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The experiment was conducted to assess the effects of maternal nutrition in late gestation on glycogen pools of newborn piglets of different birth weights and to assess how rapid the glycogen pools in liver and 3 muscles are mobilized during fasting. Until d 108 of gestation, 48 sows were fed either a gestation standard diet (GSD) with low dietary fiber (DF, 17.1%), or 1 of 3 diets with high DF (32.3 to 40.4%) consisting of pectin residue (GPR), potato pulp (GPP), or sugar-beet pulp (GSP). From d 108 until farrowing, sows were fed 1 of 6 transition diets with low or high dietary fat: a group received a standard diet (TSD; control) containing 3% animal fat, a group received the TSD diet + 2.5 g/d of hydroxyl methyl butyrate as topdressing (THB), and another 4 groups received diets with 8% added fat from coconut oil (TCO), sunflower oil (TSO), fish oil (TFO), or 4% octanoic acid + 4% fish oil (TOA). Two piglets per litter (the second- and fifth-born) were blood sampled and 1 was sacrificed immediately after birth, while the other, depending on the litter, was sacrificed after 12, 24, or 28.5 to 36 h (mean 32.5 h) of fasting. Samples of liver, M. longissimus dorsi (LM), M. semimembranousus (SM), and M. diaphragm (DP) were collected and analyzed for glycogen concentration.
No dietary effects on glycogen concentrations in liver, LM, SM, or DP were observed. Weight of liver was affected by gestation diet (P < 0.05) and was greater in GSD and GSP piglets (36.7 and 36.3 g) than in GPR piglets (32.6 g), while being intermediate (33.6 g) in GPP piglets. Liver weight, estimated muscle mass, and glycogen pools (P < 0.001) were affected by birth weight, whereas glycogen concentrations in liver and LM, SM, and DP muscles were not. Liver weight, glycogen concentrations in liver, LM, SM, and DP, and glycogen pools in liver and muscles decreased (P < 0.001) with increasing duration of fasting and at 32.5 h of fasting, glycogen concentration was reduced by 80% in liver, 64% in DP, 46% in SM, and 36% in LM. Based on a broken line model, labile glycogen in SM, a locomotory muscle, was estimated to be depleted after 16.4 h of fasting.
In conclusion, piglet size had a major impact on estimated glycogen pools, while sow nutrition in late gestation had minor impact if any. Furthermore, varying proportions of pools of glycogen present in liver and selected muscles were mobilized, and data indicate that newborn piglets are fatally depleted of energy after 16 h of fasting.
PK Theil, G Cordero, P Henckel, L Puggaard, N Oksbjerg and MT Sørensen, 2011. Journal of Animal Science, 89(6): 1805-1816. http://dx.doi.org/10.2527/jas.2010-2856
