Maternal diet influences the chances of having male or female
offspring. Research published today in BioMed Central's open
access journal Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology has
demonstrated that ewes fed a diet enriched with polyunsaturated
fats for one month prior to conception have a significantly
higher chance of giving birth to male offspring. This study was
carried out by a team of researchers from the Division of Animal
Sciences at the University of Missouri and led by R Michael
Roberts. Roberts explains how diet at the time of conception is
the most important factor when it comes to influencing the sex
of the offspring "Our study ruled out body condition, ewe
weight, previous births, time of breeding, and likely dominance
as reasons for the gender skewing. Rather, it was the
composition of the diet consumed in the time period around
conception that was responsible for this sex-ratio effect".
Polyunsaturated fats are essential nutrients. It is believed
that the dietary ratio between omega-3 and omeg