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Effect of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Vitamin E Level of the Sow Gestation Diet on Reproductive Performance and on Level of Alpha Tocopherol in Colostrum, Milk and Dam and Progeny Blood Serum

Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 14853^{1, 2,}

Abstract

Sixteen Yorkshire gilts were assigned randomly to four semi-purified diets fed throughout gestation and lactation. Two sources of fat (stripped lard and stripped corn oil) were fed factorially with two levels of vitamin E (-tocopheryl acetate, 0 and 100 IU/kg of diet). All diets were supplemented with .05 ppm Se as Na₂SeO₃. Reproductive performance (litter size, individual pig birth weight, weaning weight and livability) was not affected by diet. No signs of selenium-vitamin E deficiency were noted in either dams or progeny. Serum -tocoperhol concentration of dams was significantly reduced with low vitamin E diets and was higher in diets containing lard plus vitamin E than in diets containing corn oil plus vitamin E at 2, 8 and 12 weeks and immediately pre-partum. Concentration of -tocopherol in colostrum and milk fat was several-fold higher with supplemental dietary vitamin E than without and lard tended to promote a higher concentration than corn oil although the difference was not significant. There was a pronounced decrease in -tocopherol concentration in all diet groups in colostrum compared with milk at 3 weeks lactation. Diet did not affect colostral or milk cholesterol concentration or dam or newborn progeny serum cholesterol levels. Progeny of sows in all diet groups had significantly higher serum -tocopherol concentrations than those of their dams (P<.05 for vitamin E supplemented groups, P<.001 for groups not supplemented with vitamin E). The absence of clinical signs of vitamin E-selenium deficiency in newborn progeny of dams fed vitamin E deficient diets and the higher serum -tocopherol concentrations in unsuckled newborn pigs than in their dams suggests that selenium may play an important role in transport of vitamin E across the placenta in swine.

¹ Department of Animal Science.

² This work was supported in part from NIH Grant No. HD 06962, U.S.D.A. Hatch funds and State University of New York. We are grateful to A. Avery, C. Avery, A. Chandler and V. Fawcett for laboratory work and animal care and Priscilla Lawrence for stenographic work.