Effect of Early Nutrition on the Development of Adipose Tissue in the Pig. II. Weight Constant Basis

Abstract

This project was developed to investigate the possibility of employing early postnatal nutritional manipulation as a means of changing the final fat mass in swine. Restricted feed intake during the suckling period exerted little effect on the adipose cell number and cell size of subcutaneous, viscera and bone fat of the pig, thus giving no appreciable differences in total fat mass between controls and underfed pigs at a constant body weight of 80 kilograms. Restricting nutrition soon after birth did have an effect on the development of intramuscular fat tissue, resulting in lower marbling scores, lower percent ether extractable lipid in muscle and a lesser amount of total intramuscular fat in underfed pigs. This difference was caused by fewer and smaller cells in underfed pigs, indicating that the nutritional manipulation appeared to change the cell population in this particular adipose site of the pig. This differential response of adipose sites to early nutrition led to a postulate that the intramuscular adipose tissue is the latest developing tissue with some portions of preadipocytes differentiating and developing after birth and thus is under the influence of early nutrition to a greater extent than other adipose tissues. From these findings, it is suggested that the restriction of caloric intake during the suckling period cannot be employed to reduce fat content of market swine. Copyright © 1973. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1973 by American Society of Animal Science.