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Dietary fat can influence the skeletal muscle fatty acid composition. During the lactation period, it is common for the sows to lose weight due to fat and protein mobilization. Therefore, fat is often added to the diet of lactating sows. However, it is still unclear whether the dietary fat consumed by the sow during the lactation period influences the fatty acid composition of the offspring pigs. The present study was conducted to investigate whether maternal dietary fat affects the fatty acid composition of the longissimus thoracis (LT) muscle in offspring pigs at weaning and finishing stages. Fourteen Large White × Landrace sows (2rd to 3rd parity) were randomly assigned to either a control (n = 6) or a high-fat diet (HF, n = 8) group. Starting seven days before farrowing and continuing throughout the lactation period, the control sows were fed a control diet, and the sows in the HF group were fed a diet containing 8% corn oil. After weaning, all the piglets were randomly divided into 5 pens were maintained under identical feeding conditions, with the standard regimen diet comprising of weaning, growing and finishing diets.
The results showed that a high-fat diet significantly increased the contents of serum-lipid-related indexes in the sows. Although the triglyceride content did not change, the C18:2n−6 content (P= 0.02) was significantly higher in the HF group compared with the control group, whereas the C18:3n−6 (P<0.01), C20:3n−6 (P= 0.02) and C20:5n−3 (P< 0.01) contents were significantly lower. The total n−6 content and the n−6/n−3 ratio generally increased. LT muscle fatty acid composition at finishing stage, the HF group exhibited higher contents of C18:2n−6 (P= 0.04) and C20:4n−6 (P= 0.01). No significant differences were observed in total SFA, MUFA, and PUFA contents. The ratio of n−6 PUFA to n−3 PUFA was slightly elevated (P= 0.09) in HF offspring.
In summary, a high-fat maternal diet during the lactation period changed the colostrum in sows and LT muscle fatty acid composition in offspring pigs. The total PUFA and n−6 fatty acid contents increased in the LT muscle of the progeny of sows fed a high-fat diet, but the total fat content did not change significantly.
Ci, L., Sun, H., Huang, Y., Albrecht, E., Guo, J., Zhao, R., Yang, X (2014). Maternal dietary fat affects the LT muscle fatty acid composition of progeny at weaning and finishing stages in pigs. Meat Science 96:1141–1146. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.meatsci.2013.10.033