Energy Metabolism of the Newborn Pig during the First 24 h of Life

Abstract

Metabolic rates (VO₂) and respiratory quotients (RQ) have been measured in newborn pigs kept either in warm (31°C = WG) or in cold (18°C = CG) climatic conditions from birth to 24 h of age. The piglets were allowed to suckle every 80–85 min. At birth VO₂and RQ were high for both treatments. However, they became relatively constant after 30 min of life. They were higher for piglets kept in a cold environment (1.00 vs. 0.95 for RQ). After the first suckling VO₂ increased steadily over the first 24 h of life for WG and was kept constant (29.5 ml O₂/kg BW/min) for CG. RQ decreased from 0.90 to 0.80. For the first 24 h of life an increase of 55% of VO₂ was observed when the ambient temperature was decreased from 31 to 18°C. The fact that RQ was higher for CG than for WG (0.87 vs. 0.83) indicates that the newborn pig kept in cold conditions enhances its utilization of carbohydrates, in order to increase its heat production. Finally, our results show the positive relationship between colostrum intake and metabolic rate and emphasize the nutritional importance of colostrum during the first day of life.

Alternative farrowing systems: design criteria for farrowing systems based on the biological needs of sows and piglets

“…wild boarlets) have (Foley et al, 1971). The need to preserve homeothermy is therefore closely linked to the need to ingest colostrum, and the postbirth drop in body temperature is only reversed once this is achieved (Noblet and Le Dividich, 1981;Baxter et al, 2008).…”

Mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation capacities increase in the skeletal muscles of young pigs during early postnatal development but are not affected by cold stress

“…Acid-soluble carnitine represents the sum of free carnitine and acid-soluble short-chain acylcarnitine. 2 Statistics: A, effect of age; M, effect of cold; A × M, interaction between both effects; ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05. a,b Individual means with different superscript letters are significantly different (P < 0.05). T Difference between LL and RH muscle at 5 days tended to be significant (P < 0.10).…”

“…Whole-body investigations have clearly demonstrated that lipid utilization increases progressively after birth. Indeed, the respiratory quotient decreases postnatally [2] and the data of Chiang et al [3] and Herpin et al [4] showed that fatty acid oxidation in the fed newborn pig contributes 10.6% to the thermoneutral maintenance energy required during the first 12 h of life, and 41.7% for the subsequent 12 h. A further 40% enhancement is observed in the cold.…”

Colostrum Intake and Thermoregulation in the Neonatal Pig in Relation to Environmental Temperature

“…This suggests that the environmental temperature of 18-20 °C commonly used in the farrowing houses weakens the defensive responses of the newborn piglet to maintenance of homeothermic balance and to disease. First, the thermostability of the neonatal pig is doubly impaired by cold conditions, directly through an increased heat production [27,32,33] and indirectly though a reduced availability of exogenous energy substrates for thermogencsis. Thus, piglets cannot sustain the high met abolic rate necessary for maintenance of body temperature in the cold if the amount of colostrum intake is inadequate.…”