Obesity of Sows at Late Pregnancy Aggravates Metabolic Disorder of Perinatal Sows and Affects Performance and Intestinal Health of Piglets

Abstract

This study explored the effect of obesity of sows in late pregnancy on metabolic status of perinatal sows and performance, intestinal health, and immune system of offspring piglets. Sixty multiparous Landrance × Large White sows were selected in this study. Sows were divided into two groups according to backfat thickness (normal backfat thickness group, =17 mm; excessive backfat thickness group, ≥21 mm) at days 109 of gestation. The excessive backfat thickness of sows during late pregnancy decreased the total number and litter weight of piglets born alive. Compared with normal backfat thickness sows, the excessive backfat thickness sows had increased levels of plasma glucose, IL-6, and TNF-α and homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance values. The excessive backfat thickness also reduced total superoxide dismutase but increased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances in plasma of perinatal sows. Additionally, the fecal levels of TNF-α were increased but those of IL-10 were decreased in piglets from excessive backfat thickness sow. These findings indicate that the obesity of sows during late pregnancy aggravates the metabolic disorder of perinatal sows, reduces the number of piglets born alive, and adversely affects the intestinal health of sows and their offspring piglets.

Increased feeding frequency prior to farrowing: effects on sow performance

“…Backfat depth has also been shown to impact glucose tolerance in sows, with higher values resulting in lower glucose tolerance ( Cheng et al, 2020 ). Although not investigated in this study, sows with increased backfat depths may have benefited more from increased feeding frequency, by enhancing glucose tolerance as a result of distributing the nutrient load across the day.…”

Effects of Dietary Isomaltooligosaccharide Levels on the Gut Microbiota, Immune Function of Sows, and the Diarrhea Rate of Their Offspring

“…The health of sow plays a crucial role in the pig production, and sows’ reproductive performance is an important index of economic benefit of pig farm. However, sows in the late gestation due to rapid fetal growth caused by insulin resistance and the body’s metabolic syndrome will lead to gut microbiota disorder, which will affect the reproductive performance of the sows and the growth and health of their offspring ( Tan et al, 2016 ; Cheng et al, 2020 ). IMO is one of the oligosaccharides which produced by enzymatic conversion of starch and widely used in the food and feed industry, which has a wide spectrum of biological activities ( Ketabi et al, 2011 ).…”

Maternal Nutrition During Late Gestation and Lactation: Association With Immunity and the Inflammatory Response in the Offspring

“…However, lower feed intake in sows was caused by OO feeding, which might be due to olive oil derived oleic acid upregulated plasma oleoyl ceramide (OEA) levels and caused anorexia in sows (74). It is worth noting that high fat-induced obese sows have lower number of live-born piglets (75), piglet birth weight and weaning weight (76). Moreover, these piglets showed reduced responses to infection (77).…”

“…One of the possible reasons is that obesity lead to lipotoxic placental environment (78,79), which results in placenta proinflammatory response and oxidative stress (80,81). The other reason is obese sow has higher plasma pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-a, IL-1b, and IL-6 (75,82). Maternal inflammation and oxidative stress further increase the expression of intestinal proinflammatory cytokines (83) and disrupts the homeostasis of immune cells (such as the number of T cells and macrophages) in the offspring (84), which makes them more vulnerable to inflammatory bowel disease.…”