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The previous post, we shared Chapter 7 of Animal Lipid Science, Lipids for Breeding Pigs, and Short and Medium Chain Fatty Acids for Piglets.
In this post, , we will continue to share about long-chain fatty acids, fatty acid balance and piglet nutrition, and lipid nutrition for growing and fattening pigs.
Long-chain fatty acids and piglets
n-3 PUFA protects piglet intestinal health, and n-6 PUFA (especially ARA) and its metabolites promote repair after intestinal injury; conjugated linoleic acid protects intestinal health and reduces intestinal inflammation in a variety of intestinal injury models.
Several studies (see inside pages of Animal Lipid Science) have shown that the addition of long-chain fatty acids to diets significantly improves piglet growth performance and increases average daily weight gain and average daily feed intake.
Combined with the rest of Chapter 7, Section 2 of Animal Lipid Science, it can be seen that fatty acids of different chain lengths have unique digestive, absorptive and metabolic characteristics in piglets. Fatty acids not only provide energy for piglets, but also affect their intestinal structure and function, inflammatory response, immune function and micro-ecological balance, and improve their production performance.
Application of fatty acid balance theory to piglet diets
Fatty acid balance mainly consists of three major fatty acid balances: unsaturated/saturated (U/S), n-3/n-6 and short-medium-long chain.
Studies have shown that the fat digestibility of piglets depends on the ratio of U/S in the diet; under the premise that the total dietary fat remains unchanged, changing the ratio of its n-3/n-6 PUFA affects the production performance and immune function of weaned piglets; and the appropriate ratios of short-, medium-, and long-chain fatty acids are of great significance to piglets.
Section III Lipid Nutrition in Growing and Fattening Pigs
In this section of Growing and Fattening Pigs, Animal Lipid Science describes in detail the lipid deposition pattern, fatty acid deposition characteristics of growing and fattening pigs. The basic law of lipid deposition in pigs is that it is stronger at birth, then declines, starts to rise back up at 60 to 90 days of age, and then continues to rise.
Medium and short chain fatty acids can reduce the intestinal PH value of growing and fattening pigs,balance the intestinal flora and maintain intestinal integrity. In addition, different kinds of medium-chain fatty acids have inhibitory effects on Gram bacteria and viruses. The antimicrobial activity of medium- and short-chain fatty acids helps to reduce the growth of pathogenic microbial populations, improve the utilization of feed energy and nutrients, and has the remarkable effect of replacing growth-promoting antibiotics.
Long-chain fatty acids are important energy substrates, and the primary role of fatty acids is to store or provide energy for organismally mature growing and fattening pigs, with other functional roles being weakened.
Among them, n-3 PUFA and n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio have an effect on the immune status of pigs. n-3 PUFA has an immune-enhancing effect, whereas an excessively high n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio can lead to an increase in the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which can over-enhance inflammatory responses.
In addition, long-chain fatty acids are important for lowering heat gain and reducing the amount of heat produced during feed digestion. High-fat feeds improve performance in heat-stressed pigs, and lower metabolic heat production leads to lower energy expenditure to maintain a constant temperature, allowing more energy to be used for tissue growth.
The above is a great summary of Chapter 7 of Animal Lipid Science, if you are interested, you can follow our website for more great professional content.
