Neonatal hormone changes and growth in lambs born to dams receiving differing nutritional intakes and selenium supplementation during gestation

Abstract

To investigate the effects of maternal selenium (Se) supplementation and nutritional intake during gestation on hormone changes, percentage body weight (BW) change, and organ mass in neonatal lambs, ewes were allocated to differing Se levels (adequate Se (ASe, 11.5 mg/kg BW) or high Se (HSe, 77.0 mg/kg BW)) initiated at breeding and nutritional intake (60% (RES), 100% (CON), or 140% (HIGH) of NRC requirements) initiated at day 40 of gestation. At parturition, all lambs were removed from dams, fed common diets, and BW and blood samples were collected until day 19. There was a Se!nutritional intake!day interaction for percentage BW change from birth. Lambs born to ASe-HIGH ewes tended to have decreased BW change compared with ASe-CON and ASe-RES groups on day 7. Lambs from HSe-HIGH ewes tended to have increased BW change compared with HSe-RES and HSe-CON groups from days 7 to 19. At birth, there was a Se!sex of offspring interaction, in which male lambs from HSe ewes had decreased cortisol concentrations compared with all other lambs. By 24 h, lambs from RES ewes had decreased cortisol compared with those from HIGH ewes, with lambs from CON ewes being intermediate. Lambs from RES-and CON-fed ewes had greater thyroxine than HIGH ewes at 24 h. Organ masses on day 19 were mainly impacted by maternal nutritional intake and sex of the offspring. Birth weight alone did not predict growth performance during neonatal life. Moreover, despite a similar postnatal diet, maternal nutritional plane and Se status did impact neonatal endocrine profiles. Exact mechanisms of how neonatal endocrine status can influence later growth and development need to be determined.

Nutritional plane and selenium supply during gestation affect yield and nutrient composition of colostrum and milk in primiparous ewes1

“…In addition to observed differences in lactational performance of ewes, lamb growth, health, body composition, and endocrine status were altered by gestational nutrition in this study (Meyer et al, 2010b;Camacho et al, 2011;C. J.…”

Iodine supplementation of the pregnant dam alters intestinal gene expression and immunoglobulin uptake in the newborn lamb

“…While T 4 is the most predominant thyroid hormone in circulation (Piosik et al, 1997), with concentrations increasing in the lamb before parturition and declining rapidly within the first few days of life (Forhead and Fowden, 2014), T 3 is deemed the most biologically active (Choksi et al, 2003;Rose et al, 2007). There is a strong relationship between both total the free thyroid hormone fractions with circulating levels of T 3 arising from the de-iodination of T 4 by a selenium containing enzyme, type 1 iodothyronine 5'-deiodinase (Barry et al, 1983;Camacho et al, 2012). However, in the current study a lower concentration of free T 3 was observed in lambs born to CaIO 3 ewes.…”

Maternal nutrition and programming of offspring energy requirements1

“…Although global nutrient restriction and excess (driven by intake changes) and altered supply of major nutrient classes can clearly have effects on offspring outcomes, supply of specific nutrients in the maternal diet can also result in changes in offspring outcomes and have long-term consequences. Research from our laboratories investigating supranutritional selenium supply in maternal diets ( Caton et al, 2007 ; Ward et al, 2008 ; Vonnahme et al, 2010 ; Camacho et al, 2012 ; Meyer et al, 2013 , Yunusova et al, 2013 ; Caton et al, 2014a , 2014b ) has demonstrated changes in lamb birth weight, growth, nutrient digestion, glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, visceral fat content, intestinal vascularity, and endocrine profiles in some but not all studies.…”