ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1646332
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Nutritional Strategies for Optimizing Swine Growth Performance and Gut HealthView all 6 articles
Reduction in within-litter variation of piglet birth weight by dietary supplementation of 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid in sows
Provisionally accepted
- 1Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, Zhengzhou, China
- 2Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China
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Within-litter variations in birth weight influence piglet postnatal growth and survival rate. The present study investigated the effects of the valine metabolite 3hydroxyisobutyric acid (3-HIB) on birth weight of piglets by supplementing sow diet with 3-HIB during late pregnancy. Forty sows were assigned randomly to the control group and 3-HIB supplementation groups (15 mg/kg body weight), with 20 sows per group. The experiment was conducted from day 85 of pregnancy until farrowing. 3-HIB supplementation significantly decreased the number of piglets with body weight < 1 kg, litter weight variation, and stillbirth number (p < 0.05) but had no significant effect on the organ index of newborn piglets. Compared to the control group, 3-HIB supplementation significantly increased the concentration of triglycerides in the placental tissue of sows (p < 0.05). The levels of total monounsaturated fatty acids and partial polyunsaturated fatty acids (C20:4 n-6, C20:5 n-3, and C22:6) in the plasma of piglets were significantly higher in the 3-HIB supplementation group than in the control group (p < 0.05). The results of lipid metabolism-related protein expression indicated that compared with the control group, the 3-HIB group significantly increased the expression of lipid transport-related proteins (SLC27A1 and FABP3) in the placenta of sows and fatty acid oxidation protein (CPT-1) in the muscle of piglets (p < 0.05). In conclusion, adding 3-HIB to sow diet enhances piglet energy supply by promoting maternal-to-fetal fatty acid transport and fatty acid oxidation in piglet muscles, ultimately reducing within-litter body weight variation in newborn piglets.
Keywords: sow, gestation, Piglet birth weight, 3-hydroxyisobutyric acid, Lipid Metabolism
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Che, Niu, Liu, Li, Huo, Deng, Chen, Pang and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mengmeng Xu, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, Zhengzhou, China
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