Dataset Information

No Significant Effect of Maternal Perception of the Food Environment on Reproductive Success or Pup Outcomes in C57BL/6J Mice.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Prior work concerning maternal perception of the food environment suggests that perceived disparities in food resources resulted in reduced pup mass and dam reproductive success. This study attempted to replicate this result with increased sample size and additional measures. METHODS:Female C57BL/6J mice (n?=?160; 3 weeks old) were randomly assigned to either subject or peer and were pair housed in partitioned cages with olfactory and visual contact. After a 6-week maturation period on an energy-rich cafeteria diet, cages were randomly assigned to Control (subject and peer fed pelleted diet) or Treatment (subject fed pellets, peer fed cafeteria diet), and subjects were bred. After weaning, one pup from each sex per litter was reared to 5 months. RESULTS:Treatment did not affect the number of births, pup size at birth, or the proportion of pups surviving to weaning (P?>?0.09). Treatment did not affect dam body or fat mass at parturition (P?>?0.22), but these measures were higher in some Treatment dams at weaning (P??0.07). CONCLUSIONS:Exposure to food-environment disparity in this study did not replicate previous findings or affect pup growth after weaning.

SUBMITTER: Gibbs VK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5866215 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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No Significant Effect of Maternal Perception of the Food Environment on Reproductive Success or Pup Outcomes in C57BL/6J Mice.

Gibbs Victoria K VK Schwartz Tonia S TS Schwartz Tonia S TS Johnson Maria S MS Patki Amit A Nagy Tim R TR George Brandon J BJ Allison David B DB

Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 20180224 4

<h4>Objective</h4>Prior work concerning maternal perception of the food environment suggests that perceived disparities in food resources resulted in reduced pup mass and dam reproductive success. This study attempted to replicate this result with increased sample size and additional measures.<h4>Methods</h4>Female C57BL/6J mice (n = 160; 3 weeks old) were randomly assigned to either subject or peer and were pair housed in partitioned cages with olfactory and visual contact. After a 6-week matur ...[more]

PMID: 29476611

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Project description:Food-provisioning of wildlife can facilitate reliable up-close encounters desirable by tourists and, consequently, tour operators. Food-provisioning can alter the natural behavior of an animal, encouraging adverse behavior (e.g. begging for food handouts), and affect the reproductive success and the viability of a population. Studies linking food-provisioning to reproductive success are limited due to the lack of long-term datasets available, especially for long-lived species such as marine mammals. In Bunbury, Western Australia, a state-licensed food-provisioning program offers fish handouts to a limited number of free-ranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus). Coupled with long-term historical data, this small (<200 individuals), resident dolphin population has been extensively studied for over ten years, offering an opportunity to examine the effect of food-provisioning on the reproductive success of females (ntotal?=?63; nprovisioned females?=?8). Female reproductive success was estimated as the number of weaned calves produced per reproductive years and calf survival at year one and three years old was investigated. The mean reproductive success of provisioned and non-provisioned females was compared using Bayes factor. We also used generalized linear models (GLMs) to examine female reproductive success in relation to the occurrence of food-provisioning, begging behavior and location (within the study area). Furthermore, we examined the influence of these variables and birth order and climatic fluctuations (e.g. El Niño Southern Oscillation) on calf survival. Bayes factor analyses (Bayes factor?=?6.12) and results from the best fitting GLMs showed that female reproductive success and calf survival were negatively influenced by food-provisioning. The negative effects of food-provisioning, although only affecting a small proportion of the adult females' population (13.2%), are of concern, especially given previous work showing that this population is declining.

Dataset Information

No Significant Effect of Maternal Perception of the Food Environment on Reproductive Success or Pup Outcomes in C57BL/6J Mice.

Publications

No Significant Effect of Maternal Perception of the Food Environment on Reproductive Success or Pup Outcomes in C57BL/6J Mice.

Similar Datasets

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