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Perinatal ontogeny of fatty acid binding protein activity in porcine small intestine

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Growth and functional maturation of porcine small intestine was characterized in relation to stage of perinatal development. Fatty acid binding activity of specific low molecular weight, cytosolic proteins (FABPs) was measured in the small intestinal mucosae of young pigs. Intestinal mucosa mass, soluble protein content, DNA content and oleic acid-binding capacity were determined for pigs (n=4) at −4, 2, 4, 7, 14, 22, 28 and 35 days of age. FABP activity of mucosa from the proximal half of intestine displayed a cubic pattern of change (P<.01) with age, increasing from 15.2 nmol oleic acid bound at −4 days to 542.1 nmol bound at 14 days. Oleic acid-binding decreased to 240 nmol at 22 days (day 1 postweaning) but remained elevated above preweaning values at day 28. Distal-region small intestinal FABP activity corresponded to 13.5 nmol oleic acid bound at −4 days, increased to 124.3 nmol bound at day 7, and decreased to 103.0 nmol bound at day 14. Immediately postweaning, distal-region intestinal FABP activity increased three-fold relative to the day 14 values. Proximal intestine FABP activities exceeded distal intestine activities for all days except at day 22. Total FABP activity, adjusted per mg DNA, exhibited a nine-fold increase in the proximal region of the small intestine between −4 days and day 7. The developmental variation in intestinal FABP activity suggests that FABPs may represent markers of neonatal intestinal differentiation and lipid absorptive capacity in the neonate.
... Tokach et al. (1995) showed that during the first 14 d after weaning, added fat had no effect on growth performance. This response may be attributed to the slow development of fatty acid binding protein in the intestinal epithelium of the weaned pigs (Reinhardt et al., 1992). The responses observed in the Tokach et al. (1995) trial and our experiment show that the ability to utilize fat in nursery diets may not be age-dependent per se, but rather dependent on the physiological development of the pig. ...
... The ages of pigs in both experiments were similar (28 and 31 d); however, pigs in our experiment were weaned at 10 d of age and had been fed diets for 3 wk, whereas pigs in the study by Tokach et al. (1995) were weaned on d 28. Based on the results of Reinhardt et al. (1992), pigs used in that latter study had not yet developed the mechanisms to utilize dietary fat. Nam and Aherne (1994) observed improved feed efficiency during the first 2 wk after weaning with increasing tallow. ...
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Crossbred barrows (n = 336 Newsham Hybrids) initially 9.9 kg and 31+/-2 d of age were used to evaluate the effects of energy density and lysine:calorie ratio on growth performance. Pigs were allotted by initial weight in a 3 x 4 factorial arrangement of treatments in a randomized complete block design with six replicate pens per treatment. Each pen had four or five pigs with an equal number of pigs per pen within replicate. Pigs were fed increasing dietary energy densities (3.25, 3.38, and 3.51 Mcal ME/kg) and lysine:calorie ratios (3.00, 3.45, 3.90, and 4.35 g lysine/Mcal ME). Energy density was changed by levels of choice white grease (0, 3, and 6%), and lysine:calorie ratio was changed by altering the corn:soybean meal ratio. Over the 21-d trial, an energy density x lysine:calorie ratio interaction was observed for ADG (P < .05). Pigs fed diets containing 3.25 or 3.51 Mcal ME/kg had increasing ADG with increasing lysine:calorie ratio, whereas ADG of pigs fed 3.38 Mcal ME/kg was not affected by lysine:calorie ratio. Feed efficiency (gain:feed ratio) increased and ADFI decreased as lysine:calorie ratio increased (linear, P < .01) and as energy density increased (quadratic, P < .01 and .10, respectively). On d 21, two pigs per pen were scanned ultrasonically for backfat depth. An energy density x lysine:calorie ratio interaction (P < .06) was observed. Pigs fed diets containing 3.25 and 3.38 Mcal ME/kg had decreasing fat depth as lysine:calorie ratio increased; however, backfat depth was not affected by lysine:calorie ratio and was greatest for pigs fed 3.51 Mcal ME/kg. These results suggest that 10- to 25-kg pigs fed diets containing 3.38 Mcal ME/kg had maximum feed efficiency and that they required at least 4.35 g lysine/Mcal ME. However, pigs fed 3.51 Mcal ME/kg had increased fat depth regardless of calorie:lysine ratio.
... The observed improvement in G:F of pigs fed diets containing 50 g/kg CWG without or with heat stress is in agreement with results indicating that addition of 40 g/kg soybean oil improved G:F of pigs kept at 20°C or 30°C (Hsia and Lu, 2004). The reason no change in G:F was observed from day 1 to 14 and from day 15 to 28 may be that pigs do not utilize added dietary animal fat efficiently before they have a body weight close to 15 kg (Cera et al., 1990;Reinhart et al., 1992;Adeola et al., 2013). ...
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