Beneficial effects of a decreased meal frequency on nutrient utilization, secretion of luteinizing hormones and ovarian follicular development in gilts

Table 6 Effects of meal frequency on the development of follicles of gilts at 3rd estrous^1,2,3

Items	T1	T2	T6	P-value
No. of follicle⁴ per cm²
Primordial follicle	11.80 ± 1.02	10.97 ± 0.75	10.77 ± 1.08	0.732
Growing follicle	12.37 ± 0.78^a	10.37 ± 1.04^ab	8.13 ± 0.79^b	0.016
Total follicles	24.17 ± 1.38	21.64 ± 1.39	18.91 ± 1.49	0.087
No. of visible follicle⁵, n
Diameter 1 ~ 3 mm	29.20 ± 1.69	27.60 ± 1.08	28.40 ± 1.81	0.772
Diameter ≥ 3 mm	32.80 ± 3.88	30.00 ± 3.74	29 ± 1.82	0.705
No. of corpora lutea, n	28.80 ± 3.22^a	22.60 ± 1.12^ab	18.20 ± 0.66^b	0.048

¹Results are presented as means ± SEMs. n = 5
²T1 means gilts fed one meal per day, T2 means gilts fed two meals per day, and T6 means gilts fed six meals per day
³ Different letters ^{a, b} denote P < 0.05
⁴Growing follicle, sum of numbers of primary follicle, secondary follicle, and antral follicle (with diameter below 1 mm) detected by HE staining
⁵Number of follicles detected by visible measurement

ISSN: 2049-1891