Endocrine Abstracts

In humans, pregnancy is considered a diabetogenic event1. A similar situation occurs in sows1. The amount of fat in the sows' diet is inversely correlated to glucose clearance time, thus modifying glucose tolerance2. The aim was to investigate the influence of altered maternal diet during gestation (term = 115days) on the glucose tolerance of the sow. Thirty-four pregnant sows were randomly allocated to 4 isocaloric diets for either the first (G1) or second (G2) 60 days of gestation as follows: control (C: n=6) 3.3 kg of standard diet or 3.0 kg of standard diet with a top-dressing of olive (O: n=9), palm (P: n=9) or fish oil (F: n=10). On day 110 of gestation a glucose tolerance test (GTT) was performed by administering glucose intravenously (0.5 g/kg live weight). Blood glucose concentration was assessed at -10, -5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75 and 90 minutes post administration and the area under the curve (AUC) calculated. Data were analysed using General Linear Model, ANOVA; values are presented as mean±SEM. Basal glucose was similar between all treatments (3.22±0.38 mmol/l). There was no effect of treatment on AUC. However, AUC was higher (P<0.05) in G1 (695.7±52.20 (mmol/l).min) compared to G2 sows (448.8±81.04 (mmol/l).min), which was particularly apparent in O and P sows (O: P=0.058; G1: 717.8±68.72; G2: 448.1±97.18 (mmol/l).min, P: P=0.069; G1: 711.9±107.3; G2: 366.4±119.9 (mmol/l).min). In conclusion, the timing of maternal dietary supplementation can have a pronounced effect on glucose tolerance in pregnant sows but it is not yet known whether alterations in maternal glucose metabolism can affect the health and development of their offspring.

1Kemp B, et al., 1996 J Anim Sci 74: 879-885

2Kasser TR, et al., 1981 J Anim Sci 53:S1, 250

The study was part of PeriLip, supported by the EU (QLK1-2001-00138).