Publications by authors named "L Gress"

Limiting the level of piglet losses before weaning is a growing demand from producers and society to improve the welfare and health of sows and piglets. In particular, perinatal mortality, which can be defined as the complete development allowing survival at birth, is mostly due to reduced piglet maturity that occurs at the end of gestation. Fetal growth and maturation depend on a fine balance between the nutrient requirements for optimal fetal growth and the maternal nutrient requirements.

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The transition from a milk-based diet to exclusive solid feeding deeply modifies microbiota-host crosstalk. Specifically, early ingestion of plant polysaccharides would be one of the main nutritional components to drive host-microbiota-interaction. To capture the effects of polysaccharides early-life nutrition (starch vs rapidly fermentable fiber) on the holobiont development, we investigated on the one hand the gut bacteriome and metabolome and on the other hand the transcriptome of two host gut tissues.

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Coprophagia by suckling rabbits, i.e. ingestion of feces from their mother, reduces mortality after weaning.

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Background: A fine balance of feto-maternal resource allocation is required to support pregnancy, which depends on interactions between maternal and fetal genetic potential, maternal nutrition and environment, endometrial and placental functions. In particular, some imprinted genes have a role in regulating maternal-fetal nutrient exchange, but few have been documented in the endometrium. The aim of this study is to describe the expression of 42 genes, with parental expression, in the endometrium comparing two extreme breeds: Large White (LW); Meishan (MS) with contrasting neonatal mortality and maturity at two days of gestation (D90-D110).

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Together with environmental factors, physiological maturity at birth is a major determinant for neonatal survival and postnatal development in mammalian species. Maturity at birth is the outcome of complex mechanisms of intra-uterine development and maturation during the end of gestation. In pig production, piglet preweaning mortality averages 20% of the litter and thus, maturity is a major welfare and economic concern.

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