Influence of Maternal Protein and Energy Nutrition during Gestation on Progeny Performance in Swine

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Abstract
THE sow appears to be able to buffer the offspring against nutritional protein and energy deficiency by drawing on her own reserves to allow fetal survival. Only during severe deficiency of either class of nutrients is birth weight reduced and only in the case of energy restriction does litter size appear to be adversely affected. Milk production is depressed by a deficiency of either protein or energy during gestation. Protein deprivation throughout gestation, but not energy restriction during this period, appears to have a permanent stunting effect on rate of weight gain to market weight. Therefore, there appears to be a different mechanism involved in causing the reduced birth weight of pigs from protein-deprived dams than from energy-restricted dams. The nature of this difference is unknown. The effect of protein or energy restriction of the sow during gestation on subsequent mature size of the progeny is not known. Studies of dam-fetal endocrine relationships and of the ontogeny of hyperplasia and hypertrophy of specific tissues in the pig as compared to the rat may offer a means of explaining species differences in the subsequent response to nutritional insults imposed in prenatal life. Copyright © 1973. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1973 by American Society of Animal Science.

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