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D. N. Coleman, A. Relling, K. C. Rivera-Acevedo, 356 The effects of supplementing eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahenaenoic acid during late gestation on lamb metabolism and performance, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 95, Issue suppl_2, March 2017, Pages 173–174, https://doi.org/10.2527/asasmw.2017.356
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Abstract
Fatty acids are involved in the regulation of many physiological pathways and can have lifelong impacts on offspring development and metabolism via maternal supplementation. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the impact of supplementing ewes with a diet enriched in omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahenaenoic acid (DHA) during late gestation on lamb metabolism and performance. Eighty-four gestating ewes were blocked by conception date into group pens with 3 animals per pen and randomly assigned to a diet enriched with MUFA (EnerG II) or the PUFA (STRATA G113) EPA and DHA during the last 50 d of gestation. With a biohydrogenation rate of 50%, the target dose of EPA and DHA supplemented was 18 mg/kg of metabolic BW (BW0.75), with total fat supplementation on MUFA and PUFA being fed at the same percent of the diet. After lambing, ewes and lambs were placed on pasture until weaning at 60 d of age. Lambs born from these ewes were weighed and bled at Day 0, 30, and 60. Plasma glucose, NEFA, and insulin were measured using colorimetric assays, and ADG was calculated. An immunoassay was tested to measure the metabolic hormone adropin, measuring parallel displacement and recovery. For insulin and adropin, only the Day 60 plasma samples were used. Data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design with repeated measurements (SAS 9.4; SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC). Lambs born form ewes supplemented with MUFA or PUFA did not have different BW (15.8 kg for MUFA and 16.4 kg for PUFA; P = 0.22), ADG (0.32 kg/d for MUFA and 0.34 kg/d for PUFA; P = 0.21), or plasma glucose (93.68 mg/dL for MUFA and 96.47 mg/dL for PUFA; P = 0.50) and NEFA (514.68 mg/dL for MUFA and 493.39 mg/dL for PUFA; P = 0.52) and insulin (0.22 ng/mL for MUFA and 0.25 ng/mL for PUFA; P = 0.59) concentrations. Human adropin assays are a valid method to measure ovine adropin concentration. This study suggests that supplementation of ewes with EPA and DHA compared with MUFA during late gestation does not have any significant impact on their offspring up to weaning. Further laboratory analyses will confirm whether the dose of EPA and DHA was high enough to increase concentrations of these fatty acids in ewe and lamb plasma. Future research should investigate the potential effects of supplementing higher doses of EPA and DHA to ewes during late gestation and effects on offspring.
