Impact of Maternal Diet on Small Ruminant Colostrum Bioactives and Postnatal Health

母亲饮食对小反刍动物初乳生物活性和产后健康的影响

• 批准号: 567566-2021
• 负责人: Karrow, NielNA
• 金额: $ 5.1万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=743537
• 关键词: Impact; Maternal; Diet; Small; Ruminant

Canadian sheep production is majorly hampered by lamb mortalities that occur within 10 days of birth, which amounts to an estimated annual loss of approximately $180,000/year (~$250/lamb) in Ontario. Insufficient availability of nutrients during early life is one of the main causes of young animal morbidity and mortality, where colostrum is their main nutrient source. Colostrum contains many essential bioactives crucial for providing passive immunity to lambs, and "friendly" microbes that steer normal offspring development. Since colostrum quality is partially determined by maternal diet, there is potential to optimize maternal diet to improve colostrum quality and lamb robustness. Deficiency of Selenium (Se) can impair fertility, induce abortions, and lead to neonatal weakness or death shortly after birth. Supplementation of maternal diets with Se during late pregnancy can increase colostrum immunoglobulin G (IgG) that supports neonatal immunity. However, previous studies emphasize that dietary use of inorganic Se, which has lower absorption, is less effective than organic sources. Since Se levels are variable in soils across Ontario and Canada, this study is imperative for producers to have a strategy to enhance Se levels in animal feed. The proposed research aims to enhance lamb resilience by improving colostrum quality and passive transfer of colostrum bioactives and increasing the diversity of the lamb gut microbiome by the inclusion of organic Se in pre-partum ewe diets. A cutting-edge "omics" approach employing NextGen techniques will be employed to assess colostrum quality, passive transfer of bioactives and microbiome diversity in lambs. This multidisciplinary study will improve our understanding of colostrum bioactives and how organic Se improves colostrum quality and overall growth of lambs & reduces mortality. Beneficiaries of this project will be sheep producers, who will benefit from having an economical nutritional strategy to improve colostrum quality and postnatal lamb robustness that will add to the overall profitability and sustainability of herds. Additionally, this project will extensively characterize ovine colostrum and provide new insights into colostrum bioactives; which may be developed as value-added products.

加拿大绵羊生产主要受到羔羊出生后 10 天内死亡的影响，预计安大略省每年损失约 180,000 美元（约 250 美元/只羔羊）。生命早期营养不足是幼年动物发病和死亡的主要原因之一，而初乳是幼年动物的主要营养来源。初乳含有许多对为羔羊提供被动免疫力至关重要的重要生物活性物质，以及引导后代正常发育的“友好”微生物。由于初乳质量部分取决于母体饮食，因此有可能优化母体饮食以提高初乳质量和羔羊的健壮性。缺乏硒 (Se) 会损害生育能力、诱发流产并导致新生儿虚弱或出生后不久死亡。妊娠后期在母亲饮食中补充硒可以增加初乳免疫球蛋白 G (IgG)，从而支持新生儿免疫力。然而，之前的研究强调，膳食中使用吸收率较低的无机硒，其效果不如有机来源。由于安大略省和加拿大土壤中的硒含量存在差异，因此这项研究对于生产者制定提高动物饲料中硒含量的策略至关重要。拟议的研究旨在通过改善初乳质量和初乳生物活性物质的被动转移以及通过在产前母羊日粮中添加有机硒来增加羔羊肠道微生物组的多样性来增强羔羊的恢复能力。采用下一代技术的尖端“组学”方法将用于评估羔羊的初乳质量、生物活性物质的被动转移和微生物组多样性。这项多学科研究将增进我们对初乳生物活性物质以及有机硒如何提高初乳质量和羔羊整体生长并降低死亡率的了解。该项目的受益者将是绵羊生产者，他们将受益于经济的营养策略，以提高初乳质量和产后羔羊的健壮性，从而提高牛群的整体盈利能力和可持续性。此外，该项目将广泛表征绵羊初乳，并为初乳生物活性提供新的见解；可以将其开发为增值产品。