Effect of Dietary Starch-to-Fat Ratio on Lipid Metabolism, Inflammation, and Microbiota of Multiparous Sow and Newborn Piglets

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Regarding MS entitled ‘’ Effect of dietary starch-to-fat ratio on lipid metabolism, inflammation and microbiota of multiparous sow and newborn piglets’’

L20. Lipid metabolite, please define

Many information is missing in the abstract such as antioxidants, fecal SCFAs, and microbiota. The authors should add them. The abstract should be representative of the study.

L23-25. Please rephrase

L83. Please add body weight with SE or SEM, what about the number of piglets, increased number of piglets affects the metabolism of sow

L84. Add ref, on which basis the authors decided high, medium, low

L106. Revise

L132. Add ref to the equation of digestibility

Table 6 title please revise like other tables

L328. Rephrase

moderate English revision

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Effect of dietary starch-to-fat ratio on lipid metabolism, inflammation and microbiota of multiparous sow and newborn piglets” (ID agriculture-2387897). Those comments were very valuable and helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made corrections that we hope meet with approval. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the comments are as following, and revised portion are marked in red in the paper. We look forward to hearing from you and would be pleased to answer any further questions you might have.

Best regards,

Hu Liu

China Agricultural University

Email: [email protected]

L20. Lipid metabolite, please define

Response: Thank you for your comments. In the current study, reducing the ratio of starch to fat in the diet increased the concentration of plasma biochemical parameters (e.g., total cholesterol, triglycerides) in the sow. Therefore, to accurately describe the results, we have modified this sentence as follows: “Decreased dietary starch-to-fat ratio increased the concentration of plasma triglycerides, total cholesterol, and GSH-Px in sows” (See line 20)

Many information is missing in the abstract such as antioxidants, fecal SCFAs, and microbiota. The authors should add them. The abstract should be representative of the study.

Response: Thank you for your comments. The abstract has been rewritten based on your suggestions

This experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of dietary starch-to-fat ratio on reproductive performance and lipid metabolism of sows and newborn piglets. A total of 75 Landrace ´  Yorkshire multiparous sows at d 84 of gestation were selected and randomly divided into three groups based on body weight. From d 85 of gestation to farrowing, sows were fed one of three dietary starch-to-fat ratios (20:1, 10:1, and 5:1). Dietary high starch-to-fat ratio increased birth weight of piglets (p < 0.05). The apparent total digestibility of dry matter, organic matter and gross energy of sows was improved by increasing starch-to-fat ratio during gestation (p < 0.05). Decreased dietary starch-to-fat ratio increased the concentration of plasma triglycerides, total cholesterol, and GSH-Px in sows (p < 0.05). During parturition, sows had increased plasma interleukin (IL) -1β, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor in low ratio group (p < 0.05). The relative abundance of Streptococcaceae in low ratio group was significantly higher (p < 0.05). The medium dietary starch-to-fat ratio significantly increased the concentrations of short chain fatty acids. In conclusion, this study suggested that sows’ dietary with high starch to fat ratio could ameliorate lipid metabolism disorder and maternal inflammation during late gestation. (See line 13-26)

L23-25. Please rephrase

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised this paragraph (See line 24-26)

L83. Please add body weight with SE or SEM, what about the number of piglets, increased number of piglets affects the metabolism of sow

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised the description as followed: “A total of 75 Landrace ´ Yorkshire multiparous sows (body weight: 259.7 ± 2.68 kg) were selected to the experiment.” (See line 78-79)

In the present study, there was no significant difference in the number of piglets among the three treatments. Thus, the effect of piglets’ number affecting the metabolism of sows was not considered in this study.

L84. Add ref, on which basis the authors decided high, medium, low

Response: Thank you for your comments. Based on review of literatures, the starch-to-fat ratio in majority sows’ dietaries during late gestation was close to 10:1. So our previous study [1] and current study was signed 10:1 as the medium starch-to-fat ratio group. On this basis, the high starch-to-fat ratio group was increased the proportion of cornstarch in the diet, forming 20:1. The low starch-to-fat ratio group was increased the proportion of soybean oil in the diet, forming 5:1 (See line 82).

1. Wang, W.; Wang, Z.; Ming, D.; Huang, C.; Xu, S.; Li, Z.; Wang, Z.; Liu, H.; Zeng, X.; Wang, F. Effect of maternal dietary starch-to-fat ratio and daily energy intake during late pregnancy on the performance and lipid metabolism of primiparous sows and newborn piglets. J Anim Sci 2022, 100, doi:10.1093/jas/skac033.

L106. Revise

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised this sentence. (See line 102-103)

L132. Add ref to the equation of digestibility

Response: Thank you for your comments. Reference has been added here. (See line 130)

Table 6 title please revise like other tables

Response: Thank you for your comments. The Table title has been rewritten based on your suggestion. (See line 204)

L328. Rephrase

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised this sentence. (See line 318-319)

The attachment is revised text.

Reviewer 2 Report

line 71: Needs to be specified. Gestation diets has a low energy concentration, therefore it is not expected to have high fat content. This issue needs to be addressed.

line 83: parity distribution needs to be given

Table 1: Title sounds better: Composition and nutrient content of experimental diets.

what is oil power?

line 108: is it really g or rpm?

line 115: from which teats?

line 130: For as an inert marker? Because diet composition does not include added chromium..... Then discuss the inert chromium content of feeds and its usability as marker.

line 140: provide brand and manufacturer

line 181: This is not true, The high is improved compared to the medium. In that case the number of piglets born alive needs to be used as a covarince factor.

line 183: compared to medium level , it is a contradictory result

Table 6. energy intake was not investigated.

line 323: leptin resistant?

references: References are numbered, but they are not in alphabetical order, however in text the names are cited. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you for your comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Effect of dietary starch-to-fat ratio on lipid metabolism, inflammation and microbiota of multiparous sow and newborn piglets” (ID agriculture-2387897). Those comments were very valuable and helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our researches. We have studied comments carefully and have made corrections that we hope meet with approval. The main corrections in the paper and the responds to the comments are as following, and revised portion are marked in red in the paper. We look forward to hearing from you and would be pleased to answer any further questions you might have.

Best regards,

Hu Liu

China Agricultural University

Email: [email protected]

line 71: Needs to be specified. Gestation diets has a low energy concentration, therefore it is not expected to have high fat content. This issue needs to be addressed.

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have modified the description according to your suggestion. (See line 67-68)

line 83: parity distribution needs to be given

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have added the information of parity distribution. (See line 78-79)

Table 1: Title sounds better: Composition and nutrient content of experimental diets.

Response: Thank you for your comments. The Table title has been rewritten based on your suggestions. (See line 88)

what is oil power?

Response: Thank you for your comments. “oil power” is our spelling mistake. The correct spelling is "oil powder". Oil powder refers to a large class of solid powdered oil products that can be freely dispersed at room temperature by special processing or by means of dispersion, adsorption and coating of the carrier. It has good dispersion, water solubility and stability.

line 108: is it really g or rpm?

Response: Thank you for your comments. It’s rpm. (See line 105)

line 115: from which teats?

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have modified the description as followed:” Colostrum was collected (20 mL) from the first teat to the last teat on the left of each sow just after the birth of the first piglet.”. (See line 111-112)

line 130: For as an inert marker? Because diet composition does not include added chromium...... Then discuss the inert chromium content of feeds and its usability as marker.

Response: Thank you for your comments. Indicator method was used to determine the digestibility of nutrients in sows and 0.3% chromium trioxide as inert marker. We have added the description according to your suggestion. (See line 114-115)

line 140: provide brand and manufacturer

Response: Thank you for your comments. Brand and manufacturer has been added. (See line 136)

line 181: This is not true, The high is improved compared to the medium. In that case the number of piglets born alive needs to be used as a covarince factor.

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised the description as followed:” The high dietary starch-to-fat ratio significantly improved mean birth weight and litter weight of piglet compared with medium ratio (p < 0.05).” (See line 177-178).

 Furthermore, the number of live piglets was used as a covariable to analyze the effects of the three treatments on birth weight, and the p value was 0.008.

line 183: compared to medium level, it is a contradictory result

Response: Thank you for your comments. We have revised the description as followed:” Dietary high starch-to-fat ratio significantly increased lactose content in colostrum and decreased the fat content compared to medium ratio.” (See line 179-180). In the present study, the increasing proportion of starch in the diet improved lactose content in colostrum, while the increasing proportion of fat improved fat content, which indicated that energy source fed to sows during late gestation play an important role in colostrum composition [1,2].

1. Yang, Y.; Deng, M.; Chen, J.; Zhao, X.; Xiao, K.; He, W.; Qiu, X.; Xu, Y.; Yin, Y.; Tan, C. Starch supplementation improves the reproductive performance of sows in different glucose tolerance status. Anim Nutr 2021, 7, 1231-1241, doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2021.03.010.
2. Jin, C.; Fang, Z.; Lin, Y.; Che, L.; Wu, C.; Xu, S.; Feng, B.; Li, J.; Wu, D. Influence of dietary fat source on sow and litter performance, colostrum and milk fatty acid profile in late gestation and lactation. Anim Sci J 2017, 88, 1768-1778, doi:10.1111/asj.12836.

Table 6. energy intake was not investigated.

Response: Thank you for your comments. The Table title has been rewritten based on your suggestion. (See line 204)

line 323: leptin resistant?

Response: Thank you for your comments. To accurately summarize the results, we have revised this sentence. (See line 314-316)

references: References are numbered, but they are not in alphabetical order, however in text the names are cited. 

Response: Thank you for your comments. References have been revised.

The attachment is revised text.