Plasma protein profiles of neonatal pigs before and after suckling.

Absorption of colostral proteins ingested by neonatal piglets within 24 to 36 h after birth is generally considered to be non-selective. Nevertheless, the transfer of colostral proteins, except immunoglubulins, from gut to bloodstream after natural suckling is still poorly characterized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in 2-dimensional electrophoretic plasma protein profiles of neonatal piglets before and after suckling, in order to characterize the gastrointestinal absorption of colostral proteins into the neonatal bloodstream. As expected, the most significant change in plasma after suckling is the presence of a large amount of immunoglobulin. However, while the concentration of a few proteins was mildly increased in post-suckling plasma, the evidence of absorption of colostral non-immunoglobulin proteins by neonatal piglets was not detected in this study.