Maternal undernutrition and offspring sex determine birth-weight, postnatal development and meat characteristics in traditional swine breeds

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of this study was to determine how maternal undernutrition during pregnancy and offspring birth-weight can affect the postnatal development of offspring under farm conditions, which may lead to consequences in its meat and carcass quality. The current study involved a total of 80 litters from Iberian sows fed a diet fulfilling daily requirements (n = 47; control) or providing 70% daily requirements (n = 33; underfed) from d 38 to d 90 of gestation when fetal tissue development begins. After birth, piglets born live were classified as low birth-weight (LBW; < 1 kg) and normal birth-weight (NBW; ≥1 kg). During the growing phase, 240 control and 230 underfed pigs (50% males and females) distributed by BW category and sex were studied until the slaughter.ResultsAt birth and weaning, there were significant differences in all morphological measures and weight between NBW and LBW piglets as expected (P < 0.0005), but few effects of the gestational feed restriction. During the growing phase, NBW pigs continued with higher weight than LBW pigs on all the days of evaluation (P < 0.05), even though control-LBW-females and LBW-males showed a catch-up growth. However, underfed pigs showed slower growth and higher feed conversion ratio than control pigs (P < 0.0001) at 215 days old. Moreover, the average daily weight gain (ADWG) for the overall period was greater for NBW, male and control pigs than for their LBW, female and underfed pigs (P < 0.0001, P< 0.0005 and P< 0.05, respectively) and NBW pigs were slaughtered at a younger age than LBW pigs (P < 0.0001). After slaughtering, control pigs also had higher carcass yield and backfat depth than underfed pigs (P < 0.0005) and the maternal nutritional effect caused main changes in the polar lipid fraction of liver and loin. The fatty acid composition of loin in control pigs had higher C18:1n-9 and n-3 FA concentrations, as well as lower ∑n-6/∑n-3 ratio, than in underfed pigs (P < 0.005).ConclusionsIn brief, results showed that the effects of maternal nutritional restriction appeared and increased with offspring age, causing worse developmental patterns for underfed pigs than for control pigs.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s40104-018-0240-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Impact of genotype, body weight and sex on the prenatal muscle transcriptome of Iberian pigs

“…Previous studies reported that fetal genotype and weight did not affect intramuscular fat [45], but this may have been due to the early stage of fetal development assayed. Studies from our group have found that Iberian piglets have higher intramuscular fat than crossbred Duroc x Iberian piglets at weaning [20,36], and that HBW Duroc x Iberian neonates have higher intramuscular fat than LBW neonates [48]. In agreement, our results suggest upregulation of adipogenesis pathways in Iberian HBW fetuses (see below).…”

“…Loss of circadian regulators such as NOCT has been reported to confer resistance to obesity induced by a high-fat diet. Upregulation of NOCT in LBW fetuses may therefore be associated with an increased predisposition to metabolic disease in adulthood, as we have observed in previous studies [48].…”

“…In other words, development at this stage was affected mainly by fetal genotype, with no major sex-specific effects. Previous studies at prenatal and postnatal stages have shown that males are heavier than females when mothers are undernourished [47,48].…”

European Local Pig Breeds - Diversity and Performance. A study of project TREASURE

“…It has been shown for some local breeds, like the Spanish Iberian [1] or the Hungarian Mangalitsa pigs [2], that they exhibit lower prolificacy due to smaller uterine capacity. It has also been demonstrated that the nutrition of sows during gestation can affect the weight of newly born piglets which further affects their vitality [3,4]. The undernutrition of sows affects piglets' birth weight and exhibits long-term consequences for post-natal performance of pigs [4].…”

“…It has also been demonstrated that the nutrition of sows during gestation can affect the weight of newly born piglets which further affects their vitality [3,4]. The undernutrition of sows affects piglets' birth weight and exhibits long-term consequences for post-natal performance of pigs [4]. It is noteworthy that despite the considerably smaller number of live-born piglets at farrowing than in modern, and more prolific breeds, the reported birth weight of piglets was also lower for the majority of local pig breeds than the usually reported for conventional breeds [5].…”