tissues to a much lesser extent than tuna oil and so it is necessary to offer the sow pre-formed 22: 6 n-3 in order to achieve maximum foetal 22: 6 n-3 deposition. By experimentally allocating piglets at birth, effects of sow nutrition during pregnancy and lactation were separated. Piglets sucking MO or TO sows were heavier than piglets sucking LO sows 7 days post weaning.

Responses to n-3 fatty acid (LCPUFA) supplementation of gestating gilts, and lactating and weaned sows

“…BW from birth until the end of the nursery period (34 days after weaning) tended to be higher in litters from n-3 LCPUFA fed sows in the present study, again consistent with earlier studies (Rooke et al, 2000 and2001b;Mateo et al, 2009). As Taugbol et al (1993 and Fritsche et al (1993) did not find an effect on weaning weight when n-3 LCPUFA supplementation started at day 107 of gestation, and Smits et al (2011) did not find an effect on piglet growth and weaning weight when feeding n-3 LCPUFAs from 8 days before farrowing, longer periods of supplementation may be needed in gestation to produce positive effects on litter weaning weight.…”

“…Evidence that n-3 LCPUFAs in the sow's diet are taken up into the blood stream (Fritsche et al, 1993;Rooke et al, 2000;Brazle et al, 2009) was confirmed by a 10-fold increase in serum EPA and DHA of n-3 LCPUFA supplemented sows in the present study, and as also reported by Rooke et al (2000), was associated with a decrease in serum LCPUFA 5 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids; CL 5 corpora lutea; CON 5 control; r.s.d. 5 residual standard deviation; SFA 5 saturated fatty acids; MUFA 5 mono-unsaturated fatty acids; nd 5 non-detectable.…”

“…It is not clear why this happened. However, interpretation of effects of n-3 LCPUFA treatment on survivability may be difficult due to confounding effects of gestation length and the use of induced farrowing in this study, as discussed earlier by Rooke et al (2000 and2001a). The hypothesis behind the present study was that the feed restriction model used by Patterson et al (2011) would provide a standard background challenge against which to determine beneficial effects of n-3 LCPUFA supplementation on both lactation performance and subsequent reproduction.…”

“…As tissues of pigs from n-3 LCPUFA supplemented sows also showed higher EPA and DHA levels at birth than pigs from Control sows (Rooke et al, 2001b and2001c), it is likely that n-3 LCPUFA uptake continues throughout gestation, although Amusquivar et al (2010) showed that n-3 LCPUFA levels were increased in sow milk and pig plasma when sows were only supplemented with n-3 LCPUFA during the first half of gestation (days 1 to 60), suggesting that n-3 LCPUFAs can be stored in maternal adipose tissue and mobilized during milk production. When sows were supplemented with n-3 LCPUFAs in gestation and lactation, n-3 LCPUFA levels were also higher in colostrum and milk (Taugbol et al, 1993;Rooke et al, 2000 and2001a). Overall, therefore, piglets can benefit from n-3 LCPUFA supplementation to the sow in two ways; (1) prenatally, when developing embryos have access to DHA, and (2) postnatally, when litters consume colostrum and milk containing elevated concentrations of EPA and DHA.…”

“…Studies in sows have shown benefits of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) supplementation on postnatal growth (Rooke et al, 2000 and2001b;Mateo et al, 2009) and pre-weaning mortality of the litter (Rooke et al, 2001a). Others report an increase in live pigs born to gilts (Edwards and Pike, 1997;Spencer et al, 2004) and sows (Webel et al, 2003 andSmits et al, 2011) when supplementing with n-3 LCPUFA at various stages of gestation, lactation and/or during rebreeding, and Webel et al (2004) hypothesized that the observed increased litter size was because of improved embryonic survival at day 30 of gestation, rather than differences in ovulation rate.…”