Lipidome profiles of postnatal day 2 vaginal swabs reflect fat composition of gilt’s postnatal diet

KaLynn Harlow; Christina R. Ferreira; Tiago J.P. Sobreira; Theresa Casey; Kara Stewart

Early nutritional environment affects long term health and fertility. In swine, colostrum ingestion 59 is essential for postnatal piglet survival, growth, and development because it provides immunity, 60 nutrients, energy, and bioactive factors [1, 2] . The window of opportunity for milk-borne bioactive 61 factors to influence neonate development is limited, and primarily occurs prior to closure of tight 62 junctions between cells lining the piglet's gut. Closure of the gut occurs by 48 h postnatal [3] . 63 During the first 48 h postnatal, piglets ingest up to 30% of their body weight in milk [4] . This time-64 period is a critical developmental period for the gilt reproductive system, including the formation 65 of uterine glands, otherwise known as adenogenesis [5, 6] . Colostrum ingestion significantly 66 affected the developmental trajectory of uterine tissue [7] [8] [9] [10] . Replacement gilts with less 67 colostrum consumption than littermates as indicated by blood immunocrit values had reduced litter 68 sizes relative to other sows [11, 12] . Colostrum-deprivation also resulted in significantly different 69 patterns of uterine gene and protein expression [13] .