Intravenous administration of arginine to twin-bearing ewes enhances birth weight and peri-renal fat stores of female offspring in sheep

TL;DRAbstract

Advances in genetic selection and breeding have significantly increased the proportion of multiple-bearing pregnancies in sheep. However, competition between littermates in mid to late gestation leads to lower birth weight and increased mortality compared to their singleton counterparts, even when ewes are fed on a high plane of nutrition (McCoard et al., 2000; Wu et al., 2006). Intervention strategies are not currently available to ameliorate the effect of fetal growth restriction in utero that results from multiple-bearing pregnancies. Recent research in sheep has indicated that maternal supplementation with L-arginine in mid-late gestation can relieve the restriction on fetal growth induced by under-feeding or increased litter number (quadruplets; Lassala et al., 2011, 2012). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of parenteral administration of L-arginine to well-fed twin-bearing ewes from 100 days gestation to birth on lamb birth weight and body composition.

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