High environmental temperatures detrimentally affect the productive performance and welfare of lactating sows. Reduced litter growth is linked to decreased sow milk production, but there may be other factors related to maternal heat stress that impact neonate development. For example, heat stress can increase the risk for lipid damage. Here, we describe our investigation of whether cooling sows in a heat stress environment with electronic conductive cooling pads with and without dietary supplementation with Moringa oleifera, a high-antioxidant feedstuff, influenced the lipid composition of neonate buccal cells (cheek cells). Factors including electronic cooling pads, Moringa supplementation, sex, and sow parity all influenced lipid profiles of neonates. The use of cooling pads led to an increase in longer-chain fatty acyl groups, particularly in triacylglycerols. Moringa supplementation resulted in an increase in longer fatty acyl chains and bimodal changes in lipid unsaturation, affecting both triacylglycerol and membrane lipid composition. Changes in lipid composition of buccal cells mirrored changes in milk lipids in response to sow treatments, indicating that milk lipids affect the composition of neonate cell lipids. Future studies are warranted to determine if alterations in neonate lipid metabolism due to maternal heat stress affect their growth and development.

Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.