Meat Science Commons^™

Asas-Ssr Triennnial Reproduction Symposium: Looking Back And Moving Forward—How Reproductive Physiology Has Evolved: Fetal Origins Of Impaired Muscle Growth And Metabolic Dysfunction: Lessons From The Heat-Stressed Pregnant Ewe, Dustin T. Yates, Jessica Lynn Petersen, Ty B. Schmidt, Caitlin N. Cadaret, Taylor L. Barnes, Robert J. Posont, Kristin A. Beede

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is the second leading cause of perinatal mortality and predisposes offspring to metabolic disorders at all stages of life. Muscle-centric fetal adaptations reduce growth and yield metabolic parsimony, beneficial for IUGR fetal survival but detrimental to metabolic health after birth. Epidemiological studies have reported that IUGRborn children experience greater prevalence of insulin resistance and obesity, which progresses to diabetes, hypertension, and other metabolic disorders in adulthood that reduce quality of life. Similar adaptive programming in livestock results in decreased birth weights, reduced and inefficient growth, decreased carcass merit, and substantially greater mortality rates prior to maturation. …