Impact of dietary lipids on sow milk composition and balance of essential fatty acids during lactation in prolific sows1

Abstract

Two studies were designed to determine the effects of supplementing diets with lipid sources of EFA (linoleic and α-linolenic acid) on sow milk composition to estimate the balance of EFA for sows nursing large litters. In Exp. 1, 30 sows, equally balanced by parity (1 and 3 to 5) and nursing 12 pigs, were fed diets supplemented with 6% animal-vegetable blend (A-V), 6% choice white grease (CWG), or a control diet without added lipid. Diets were corn-soybean meal based with 8% corn distiller dried grains with solubles and 6% wheat middlings and contained 3.25 g standardized ileal digestible Lys/Mcal ME. Sows fed lipid-supplemented diets secreted greater amounts of fat (P = 0.082; 499 and 559 g/d for control and lipid-added diets, respectively) than sows fed the control diet. The balance of EFA was computed as apparent ileal digestible intake of EFA minus the outflow of EFA in milk. For sows fed the control diet, the amount of linoleic acid secreted in milk was greater than the amount consumed, throughout lactation. This resulted in a pronounced negative balance of linoleic acid (-22.4, -38.0, and -14.1 g/d for d 3, 10, and 17 of lactation, respectively). In Exp. 2, 50 sows, equally balanced by parity and nursing 12 pigs, were randomly assigned to a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of diets plus a control diet without added lipids. Factors included linoleic acid (2.1% and 3.3%) and α-linolenic acid (0.15% and 0.45%). The different concentrations of EFA were obtained by adding 4% of different mixtures of canola, corn, and flaxseed oils to diets. The n-6 to n-3 fatty acid ratios in the diets ranged from 5 to 22. Increasing supplemental EFA increased (P < 0.001) milk concentrations of linoleic (16.7% and 20.8%, for 2.1% and 3.3% linoleic acid, respectively) and α-linolenic acid (P < 0.001; 1.1 and 1.9% for 0.15 and 0.45% α-linolenic acid, respectively). Increasing supplemental EFA increased the estimated balance of α-linolenic acid (P < 0.001; -0.2 and 5.3 g/d for 0.15% and 0.45% α-linolenic acid, respectively), but not linoleic acid (P = 0.14; -3.4 and 10.0 g/d for 2.1% and 3.3% linoleic acid, respectively). In conclusion, lipid supplementation to sow lactation diets improved milk fat secretion. The fatty acid composition of milk fat reflected the dietary supplementation of EFA. The net effect of supplemental EFA was to create a positive balance during lactation, which may prove to be beneficial for the development of nursing piglets and the subsequent reproduction of sows.

Evaluation of high nutrient diets and additional dextrose on reproductive performance and litter performance of heat‐stressed lactating sows

“…The addition of approximately 4% of different oil sources (palm, fish, and soybean) to the diet of lactating sows improved the litter survivability and overall weight gain at weaning (Jin et al, ). Moreover, according to previous studies, the concentration of milk fat can be increased as the fat level increases in the diet, particularly that long‐chain fatty acids account as a large proportion of milk fat content in lactating sows (Rosero et al, ). Therefore, supplemental fat plus dextrose in the diet could provide considerably higher fat content in lactating sows milk.…”

“…The most noticeable benefit of dietary fat is associated with the relatively lower heat increment during digestion and metabolism processes (O'Grady, Lynch, & Kearney, ). In addition, the fat concentration in milk and colostrum can be increased by increasing dietary inclusion of fat (Rosero et al, ), which may contribute to the improvement of suckling piglets growth performance.…”

Effects of Dietary Protein Content on Milk Composition of Mixed Parity Lactating Sows in a Tropical Humid Climate

“…In contrast, Miller et al and Csapó et al showed that the proportion of linoleic acids (C18:2) was reduced whereas that of palmitoleic acid (C16:1) increased during lactation [24,25]. The discrepancy between the studies can be explained by differences in animal characteristics (genotype, milk production, ability to mobilize body reserves), in animal management (amount and FA composition of the diet; Rosero et al [28]) or in the method of milk collection [5].…”

Influence of a Spray-Dried Fat Enriched With Epa and Dha on the Fatty Acid Composition of Sow Milk

“…In terms of lactation performance and consistent with the results of Mateo et al (2009), milk components such as lactose, protein and fat were not affected by the dietary treatments in this study. However, Rosero et al (2015) found greater lipid excretion in the milk of fat-supplemented sows relative to non-supplemented sows, whereas Eastwood et al (2014) found no improvement in performance when adding EPA to a sow diet. However, the increases in the milk EPA and DHA contents of sows fed the FOPF20 and FOPF40 treatments compared with the unsupplemented diet in this study are consistent with previous reports (Jensen et al, 2000;Mateo et al, 2009).…”