The effect of a low-Cu diet supplied to gilts during pregnancy and early lactation on dams and their offspring was obtained in seven pairs of first littermate gilts. They were housed in stainless steel metabolism cages in a controlled environment and fed semi-purified diets containing either 2.13 or 12.25 ppm Cu from 30 days of gestation through two weeks of lactation. Feed intake was restricted to 2 kg/day during pregnancy and 4 kg/day in the first two weeks of lactation. Reproductive performance of gilts was measured. Balance studies were conducted at 30, 60 and 100 days of gestation. Mineral levels in the plasma of gilts and piglets, and in colostrum and milk were determined. The low-Cu diet did not affect (p $>$ 0.05) weight changes during pregnancy. The duration of parturition was shorter for low-Cu than for control gilts (3.19h vs 5.71h, p 0.05). Low-Cu gilts had lower plasma Cu in early- and mid-gestation and farrowed piglets with lower plasma Cu and higher plasma Zn concentrations (p 0.05). Plasma Cu and Fe levels of newborn piglets were lower than those of their dams (p 0.05). Low-Cu gilts had lower Cu and higher Zn content in colostrum and also lower Cu in milk than control gilts (p 0.05). Colostrum was richer in Cu and Zn than milk (p 0.05). Higher dry matter digestibility was observed in low-Cu gilts during early gestation (p 0.05). Compared to control gilts, the low-Cu gilts tended to have higher Cu and Zn retention which was achieved by reduction of fecal Cu and Zn excretion. Utilization of minerals appeared to increase as pregnancy progressed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68185 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Cao, Jiayin |
| Contributors | Chavez, E. R. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Animal Science.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001397927, proquestno: AAIMM94443, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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