Evolutionary change in the construction of the nursery environment when parents are prevented from caring for their young directly

Parental care can be partitioned into traits that involve direct engagement with offspring and traits that are expressed as an extended phenotype and influence the developmental environment, such as constructing a nursery. Here, we use experimental evolution to test whether parents can evolve modifications in nursery construction when they are experimentally prevented from supplying care directly to offspring. We exposed replicate experimental populations of burying beetles (Nicrophorus vespilloides) to different regimes of posthatching care by allowing larvae to develop in the presence (Full Care) or absence of parents (No Care). After only 13 generations of experimental evolution, we found an adaptive evolutionary increase in the pace at which parents in the No Care populations converted a dead body into a carrion nest for larvae. Cross-fostering experiments further revealed that No Care larvae performed better on a carrion nest prepared by No Care parents than did Full Care larvae. We conclude that parents construct the nursery environment in relation to their effectiveness at supplying care directly, after offspring are born. When direct care is prevented entirely, they evolve to make compensatory adjustments to the nursery in which their young will develop. The rapid evolutionary change observed in our experiments suggests there is considerable standing genetic variation for parental care traits in natural burying beetle populations—for reasons that remain unclear.

Maternal Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Lowers Incidence of Stillbirth in Hyper Prolific Sows under Commercial Circumstances

The objective of the current experiment was to investigate whether or not maternal dietary nitrate supplementation, a nitric oxide (NO) precursor, could reduce piglet losses under commercial circumstances. In the current experiment, 120 hyper prolific gilts and sows (Landrace x Yorkshire: Danbred) on a commercial farm in Denmark received either a control lactation diet or a lactation diet containing 0.1% of calcium nitrate (containing 63.1% of nitrate) from approximately 5 days pre-farrowing until day 4 of lactation. The number of piglets born total, alive, and stillborn, as well as birth weights, weights after cross-fostering (approximately 1 day of age), 24 h after cross-fostering, day 3 of age, and at weaning was recorded. Placentas of sows were collected after expulsion and scored on redness. No effect of nitrate supplementation was found on piglet weight, piglet growth, placental redness score, and pre-weaning mortality during lactation. Maternal dietary nitrate supplementation decreased stillbirth percentage with 2.5% (9.9 vs. 7.4%; p = 0.05). It can be concluded that maternal dietary nitrate supplementation shows the potential to decrease the incidence of stillbirth in hyper prolific sows.

Altering Early Life Gut Microbiota Has Long-Term Effect on Immune System and Hypertension in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Hypertension is regulated by immunological components. Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) display a large population of proinflammatory CD161 + immune cells. We investigated the effect of early post-natal gut microbiota on the development of the immune system and resulting hypertension in the SHR. We first examined the microbial populations in the fecal samples of SHR and normotensive control WKY using 16S rDNA sequencing. We found that in the newborn SHR (1-week old) the gut microbiota was qualitatively and quantitatively different from the newborns of normotensive WKY. The representation of the predominant bacterial phylum Proteobacteria was significantly less in 1-week old SHR pups than in WKY (94.5% Proteobacteria in WKY vs. 65.2% in SHR neonates). Even within the phylum Proteobacteria, the colonizing genera in WKY and SHR differed dramatically. Whereas WKY microbiota was predominantly comprised of Escherichia-Shigella, SHR microbiota was represented by other taxa of Enterobacteriaceae and Pasteurellaceae. In contrast, the representation of phylum Firmicutes in the neonatal SHR gut was greater than WKY. Cross-fostering newborn SHR pups by lactating WKY dams caused a dramatic shift in 1-week old cross-fostered SHR gut microbiota. The two major bacterial taxa of phylum Proteobacteria, Enterobacteriaceae and Pasteurellaceae as well as Lactobacillus intestinalis, Proteus, Romboustia and Rothia were depleted after cross-fostering and were replaced by the predominant genera of WKY (Escherichia-Shigella). A proinflammatory IL-17F producing CD161 + immune cell population in the spleen and aorta of cross-fostered SHR was also reduced (30.7% in self-fostered SHR vs. 12.6% in cross-fostered SHR at 30 weeks of age) as was the systolic blood pressure in adult cross-fostered SHR at 10 weeks of age. Thus, altered composition of gut microbiota of SHR toward WKY at early neonatal age had a long-lasting effect on immune system by reducing proinflammatory immune cells and lowering systolic blood pressure.

7 Behavioral Indicators of Post-weaning Stress Susceptibility in Cross-fostered Pigs

Cross-fostering is a common swine husbandry practice; however, little research has focused on the effects of foster stress on piglets post-weaning. This study evaluated the effect of cross-fostering on behavioral indicators of post-weaning stress susceptibility. Litters (n = 40) were allocated to 1 of 2 treatments: control (CON) and foster. Three piglets (FOS) from each CON litter were randomly selected and moved to a foster litter 12–24 h post-farrowing, where they were nursed along resident (RES) piglets until weaning (approximately 18 d of age). At 21- and 28-d post-weaning, a male and female piglet from each treatment (FOS, RES, CON) underwent 1 of 2 behavior tests: social isolation and social confrontation. Both tests were conducted in an isolated 1.22 × 1.22 m novel pen. For social isolation, escape attempts, movement between floor quadrants (i.e. locomotion), defecation, and urination events were counted. For social confrontation, the latency to first aggressive interaction and the number of aggressive interactions were quantified. All data were analyzed using the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS. The CON piglets moved between quadrants more frequently than RES piglets (P = 0.02), while FOS piglets moved between quadrants intermediate to (but not different from) CON and RES piglets (P = 0.44 and 0.12, respectively). Females moved between quadrants more frequently than males (P < 0.0001). The latency to first aggressive interaction was shorter in FOS piglets compared to CON piglets (P = 0.048). There was a treatment by sex interaction (P < 0.01) for number of aggressive interactions, with CON and RES females having more aggressive interactions than their male counterparts (P = 0.04 for both) while FOS females had fewer aggressive interactions than FOS males (P = 0.007). No additional differences were detected (all P > 0.05). Overall, these results provide little evidence that FOS piglets exhibit an increase in behavioral stress susceptibility post-weaning. However, future work should expand upon and clarify the social confrontation findings.

Effect of rearing cross-fostered piglets in litters of differing size relative to sow functional teat number on preweaning growth and mortality

Litter sizes of commercial sows have increased considerably over recent decades, and often exceed the number of functional teats on the sow. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of litter size after cross-fostering relative to sow functional teat number on piglet preweaning growth and mortality. A total of 39 litters (561 piglets) were used in a randomized complete block design; blocking factors were farrowing day and sow parity, body condition score, and functional teat number. Three Litter Size treatments were compared (relative to sow functional teat number): Decreased (two piglets less); Control (same number of piglets); Increased (two piglets more). Piglets were randomly allotted to treatment at 24 h after birth to form litters of the appropriate size, with similar mean and CV of birth weight within block. Weaning weights (WW) were collected at 19.5 ± 0.50 d of age; preweaning mortality (PWM) was recorded. Litter sizes were between 11 and 17 piglets, depending on block and treatment. The Decreased treatment had lower (P ≤ 0.05) PWM than the Increased (7.7% and 17.9%, respectively); the Control was intermediate (11.5%) and not different (P > 0.05) from the other treatments. The rate of decline in litter size from birth to weaning was greater (P ≤ 0.05) for the Increased than the Decreased treatment (−0.16 vs. −0.05 piglets per day), with the Control (−0.09 piglets per day) being intermediate and different (P ≤ 0.05) to the other two treatments. Litter sizes at weaning were greater (P ≤ 0.05) for the Increased than the Decreased treatment (13.3 and 11.3, respectively); the Control treatment was intermediate (12.6) and not different (P > 0.05) to the other treatments. The log odds of PWM increased with the decreasing birth weight, at a similar rate (P > 0.05) for all Litter Size treatments. However, the intercept was greater (P ≤ 0.05) for the Increased compared with the Decreased treatment; the Control was intermediate and different (P > 0.05) to the other two treatments. Mean WW tended (P = 0.07) to be greater for the Decreased (6.17 kg) compared to the Control and Increased treatments (5.86 and 5.84 kg, respectively). In conclusion, increasing litter size after cross-fostering relative to the number of functional teats of the sow increased piglet PWM, and tended to decrease WW.

Who Plays With Whom: Farrowing Environment Influences Isolation of Foster Piglets in Play

Cross fostering piglets is a common management practise in the pig industry to manage large and heterogeneous litters, whereby piglets are moved from their biological litter to be reared by another sow. At present research has focused on immediate survival consequences and time of cross fostering, with little attention given to positive aspects of welfare such as social affiliations and the potential for positive interactions for these piglets such as play behaviour. The focus of our study was purely observational to record behaviour of piglets reared in either impoverished (farrowing crates) or enriched neonatal environments (PigSAFE pens) where fostering was practised as part of normal husbandry routines to promote piglet survival. We employed social network analysis to understand more about the behaviour of foster piglets in these environments and their acceptance into their new litter. In line with previous work, piglets exposed to enriched neonatal farrowing pens demonstrated more play behaviour than piglets reared in farrowing crates. We showed that pen piglets received and initiated more play invitations (higher degree centrality) than piglets in crates. We also found effects of cross fostering irrespective of neonatal environment. Non-foster piglets received and initiated more play behaviours (higher degree centrality) 2–3 weeks post-farrowing compared to piglets fostered into the litter and as such, fostered piglets remained isolated from play for the first few weeks of life. However, our data suggests this may be mitigated by neonatal environment; foster piglets reared in pens were better connected (betweenness centrality) within their foster litter than those fostered in crates. Our findings highlight the importance of the neonatal environment and its potential influence on the isolation of cross-fostered piglets and suggest that rearing in enriched neonatal environments may help mitigate against social isolation in early life of cross-fostered piglets, having obvious immediate, and long-term consequences for piglet welfare and behaviour. We also highlight the importance and application of methodologies such as social network analysis, for gaining more insight and understanding about the sociality of animal behaviour and its potential for measuring indicators of positive welfare, thus highlighting its application for veterinary science and animal behaviour and welfare research.

Urban bat pups take after their mothers and are bolder and faster learners than rural pups

Background Urbanization is rapidly changing our planet and animals that live in urban environments must quickly adjust their behavior. One of the most prevalent behavioral characteristics of urban dwelling animals is an increased level of risk-taking. Here, we aimed to reveal how urban fruitbats become risk-takers, and how they differ behaviorally from rural bats, studying both genetic and non-genetic factors that might play a role in the process. We assessed the personality of newborn pups from both rural and urban colonies before they acquired experience outdoors, examining risk-taking, exploration, and learning rates. Results Urban pups exhibited significantly higher risk-taking levels, they were faster learners, but less exploratory than their rural counterparts. A cross-fostering experiment revealed that pups were more similar to their adoptive mothers, thus suggesting a non-genetic mechanism and pointing towards a maternal effect. We moreover found that lactating urban mothers have higher cortisol levels in their milk, which could potentially explain the transmission of some personality traits from mother to pup. Conclusions Young bats seem to acquire environment suitable traits via post-birth non-genetic maternal effects. We offer a potential mechanism for how urban pups can acquire urban-suitable behavioral traits through hormonal transfer from their mothers.

PRKAR2A deficiency protects mice from experimental colitis by increasing IFN-stimulated gene expression and modulating the intestinal microbiota

Protein kinase A (PKA) plays an important role in regulating inflammation via its catalytic subunits. Recently, PKA regulatory subunits have been reported to directly modulate some signaling pathways and alleviate inflammation. However, the role of PKA regulatory subunits in colonic inflammation remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the role of the PKA regulatory subunit PRKAR2A in colitis. We observed that PRKAR2A deficiency protected mice from dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced experimental colitis. Our experiments revealed that the intestinal epithelial cell-specific deletion of Prkar2a contributed to this protection. Mechanistically, the loss of PRKAR2A in Prkar2a−/− mice resulted in an increased IFN-stimulated gene (ISG) expression and altered gut microbiota. Inhibition of ISGs partially reversed the protective effects against DSS-induced colitis in Prkar2a−/− mice. Antibiotic treatment and cross-fostering experiments demonstrated that the protection against DSS-induced colitis in Prkar2a−/− mice was largely dependent on the gut microflora. Altogether, our work demonstrates a previously unidentified function of PRKAR2A in promoting DSS-induced colitis.