By Anne Zinn
A recent study published in the Journal of Animal Science compared the performance and physiological responses of the offspring from cows supplemented with calcium salts of soybean oil (CSSO) or prilled saturated fat (CON) during late gestation. Maternal nutrition is a major factor in development of fetal organ systems associated with health, production, and reproduction; currently, the majority of research within this field is focused on energy and protein nutrition and limited information exists about the potential impacts of supplementing polyunsaturated fatty acids to gestating cows on offspring productivity.Therefore, the research team hypothesized that CSSO supplementation to late-gestating beef cows would improve lifelong offspring productivity via programming effects.
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