Docosahexaenoic acid and neurologic development in animals.

Feeding dams a diet enriched with DHA during gestation and lactation has been associated with improvements in neurologic development of their puppies. Also, feeding diets or supplements containing DHA may improve memory or learning in young dogs.

Long-chain (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids are more efficient than alpha-linolenic acid in improving electroretinogram responses of puppies exposed during gestation, lactation, and weaning.

Long-chain PUFAs (LCPUFAs) are essential for proper neural and retinal development in many mammalian species. We investigated puppies born to dogs fed diets containing varying amounts of vegetable and marine (n-3) fatty acids during gestation/lactation. The fatty acid compositions of dogs' milk and puppy plasma phospholipids were evaluated, and electroretinographic responses of the young dogs were determined after they were weaned to the same diets.