Journal
JOURNAL OF ANIMAL SCIENCE
Volume 93, Issue 12, Pages 5754-5763Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
DOI: 10.2527/jas.2015-9293
Keywords
arginine; low birth weight; metabolomics; piglet
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Funding
- University of Illinois College of ACES James Scholar Honors Program
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Large profit losses in the swine industry can be attributed to morbidity and mortality of piglets before weaning, especially in the low birth weight (LBW) piglet. Recent evidence suggests sow's milk contains insufficient concentrations of Arg to support optimal growth and health of piglets. Therefore, our objective was to assess global metabolomic profiles and the potential for Arg supplementation to promote growth of LBW (<= 0.9 kg BW) and average birth weight (ABW; 1.3 to 1.5 kg BW) piglets. Piglets were selected in littermate pairs at processing to receive either L-Arg or an isonitrogenous control (L-Ala) and weighed daily to assess growth rate, and blood was collected at approximately 16 d of age for metabolomics analysis. In terms of growth, LBW and ABW piglets supplemented with Arg weighed 22.3 and 12.7% less, respectively, at d 16 compared with Ala-supplemented piglets of the same birth weight group. Overall, differences (P < 0.05) were observed among treatments for metabolic pathways involving energy (i.e., tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates), AA, nucleotides, and fatty acids. Increased nucleotide turnover, indicative of an increase in DNA damage and cell death, was particularly noted in the LBW piglet. However, Arg supplementation reduced these effects to levels comparable to those observed in ABW piglets. Moreover, changes in glucose metabolism suggested a compromised ability to extract energy from dietary sources may have occurred in the LBW piglet, but these effects were partially recovered by Arg supplementation. We conclude that a reduction in the growth potential of LBW piglets may be associated with alterations in multiple metabolic pathways, and further reduction due to Arg supplementation may have resulted from perturbations in multiple metabolic pathways.
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