Effect of fish oil supplementation in sow diet during late gestation and lactation period on litter characteristics, milk composition and fatty acid profile of sows and their offspring

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the effect of supplementing the sow diet with fish oil on litter characteristics, fatty acid composition and desaturase expression of sows and their progeny. Sixteen second-parity sows were allocated equally into two groups. Sows were fed either the soybean oil diet (SD) or soybean oil + fish oil diet (FD) during the late gestation and lactation periods. Fatty acid composition was evaluated in the red blood cell (RBC) of sows, full-term placenta, RBC of cord blood, milk and livers of piglets. The expression of fatty acid desaturases mRNA was measured in placenta and livers of piglets. The proportion of 20:5n-3 (p