Peripheral histamine and neonatal growth performance in swine

Area of Science:

• Animal Science
• Biochemistry
• Genetics

Background:

• Identifying early markers for animal performance is crucial for optimizing livestock production.
• Predicting growth rates can help manage resources and improve animal welfare.
• Metabolomic analysis offers a novel approach to discovering such predictive biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify plasma or serum biomarkers at birth that predict swine growth performance.
• To investigate potential metabolite differences between fast- and slow-growing littermates.
• To validate histamine as a potential biomarker for preweaning growth rate.

Main Methods:

• Metabolomic analysis of plasma from newborn swine littermates with divergent growth rates.
• Comparative analysis of 576 metabolites to identify significant differences.
• Validation of histamine levels using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA).
• Analysis of a separate dataset from different geographical locations and genetic backgrounds.

Main Results:

• Metabolomic analysis identified limited metabolite differences between slow- and normal-growing littermates.
• Plasma histamine concentrations were significantly higher (150%) in slow-growing piglets at birth.
• Elevated perinatal histamine levels were associated with increased preweaning growth rate in two independent datasets.
• Histamine measurement is feasible using commercially available ELISAs.

Conclusions:

• Perinatal histamine concentration is a potential biomarker for predicting preweaning growth rate in swine.
• Histamine measurement at birth can aid in identifying piglets with potentially slower growth.
• This finding may facilitate early management strategies to improve overall litter growth.