Edited by: Prof. Xiangfang Zeng
Embryonic development in early pregnancy has profound influence on pregnancy outcome and the potential fecundity in livestock and poultry. How to improve embryonic development is the key point to enhance the reproductive performance and economic benefit of livestock and poultry. Nutrition during pregnancy largely influences maternal and fetal immune protection, secretion of reproductive hormones, expression of transcription factors and various signal transduction pathways. Inappropriate nutrition during early pregnancy causes poor embryo development, embryo loss, and miscarriage, ultimately influencing the pregnancy outcomes. Balanced and accurate nutritional modulation during early pregnancy can effectively improve the maternal and fetal physiological environment and improve embryonic development and survival. More importantly, some researchers found that the adverse effect of embryos induced by improper nutrition during early pregnancy shows transgenerational inheritance. Therefore, how to improve the reproductive performance of livestock and poultry by regulating the nutritional status during early pregnancy is an important scientific problem in this field.
This series was published in Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.