Recent literature suggests that exposure of the sire to excess or inadequate nutrition before breeding could contribute to altered growth, metabolism, and reproduction of their offspring. Exposure of the offspring to postnatal environmental stressors may further exacerbate the effects of sire nutrition on growth and metabolism. Utilizing a divergent plane of nutrition model in mature rams, our results demonstrated that female offspring exhibited differences in growth and glucose metabolism based on paternal nutritional status. Overnutrition in sires influenced growth in female offspring, particularly when ewes were managed at a greater rate of gain. Additionally, a glucose tolerance test following a period of weight gain revealed that insulin secretion was impaired in ewe lambs sired by undernourished rams. Minimal differences in ovarian characteristics and ovarian reserve were observed in offspring for either sire or ewe lamb dietary treatments, but the potential for epigenetic modifications to the gametes remains to be explored. These findings suggest a role of prebreeding paternal nutrition in the metabolic programming of their female offspring during in utero development.

Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.