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ABSTRACT: At the individual cow level, suboptimum fertility, mastitis, negative energy balance, and ketosis are major issues in dairy farming. These problems are widespread on dairy farms and have an important economic impact. The objectives of this study were (1) to assess the potential of milk mid-infrared (MIR) spectra to predict key biomarkers of energy deficit (citrate, isocitrate, glucose-6 phosphate [glucose-6P], free glucose), ketosis (β-hydroxybutyrate [BHB] and acetone), mastitis (N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase activity [NAGase] and lactate dehydrogenase), and fertility (progesterone); (2) to test alternative methodologies to partial least squares (PLS) regression to better account for the specific asymmetric distribution of the biomarkers; and (3) to create robust models by merging large datasets from 5 international or national projects. Benefiting from this international collaboration, the dataset comprised a total of 9,143 milk samples from 3,758 cows located in 589 herds across 10 countries and represented 7 breeds. The samples were analyzed by reference chemistry for biomarker contents, whereas the MIR analyses were performed on 30 instruments from different models and brands, with spectra harmonized into a common format. Four quantitative methodologies were evaluated to address the strongly skewed distribution of some biomarkers. Partial least squares regression was used as the reference basis, and compared with a random modification of distribution associated with PLS (random-downsampling-PLS), an optimized modification of distribution associated with PLS (KennardStone-downsampling-PLS), and support vector machine (SVM). When the ability of MIR to predict biomarkers was too low for quantification, different qualitative methodologies were tested to discriminate low versus high values of biomarkers. For each biomarker, 20% of the herds were randomly removed within all countries to be used as the validation dataset. The remaining 80% of herds were used as the calibration dataset. In calibration, the 3 alternative methodologies outperform the PLS performances for the majority of biomarkers. However, in the external herd validation, PLS provided the best results for isocitrate, glucose-6P, free glucose, and lactate dehydrogenase (coefficient of determination in external herd validation [R2v] = 0.48, 0.58, 0.28, and 0.24, respectively). For other molecules, PLS-random-downsampling and PLS-KennardStone-downsampling outperformed PLS in the majority of cases, but the best results were provided by SVM for citrate, BHB, acetone, NAGase, and progesterone (R2v = 0.94, 0.58, 0.76, 0.68, and 0.15, respectively). Hence, PLS and SVM based on the entire dataset provided the best results for normal and skewed distributions, respectively. Complementary to the quantitative methods, the qualitative discriminant models enabled the discrimination of high and low values for BHB, acetone, and NAGase with a global accuracy around 90%, and glucose-6P with an accuracy of 83%. In conclusion, MIR spectra of milk can enable quantitative screening of citrate as a biomarker of energy deficit and discrimination of low and high values of BHB, acetone, and NAGase, as biomarkers of ketosis and mastitis. Finally, progesterone could not be predicted with sufficient accuracy from milk MIR spectra to be further considered. Consequently, MIR spectrometry can bring valuable information regarding the occurrence of energy deficit, ketosis, and mastitis in dairy cows, which in turn have major influences on their fertility and survival.

ABSTRACT: Among the dairy sector's current concerns, the assessment of global animal health status is a complex challenge. Its multidimensionality means that global monitoring tools are rarely considered. Instead, specific disease detection is often studied separately and, due to financial and ethical issues, uses small-scale data sets focusing on few biomarkers. Several studies have already been conducted using milk Fourier transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy to detect mastitis and lameness or to quantify health-related biomarkers in milk or blood. Those studies are relevant but they focus mainly on one biomarker or disease. To solve this issue and the small-scale data set, in this study, we proposed a holistic approach using big data obtained from milk recording, including milk yield, somatic cell count, and 27 FT-MIR–based predictors related to milk composition and animal health status. Using 740,454 records collected from 114,536 first-parity Holstein cows in southern Belgium, we performed repeated unsupervised learning algorithms based on Ward's agglomerative hierarchical clustering method to find potential interesting patterns. A divide-and-conquer approach was used to overcome the limitation of computational resources in clustering a relatively large data set. Five groups of records were identified. Differences observed in the fourth group suggested a relationship to metabolic disorders. The fifth group seemed to be related to mastitis. In a second step, we performed a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) to predict the probability of belonging to those specific groups for the entire data set. The obtained global accuracy was 0.77 and the balanced accuracy (i.e., the mean between sensitivity and specificity) of discriminating the fourth and fifth groups was 0.88 and 0.96, respectively. Then, a validation of the interpretation of those groups was performed using 204 milk and blood reference records. The predicted probability associated with the metabolic disorders issue had significant correlations of 0.54 with blood β-hydroxybutyrate, 0.44 with blood nonesterified fatty acids, −0.32 with blood glucose, −0.23 with milk glucose-6-phosphate, and 0.38 with milk isocitrate. In contrast, the predicted probability of belonging to the mastitis group had correlations of 0.69 with milk lactate dehydrogenase, 0.46 with milk N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase, −0.18 with milk free glucose, and 0.16 with milk glucose-6-phosphate. Consequently, these results suggest that the obtained quantitative traits indirectly reflect some of the main health disorders in dairy farming and could be used to monitor dairy cows on a large scale. By using unsupervised learning on large-scale milk recording data and then validating the pattern using reference laboratory measures, we propose a new approach to quickly assess dairy cow health status.

Stress in dairy herds can occur from multiple sources. When stress becomes chronic because of a long duration and inability of animals to adapt, it is likely to deeply affect the emotional state, health, immunity, fertility and milk production of cows. While assessing chronic stress in herds would be beneficial, no real consensus has emerged from the literature regarding the indicators of interest. The goal of this study was to compare and evaluate potential biomarkers for chronic stress after inducing stress over a 4-week period through severe overstocking, restricted access to feed and isolated unusual events. A total of 30 cows were involved in the experiment and two similar groups were constituted. Over a 4-week period, the 15 cows of the stress group were housed in overstocked conditions, with 4.6 m2 per cow, including resting and feeding areas. In this area, only seven individual places at the feeding area were available for the 15 cows to generate competition for feed access. Twice during the trial and over a period of 2 h, an additional stress was induced by moving cows to an unfamiliar barn and diffusion of stressing noises (dog barking). Meanwhile, the 15 cows of the control group stayed in the original barn, with more than 10 m2 per cow and more individual places at the feeding area than cow number. On a weekly basis, several variables considered as potential biomarkers for chronic stress were recorded. Collected data were analysed using single trait linear repeated mixed models. No differences were observed regarding milk yield, BW of cows or body condition score but the milk loss was more pronounced in the stress group. The activity was more heterogeneous and the rumination of cows was lower in the stress group. The heart rate was lower in the stress group and showed more heterogeneity at the end of the stress period. No differences were observed regarding salivary cortisol, blood glucose, β-endorphin, thyroxine and leucocyte profile. A higher level of hair cortisol and blood fructosamine were observed in the stress group at the end of the stress period. Regarding the practical use of the highlighted biomarkers, milk loss may be an effective and easy way to detect general problems, including stress. The blood fructosamine and the hair cortisol concentrations are promising indicators to assess chronic stress in commercial farms.

The advantage of employing mid-infrared spectrometry for milk analysis in breeding lies in its ability to quickly generate millions of records. However, these records may be biased if the calibration process does not account for their spectral variability when constructing the predictive model. Therefore, this study introduces a novel method for developing a world representative spectral database (WRSD) to reduce the risks of spectral extrapolation when predicting dairy traits in new samples. Using a 2-phase selection procedure that is both efficient and minimizes memory usage, we first generate a decomposition matrix via principal component analysis (PCA) on a dataset of 2,324,443 records. The next phase iterates spectral selection based on a location index from PCA scores, calculating spectra occurrence frequency for refined barycenter estimations. The chosen spectra's barycenter closely aligns with the entire dataset, proving the efficacy of using just 3 principal components. Applied to 4 varied datasets totaling over 21 million records, we select 583,440 spectra to represent spectral diversity, with selection rates between 2.00% and 14.88%. This selection illustrates the spectral variability across different dairy populations and data providers. Demonstrated through a hypothetical calibration set of 71 samples, the WRSD's utility for algorithm developers becomes apparent. This calibration set covers between 91.42% and 98.50% of the WRSD variability, except for the Irish dataset (3.50%), indicating a need for additional samples to accurately represent Irish variability and minimize spectral extrapolation. This study offers valuable insights into the representativeness of training sets for capturing spectral variability within targeted dairy populations. Although the current WRSD does not fully encompass global milk spectral diversity, its development underscores the importance of gathering more data and standardizing spectral information across spectrometer brands. Ultimately, the WRSD proves crucial not just for trait prediction but also for identifying abnormal milk samples, also marking a significant relevance in dairy science technology., (The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the American Dairy Science Association®. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).)

Monitoring for mastitis on dairy farms is of particular importance, as it is one of the most prevalent bovine diseases. A commonly used indicator for mastitis monitoring is somatic cell count. A supplementary tool to predict mastitis risk may be mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy of milk. Because bovine health status can affect milk composition, this technique is already routinely used to determine standard milk components. The aim of the present study was to compare the performance of models to predict clinical mastitis based on MIR spectral data and/or somatic cell count score (SCS), and to explore differences of prediction accuracies for acute and chronic clinical mastitis diagnoses. Test-day data of the routine Austrian milk recording system and diagnosis data of its health monitoring, from 59,002 cows of the breeds Fleckvieh (dual purpose Simmental), Holstein Friesian and Brown Swiss, were used. Test-day records within 21 days before and 21 days after a mastitis diagnosis were defined as mastitis cases. Three different models (MIR, SCS, MIR + SCS) were compared, applying Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis. Results of external validation in the overall time window (-/+21 days) showed area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC) of 0.70 when based only on MIR, 0.72 when based only on SCS, and 0.76 when based on both. Considering as mastitis cases only the test-day records within 7 days after mastitis diagnosis, the corresponding areas under the curve were 0.77, 0.83 and 0.85. Hence, the model combining MIR spectral data and SCS was performing best. Mastitis probabilities derived from the prediction models are potentially valuable for routine mastitis monitoring for farmers, as well as for the genetic evaluation of the trait udder health.

Prebiotics, such as inulin, are non-digestible compounds that stimulate the growth of beneficial microbiota, which results in improved gut and overall health. In this study, we were interested to see if, and how, the ileal transcriptome altered after inulin administration in the pre-weaning period in pigs. Seventy-two Piétrain-Landrace newborn piglets were divided into three groups: (a) a control (CON) group ( n = 24), (b) an inulin (IN)-0.5 group ( n = 24), and (c) an IN-0.75 group ( n = 24). Inulin was provided as a solution and administered twice a day. At week 4, eight piglets per group, those closest to the average in body weight, were sacrificed, and ileal scrapings were collected and analyzed using 3' mRNA massively parallel sequencing. Only minor differences were found, and three genes were differentially expressed between the CON and IN-0.5 group, at an FDR of 10%. All three genes were downregulated in the IN-0.5 group. When comparing the CON group with the IN-0.75 group, five genes were downregulated in the IN-0.75 group, including the three genes seen earlier as differentially expressed between CON and IN-0.5. No genes were found to be differential expressed between IN-0.5 and IN-0.75. Validation of a selection of these genes was done using qRT-PCR. Among the downregulated genes were Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4), Aquaporin 7 (AQP7), and Apolipoprotein A1 (APOA1). Thus, although only a few genes were found to be differentially expressed, several of them were involved in lipid metabolism, belonging to the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway and known to promote lipolysis. We, therefore, conclude that these lipid metabolism genes expressed in the ileum may play an important role when supplementing piglets with inulin early in life, before weaning.

The strategy of improving the growth and health of piglets through maternal fiber diet intervention has attracted increasing attention. Therefore, 15 sows were conducted to a wheat bran (WB) group, in which the sows' diets included 25% of WB in gestation and 14% in lactation, and a control (CON) group, in which the sows' diets at all stages of reproduction did not contain WB. The results show that maternal high WB intervention seems not to have an impact on the growth of the offspring or the villus height of the duodenum, and the ratio of villi/crypts in the duodenum and jejunum were all higher in piglets born from WB sows, which may indicate that WB piglets had a larger absorption area and capacity for nutrients. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma ( PPARγ ) and interleukin 6 ( IL6 ) expression levels were notably upregulated in the ileal mucosa of WB piglets, while no immune-related genes in the colonic mucosa were affected by the maternal WB supplementation. In conclusion, adding a high proportion of wheat bran to the sow's gestation and lactation diet can affect the intestinal architecture and the expression of some inflammation genes, to some extent, in the ileal mucosa in the progeny.

Background: In the past several years, the use of resistant starch (RS) as prebiotic has extensively been studied in pigs, and this mostly in the critical period around weaning. RS is believed to exert beneficial effects on the gastrointestinal tract mainly due to higher levels of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and an improved microbiota profile. In this study, sows were fed digestible starch (DS) or RS during late gestation and lactation and the possible maternal effect of RS on the overall health of the progeny was assessed. Since RS is also described to have a positive effect on metabolism, and to investigate a metabolic programming of the progeny, half of the piglets per maternal diet were assigned to a high fat diet from weaning on to 10 weeks after., Results: No bodyweight differences were found between the four experimental piglet groups. The high fat diet did however impact back fat thickness and meat percentage whereas maternal diet did not influence these parameters. The impact of the high fat diet was also reflected in higher levels of serum cholesterol. No major differences in microbiota could be distinguished, although higher levels of SCFA were seen in the colon of piglets born from RS fed sows, and some differences in SCFA production were observed in the caecum, mainly due to piglet diet. RNA-sequencing on liver and colon scrapings revealed minor differences between the maternal diet groups. Merely a handful of genes was differentially expressed between piglets from DS and RS sows, and network analysis showed only one significant cluster of genes in the liver due to the maternal diet that did not point to meaningful biological pathways. However, the high fat diet resulted in liver gene clusters that were significantly correlated with piglet diet, of which one is annotated for lipid metabolic processes. These clusters were not correlated with maternal diet., Conclusions: There is only a minor impact of maternal dietary RS on the progeny, reflected in SCFA changes. A high fat diet given to the progeny directly evokes metabolic changes in the liver, without any maternal programming by a RS diet.

Inulin and wheat bran were added to broiler diets during the starter period or during the entire rearing period to investigate whether the effects of using these ingredients remained until slaughter age. Diets containing no inulin and no wheat bran (CON), 2% inulin (IN), 10% wheat bran (WB), or 2% inulin + 10% wheat bran (IN+WB) were provided until day 11. Thereafter, each dietary treatment was further divided into a continued diet with supplementation or a control diet, resulting in 7 groups (CON, IN/IN, IN/CON, WB/WB, WB/CON, IN+WB/IN+WB, or IN+WB/CON). On day 40, 12 chickens per group were euthanized. The IN/IN group increased the cecal molar ratio of butyrate but had a lower relative abundance of Lactobacillus (P < 0.05). Additionally, the cecal molar ratio of propionate was higher in the IN/CON group compared to the IN/IN group (P = 0.034). The WB/CON group had the best results on BW and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.05). Only the cecal molar ratio of iso-butyrate was higher in the WB/WB group (P = 0.013). Moreover, compared to the CON group, both WB/WB and WB/CON groups reduced the relative abundances of Bifidobacterium and Escherichia coli, and only the WB/WB group reduced the relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (P < 0.05). Both IN+WB/IN+WB and IN+WB/CON groups increased BW until day 21 and lowered the relative abundance of Bifidobacterium (P < 0.05). The IN+WB/IN+WB group increased the cecal molar ratio of butyrate but reduced the molar ratio of propionate with a higher relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the lack of positive effects induced by inulin might be explained by the dose being too high. The beneficial effects on BW, FCR, and microbiota induced by wheat bran during the starter period were lasting when supplementation was stopped, suggesting that wheat bran could be a favorable ingredient during the starter period., (© 2019 Poultry Science Association Inc.)

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of inulin (IN) supplementation to suckling piglets at and 3 weeks post-weaning. A total of 72 newborn piglets were used. Twenty-four piglets per group received different amounts of IN during the suckling period: (a) CON: no IN; (b) IN-0.5: 0.5 g IN/d on the 1st week, 1 g IN/d on the 2nd week, 1.5 g IN/d on the 3rd week and 2 g IN/d on the 4th week, or (c) IN-0.75: 0.75 g IN/d on the 1st week, 1.5 g IN/d on the 2nd week, 2.25 g IN/d on the 3rd week and 3 g IN/d on the 4th week. Starting at 28 d of age, piglets were weaned and received a post-weaning diet without inulin during the following 3 weeks. At both 28 d and 49 d of age, piglets were euthanised for sampling. Piglets of group IN-0.5 had the highest body weight starting from the 3rd week (p < 0.05), concomitant with the highest villus height and the ratio of villus height/crypt depth in the jejunum and ileum on both sampling days (p < 0.05). At 28 d of age, an increased concentration of propionate, iso-butyrate or total short chain fatty acids was observed between treatment IN-0.5 and the other groups in the caecum or colon (p < 0.05). Moreover, the relative abundance of Escherichia coli (p = 0.05) and Enterobacteriaceae (p = 0.01) in colonic digesta were reduced in IN-0.5-treated piglets, and in both IN-supplemented groups, colonic interleukin-8, tumor necrosis factor-α and toll-like receptor-4 mRNA abundance were decreased compared to the CON group (p < 0.05). However, at 49 d of age, most of these differences disappeared. In conclusion, treatment IN-0.5 improved during the suckling period of piglets development of intestine, but these beneficial effects were not lasting after weaning, when IN supplementation was terminated. Treatment IN-0.75, however, did not display a prebiotic effect.

Inulin and wheat bran were added to the starter diets of broiler chickens to investigate the potential of these ingredients to improve the host's health and growth performance, as well as the underlying mechanisms of their effects. A total of 960 1-day-old chicks were assigned to 4 treatments: control (CON), 2% inulin (IN), 10% wheat bran (WB), and 10% wheat bran +2% inulin (WB+IN). On day 11, 6 chicks per treatment were euthanized. A general linear model procedure with Tukey's multiple range test was performed to compare a series of parameters between treatments. The WB-containing treatments improved BW on day 7, day 11, day 35, and BW gain until day 11 (P < 0.05), but only the WB+IN treatment showed a lower feed conversion ratio than the CON treatment (P = 0.011). Furthermore, the WB+IN treatment showed the highest villus height in the jejunum and ileum (P < 0.05), and the highest jejunal ratio villus height/crypt depth (P = 0.035). The concentration of acetate in the ceca was higher in the CON treatment compared to the IN treatment (P = 0.040). The IN treatment increased the concentration (P = 0.003) and ratio (P = 0.004) of iso-butyrate compared to the WB+IN and the CON treatments (P < 0.05). A clustering result exhibited similar intestinal microbiota profiles in the chicks receiving the IN and the WB+IN diets (P > 0.05), but these profiles were different from those found in chicks receiving the WB and the CON diets (P < 0.05). In conclusion, wheat bran and the combination of wheat bran and inulin ameliorated the growth performance and gut morphology of the starter chicks, which resulted in a higher BW until day 35. Inulin, on the other hand, had a greater ability to influence the microbiota profile. The beneficial results found in relation to BW and gut morphology during the starter period suggested a synergistic effect of inulin and wheat bran.

Background: Establishment of a beneficial microbiota profile for piglets as early in life as possible is important as it will impact their future health. In the current study, we hypothesized that resistant starch (RS) provided in the maternal diet during gestation and lactation will be fermented in their hindgut, which would favourably modify their milk and/or gut microbiota composition and that it would in turn affect piglets' microbiota profile and their absorptive and immune abilities., Methods: In this experiment, 33% of pea starch was used in the diet of gestating and lactating sows and compared to control sows. Their faecal microbiota and milk composition were determined and the colonic microbiota, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) production and gut health related parameters of the piglets were measured two days before weaning. In addition, their overall performances and post-weaning faecal score were also assessed., Results: The RS diet modulated the faecal microbiota of the sows during gestation, increasing the Firmicutes:Bacteroidetes ratio and the relative abundance of beneficial genera like Bifidobacterium but these differences disappeared during lactation and maternal diets did not impact the colonic microbiota of their progeny. Milk protein concentration decreased with RS diet and lactose concentration increased within the first weeks of lactation while decreased the week before weaning with the RS diet. No effect of the dietary treatment, on piglets' bodyweight or diarrhoea frequency post-weaning was observed. Moreover, the intestinal morphology measured as villus height and crypt depths, and the inflammatory cytokines in the intestine of the piglets were not differentially expressed between maternal treatments. Only zonula occludens 1 (ZO-1) was more expressed in the ileum of piglets born from RS sows, suggesting a better closure of the mucosa tight junctions., Conclusion: Changes in the microbiota transferred from mother to piglets due to the inclusion of RS in the maternal diet are rather limited even though milk composition was affected., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Several studies in mammals focused on the maternal programming of the metabolism by epigenetic mechanisms, while currently, the consequences of a maternal dietary treatment on the offspring performance of farm animals are of particular interest for commercial purpose. In the present study, we investigated if the zootechnical performance of the progeny was altered by a maternal dietary treatment, being a lower dietary crude protein (CP) of the grandparent and/or parent generation. The multigenerational effects of a reduced maternal CP content were investigated by reducing the dietary CP level by 25% in rearing and laying diets of pure line A breeders. The F0 generation breeders were fed either control (C) or reduced balanced protein (RP) diets. The F1 breeder generation was constructed by dividing the F0 female progeny again over a C or RP diet, resulting in 4 dietary treatments in the F1 generation: C/C, C/RP, RP/C, and RP/RP (letters indicating the diets in, respectively, F0 and F1 generations). The offspring performance was evaluated by a zootechnical and nitrogen retention trial on C and low-protein (LP) broiler diets. For the C broiler diet, the C/RP and RP/RP offspring were characterized by a higher BW from d 35 until d 42 compared to the C/C progeny, whereas the RP/C offspring had an intermediate BW that did not differ from the other groups. A tendency (P = 0.067) towards a better nitrogen retention was observed for the offspring of breeders that received the RP diets in F0 and/or F1 generation compared to the C/C progeny. For the LP broiler diet, the C/RP (P = 0.021) and RP/C (P = 0.001) offspring had a higher BW compared to the C/C progeny during the entire grow-out period. In addition, the C/RP offspring were characterized by a lower FCR from d 28 onwards (P = 0.021). In conclusion, dietary treatments imposed on mother hens can have direct effects on the next generation, as well as indirect effects on multiple generations.

Mammalian studies have shown that nutritional constraints during the perinatal period are able to program the progeny (metabolism, performance). The presented research aimed to investigate if broiler breeders and their offspring performance could be influenced by reducing the dietary crude protein (CP) level with 25%. A total of 160 day-old pure line A breeder females were randomly divided over 2 dietary treatments. The control group was fed commercial diets, whereas the reduced balanced protein (RP) breeders received an isoenergetic diet that was decreased with 25% in dietary CP and amino acid during their entire lifespan. The RP birds required an increased feed allowance, varying between 3 and 15%, to meet the same BW goals as their control fed counterparts. The difference in feed allocations and reduction of the dietary CP level resulted in a net protein reduction varying between 14 and 23%. At wk 27 and 40, the body composition of the breeders was changed as a result of the dietary treatment. At both ages, the proportional abdominal fat pad weight of the RP breeders was increased (P < 0.001), whereas the proportional breast muscle weight was only higher at wk 27 in the control group compared to the RP group (P < 0.001). Egg weight (P < 0.001) and egg production (P < 0.001) was decreased for the RP fed birds. The lower dietary CP level reduced the proportional albumen weight of the RP eggs (P = 0.006). Male offspring from RP breeders were characterized by an increase in BW from 28 d until 35 d of age (P = 0.015). Moreover, female progeny of RP breeders showed a reduced FCR (P = 0.025), whereas male progeny showed a tendency (P = 0.052) towards a lower FCR at 5 wk of age. In conclusion, lowering dietary CP levels in rearing and laying phase of breeders had a negative effect on breeder performance but enhanced live performance of the offspring., (© 2017 Poultry Science Association Inc.)

Reaching a beneficial intestinal microbiota early in life is desirable for piglets, as microbiota will impact their future health. One strategy to achieve this is the addition of prebiotics to sows' diet, as their microbiota will be transferred. Transmission of microbiota to the offspring occurs at birth and during lactation but a transfer might also occur during gestation. The objectives of this study were to determine whether and when (before and/or after birth) a maternal transfer of the microbiota occurs, and to observe the impact of wheat bran (WB) in sows' diet on their faecal microbiota, their offspring's microbiota and fermentation profile. Sequencing was performed on DNA extracted from umbilical cord blood, meconium, sows' faeces and piglets' colon content. Short-chain fatty acid production was determined in piglets' distal gut. Different bacteria (mostly Proteobacteria, followed by Firmicutes) were found in the umbilical cord blood, suggesting a maternal transfer occurring already during gestation. Less butyrate was produced in the caecum of WB piglets and a lower concentration of valerate was observed in all intestinal parts of WB piglets. Maternal wheat bran supplementation affected microbiota of sows and piglets differently.