Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T00:28:06.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growth, food intake and cold exposure in mice. 1. Cold exposure of adolescent mice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

N. Bateman  and
J. Slee
N. Bateman
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
J. Slee
Affiliation:
ARC Animal Breeding Research Organisation, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JQ
Get access

Abstract

1. Adolescent mice were exposed from 33 to 84 days of age to a warm (30°C) or to one of four cold (15°C, 10°C, 5°C or 1°C) environments. Before and after exposure the mice were kept at a normal mouseroom temperature of 23°C. Controls remained at this temperature throughout. Voluntary food intake, live weight and growth efficiency were individually monitored before, during and after exposure, i.e. from 19 to 112 days of age.

2. Food intake during exposure was linearly related to temperature, ranging from 4 g/day at 30°C to 14 g/day at 1 °C. Intakes differed only slightly between males and females. Food intake at 10°C was 70% above controls. Oxygen consumption in adults at 10°C was 74% above controls.

3. Male growth was unaffected by temperature. Superiority over females (56% at 30°C) diminished at lower temperatures (12% at 1 °C) because females grew 41% faster at 1 °C than at 30°C. Females whose growth was depressed at 30°C, showed compensatory growth on returning to 23°C.

4. Growth efficiency was strongly, but not entirely linearly, related to temperature, and increased approximately three-fold between 1°C and 30°C. Efficiency was maximal at 30°C in males and at 23 °C in females. Males grew 76% more efficiently than females at 30°C and only 12% more efficiently at 1°C.

5. Increased food intake in the cold satisfied energy requirements and allowed females to grow faster.

6. Individual differences in appetite persisted throughout life, but rankings in growth and efficiency changed with age. Food intake was strongly correlated with growth rate in weanlings, but growth rate was always the main determinant of growth efficiency.

7. The variance of adolescent growth rate was unaffected by the treatments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , April 1979 , pp. 157 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andik, I., Donhoffer, S., Farkas, Maria and Schmidt, P. 1963. Ambient temperature and survival on a protein-deficient diet. Br. J. Nutr. 17: 257–261.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnett, S. A. 1965. Adaptation of mice to cold. Biol. Rev. 40: 5–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnett, S. A., Coleman, E. M. and Manly, B. M. 1960. Mortality, growth and liver glycogen in young mice exposed to cold. Q. Jl. exp. Physiol. 45: 40–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnett, S. A. and Mount, L. E. 1967. Resistance to cold in mammals. In Thermo-biology, pp. 412–477. Academic Press, London and New York.Google Scholar
Barnett, S. A. and Scott, Sybil G. 1963. Some effects of cold and of hybridity on the growth of mice. J. Embryol. exp. Morph. 11: 35–51.Google ScholarPubMed
Bigham, M. L. and Cockrem, F. 1969. Body weights, tail lengths, body temperatures, food intakes and some slaughter data for four strains of mice reared at three different environmental temperatures. N.Z. Jl. agric. Res. 12: 658–668.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calderari De Lozano, S. 1977. The effect of diet and genetic constitution on growth curves and efficiency in rats. Anim. Prod. 25: 381–388.Google Scholar
Emmans, G. C., Parks, J. R., Wilson, B. J. and Fawcett, R. H. 1975. Growth of chickens: theory and experiment. Proc. 17th Br. Poult. Breeders Round Table. (Mimeograph.)Google Scholar
Fuller, M. F. 1969. Climate and growth. In Animal Growth and Nutrition. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Heldmaier, G. 1974. Temperature adaptation and brown adipose tissue in hairless and albino mice. J. comp. Physiol. 92: 281–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jansky, L. 1973. Non-shivering thermogenesis and its thermoregulatory significance Biol. Rev. 48: 85–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kleiber, M. and Dougherty, J. E. 1933. The influence of environmental temperature on the utilization of food energy in baby chicks. J. gen. Physiol. 17: 701–726.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monteiro, L. S. and Falconer, D. S. 1966. Compensatory growth and sexual maturity in mice. Anim. Prod. 8: 179–192.Google Scholar
Mount, L. E. 1971. Metabolic rate and thermal insulation in albino and hairless mice. J. Physiol, Lond. 217: 315–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parks, J. R. 1970. Growth curves and the physiology of growth. I. Animals. Am. J. Physiol. 219: 833–836.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Russell, W. S. 1974. Compreg user's guide. Catalogue no. 19.250.118. Report no. 5 Inter-University/Research Council Series, Edinburgh University.Google Scholar
Sellers, E. A., You, Rosemary W. and Moffat, Nancy M. 1954. Regulation of food consumption by caloric value of the ration in rats exposed to cold. Am. J. Physiol. 177: 367–371.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stevenson, J. A. F. and Rixon, R. H. 1954. Effects of environmental temperature, diet and starvation in the rat. Revue can. Biol. 13: 91.Google Scholar
Taylor, St. C. S. and Young, G. B. 1967. Variation in growth and efficiency in twin cattle on constant feeding levels. Anim. Prod. 9: 295–311.Google Scholar
Weiss, B. 1958. Effects of brief exposures to cold on performance and food intake. Science, N.Y. 127: 467–468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed