Influence of thermal and nutritional acclimatization on body temperatures and metabolic rate

1. An investigation of the influence of previous thermal and nutritional experience on body temperatures and metabolic rate has been carried out with growing piglets. Littermates were kept, from shortly after birth, at either 10 or 35 degrees C and fed either a high (H) or a low (L) energy intake. At 8 weeks of age the animals were exposed to a series of environmental temperatures of 10, 20, 27 and 35 degrees C for 1.5 hr and their rates of oxygen consumption were determined over the last 45 min. At the end of the session body temperatures were measured. 2. Rectal temperatures measured 24 hr after the start of the last meal were higher at each test temperature in piglets which had been living at 35 degrees C than in those at 10 degrees C. Also, rectal temperatures were higher in those on the H intake for animals which had been living in either the hot or the cold environment. 3. Skin temperature on the back was similar in all groups at any given test temperature although there was a tendency for those on an H intake to have the higher temperatures. Skin temperatures of the legs and ears were higher in the 10H and 10L groups than in the 35H or 35L groups at all the test environmental temperatures; energy intake had little effect. 4. Metabolic rate was greater for the animals on the H than the L intake, for those which had been living at either 10 or 35 degrees C at all the test environmental temperatures. The analysis did not reveal any significant difference related to the overall effect of living temperature, which was independent of energy intake. 5. At thermal neutrality (27 degrees C) there was a significant interaction, between energy intake and normal living temperature, on metabolic rate. Living temperature was found to modify the effect of intake: the difference between the two intakes was greater in those from the cold environment than from the hot.