In the early postnatal period, the permeability of the piglet small intestine is high to compensate for the absence of trans-placental transfer of immunoglobulins during the fetal period. Vesicles, which mainly reflect the uptake of macromolecules and other colostral/milk components, were studied in three different regions of the small intestine – proximal, mid and distal – in a total of twelve piglets on day 0 (unsuckled and colostrums-fed), 2 and 6 (all suckled). Tissues were sampled and prepared for light microscopy (paraffin and cryo) and trans-electron microscopy. Different methods were applied to visualize cytoplasmatic subcellular components such as fat (Oil red O) and carbohydrates (PAS). Appearance and morphology of the epithelial vesicles were compared.
In the proximal region several small supranuclear and a single large subnuclear electron dense, eosinophilic and PAS+ vesicle were present. They disappeared after 2 days (gut closure) and on day 6 adult-looking epithelial cells were present. In the distal region of day 0 pigs digestion vesicles/flocculent vesicles were observed in the cytoplasma. The vesicles appeared empty but with eosinophilic, PAS+ and electron dense precipitations. The size and variation of these vesicles increased with age. Fat absorption increased markedly from day 2 to day 6.
The observations indicate that in general colostral absorption processes are initiated prenatally, persist after birth and in the distal region also after gut closure. Fat absorption increased after gut closure, and in the distal region the increase correlated with e.g. IgG absorption. 相似文献
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are essential for the development of the nervous system in animals, and increased concentration of n−3 PUFA in maternal diet improves the cognitive development of mammalian foetuses. In this study the effect of maternal diet fatty acid composition in pigs on the development of the central nervous system, monitored as behaviour of piglets, was investigated using three behavioural tests: recognition of the mother's faeces, back test, and hidden door test.Twenty-seven multiparous Yorkshire sows were split into four groups and fed diets with different content of fat and PUFA throughout pregnancy and lactation. LF (n = 6) was fed a standard diet, HFS (n = 4) a high fat and low PUFA diet, HFO (n = 7) a high n−6 PUFA diet, and HFL (n = 10) a high n−3 PUFA diet.Three behavioural tests were performed on 5–7 randomly chosen piglets per litter (n = 167). Recognition of the mother's faeces was tested in a maze two days after birth. Back test was performed twice (2–4 d and 4 w) and a hidden door test was performed at 4 w. In addition, the brain content of docosahexaenoic acid (22:6 n−3, DHA) of the newborn piglets was determined in treatment groups. Data from the tests were analysed with linear mixed models for each of the tests.Piglets from HFL treatment had significantly higher content of DHA (P < 0.001) and the ratio of n−6/n−3 PUFA was significantly lower in brain tissue (P < 0.001), compared to piglets from the other treatments. In parity 3, means for recognition for mother's faeces were for diets LF, HFS, HFO and HFL; 22.2, 37.0, 26.4 and 18.0%, respectively (P < 0.05), but no other significant effect of diet was found. Piglets in HFS treatment had the shortest latency to make escape attempts and HFO piglets the longest latency in the back test (P = 0.030). No significant effect of sow diet was found on piglet performance in the hidden door test, but intermediate piglets weighing 1410–1619 g had a lower probability of success in hidden door test than piglets weighing < 1410 g (P = 0.028), and ≥ 1875 g (P = 0.027), respectively.It was found that sow diet influenced the DHA content in the piglet brains, but there was no clear effect of sow diet on piglet behaviour. In order to draw any conclusions about possible enhancements of the behavioural development of the piglet more studies need to be performed. 相似文献
The aim of this study is to explore the potential use of the information generated by the Spanish traceability program (SIMOGAN) for animal breeding purposes in the Pirenaica beef cattle breed. The traits included in the study were: cold carcass weight (CW, n = 20,010), conformation (CON, n = 15,808), fat cover (FC, n = 13,739) and colour (COL, n = 3477) from the SIMOGAN database; and weaning weight (WW, n = 15,561) from the Breeders Association (CONASPI) database. Posterior marginal estimates of genetic parameters were obtained using Bayesian inference, implemented via a Gibbs sampling scheme. Posterior marginal means of heritabilities were 0.34, 0.28, 0.19, 0.23 and 0.38 for CW, CON, FC, COL and WW, respectively. Moreover, posterior marginal distributions of genetic correlations between CW-CON, CW-WW, CON-FC and FC-WW do not include the zero within the Highest Posterior Density (HPD) at 95%, and their posterior mean estimates were 0.30, 0.54, − 0.35 and 0.23, respectively. These results indicate that there is enough genetic variability for selection in CW, CON, FC, COL and WW. The availability of records is potentially abundant at a very low cost, thus they can be easily included in the selection criteria. Consequences of the current selection criteria (WW) and other possible alternatives are discussed. 相似文献