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ARS Home » Midwest Area » West Lafayette, Indiana » Livestock Behavior Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #153910
Title: EFFECTS OF PRE-NATAL STRESS ON THE RESULTING OFFSPRING

Author
item Toscano, Michael
item Lay Jr, Donald

Submitted to: Swine Research Report
Publication Type: Experiment Station
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/2/2003
Publication Date: 11/2/2003
Citation: TOSCANO, M.J., LAY JR, D.C. EFFECTS OF PRE-NATAL STRESS ON THE RESULTING OFFSPRING. SWINE RESEARCH REPORT. 2003. P. 135.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: How an animal responds to stress varies tremendously from animal to animal and is likely a combination of several factors including previous experiences, age, and pre-natal stress. Pre-natal stress, or stress that is applied to the pregnant dam which can then affect her resulting offspring, is a phenomena that our lab has taken a central role in investigating. Our study involved an injection of adrenocorticotropin releasing hormone (ACTH) or a broader activation of the stress response with a rough handling (ROU) procedure. Treatments were applied to individually housed pregnant sows during a period of gestation believed to be critical to the development of tissues that have a primary role in the stress response. A third group served as a control (CONT) and was maintained in the same stalls. A variety of measures were taken from birth to slaughter and included production data, immune function, and sexual development. At birth, CONT pigs tended to have lower weights than the ACTH and ROU group (p<.03), although this weight difference reversed itself by weaning (~d 21) with the CONT gaining more and having greater weaning weights than the ACTH and ROU groups. Treatment had no effect on weight gain by slaughter. Following weaning, ACTH and ROU pigs had greater hematocrit and hemoglobin levels than the CONT group. In response to being regrouped at 4 months of age, granulocytes as a percentage of white blood cells were least in the ACTH group followed by the CONT and ROU groups (p<.05). During this same period, lymphocytes and monocytes as a percentage of all white blood cells was least in the ROU group followed by CONT and ACTH groups (p<.06: ACTH vs. CONT; p<.03: ACTH vs. ROU, ROU vs. CONT). At birth, male ano-genital distance was greater in CONT pigs (p<.0001). Our results suggest that pre-natal stress has far-reaching implications on a variety of parameters in swine development and the stress response. The interaction of treatment and age, i.e., differences in birth and weaning weights yet no difference at slaughter, suggest that the effects pre-natal stress are dynamic and continually changing. Additionally, the differences seen between the ACTH and ROU groups suggest that a mechanism beyond altered maternal glucocorticoid concentrations may be responsible for the effects.