Dietary ω-6 to ω-3 Ratio Impacts Nursery Pigs More than ω-3 Intake Alone

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on December 2, 2014

Weaning is a stressful time in a piglet’s life. They undergo social, environmental and nutritional stressors at a time when their immune  system is not fully developed. Th is can precipitate the ‘post-weaning growth lag’, which is characterized by animals going off feed, reduced or negative growth rates and increased susceptibility to pathogens. These stresses can trigger an inflammatory reaction in some piglets. Although a certain degree of an inflammatory response is beneficial, an over-production of inflammatory cells may become detrimental to the animals, leading to reduced muscle synthesis or even muscle degradation, characteristic of the post-weaning growth lag.  Over the years, there has been a high degree of interest in nutritional modulation aimed at helping piglets cope during this time period.  Omega 3 fatty acids have many potential health benefits, including anti-inflammatory properties. Previous research however, has shown conflicting data in terms of inflammatory responses and animal performance when ω-3’s are fed. We hypothesize that different concentrations of ω-6 fatty acids in the diet among the different studies may explain some of these contradictions. In fact, it has been suggested that it may be more beneficial to reduce the dietary ω-6 to ω-3 FA ratio when feeding pigs than to simply increase the ω-3 amount, in order to see benefits.

Omega 6 to Omega 3 Ratios

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