Reproductive performance and gestational effort in relation to dietary fatty acids in guinea pigs

Table 5 Effect of litter size on the reproductive performance of female guinea pigs maintained on a control (n =10), high-PUFA (n = 8), or high-SFA (n = 10) diet and the general effect of litter size

Reproductive parameter	Control	PUFA	SFA	Litter size^a
Sex ratio^b	0.081 (−0.192, 0.356)	−0.195 (−0.638, − 0.055)	−0.042 (−0.398, 0.170)	−0.017 (−0.016, −0.020)
Gestation duration^c	0.278 ± 0.675	−0.500 ± 0.954	−0.281 ± 0.939	−0.294 ± 0.315
Total litter mass^c	110.590 ± 14.616***	90.917 ± 20.756***	95.406 ± 20.426***	98.957 ± 8.215***
Individual birth mass^c	−2.124 ± 4.669	−4.144 ± 6.664	−10.351 ± 6.950*	−4.929 ± 2.562
Survival rate^b	−0.174 (−0.382, −0.034)*	−0.035 (−0.460, 0.036)	−0.056 (−0.803, −0.028)	−0.120 (−0.020, −0.273)*

*p ≤ 0.05, **p ≤ 0.01, ***p ≤ 0.001 for significant effects of litter size
^aEffect of litter size determined after removal of non-significant effects based on the AIC. No significant differences between single groups (for all pairwise comparisons P > 0.05)
^bData given as (mean) effect size and lower and upper confidence limits; analysis via GLM with binomial link
^cData given as slope ± standard error of the slope; analysis via linear model or LME

ISSN: 2049-1891