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, Niel
• 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: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=723398
• 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出生后10天内发生的羔羊死亡的阻碍，这相当于安大略估计每年损失约180，000美元/年（约250美元/羔羊）。在生命早期，营养物质的供应不足是幼龄动物发病和死亡的主要原因之一，而初乳是它们的主要营养来源。初乳含有许多重要的生物活性物质，这些物质对羔羊提供被动免疫至关重要，还含有指导后代正常发育的“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健壮性。硒缺乏会损害生育能力，诱发流产，并导致新生儿虚弱或出生后不久死亡。补充母亲的饮食与硒在怀孕后期可以增加初乳免疫球蛋白G（IgG），支持新生儿免疫。然而，以前的研究强调，膳食中使用无机硒，其吸收率较低，不如有机来源有效。由于安大略和加拿大的土壤中硒含量不同，因此这项研究对于生产商来说是必要的，因为生产商必须制定一项提高动物饲料中硒含量的战略。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饮食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韧性。采用NextGen技术的尖端“组学”方法将用于评估初乳质量、生物活性物质的被动转移和羔羊中的微生物组多样性。这项多学科的研究将提高我们对初乳生物活性物质的理解，以及有机硒如何提高初乳质量和羔羊的整体生长并降低死亡率。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健壮性，这将增加牛群的整体盈利能力和可持续性。此外，该项目将广泛表征羊初乳，并提供对初乳生物活性物质的新见解;这些生物活性物质可能被开发为增值产品。