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Relationships between lamb vigour and maternal behaviour on sucking success at parturition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2017

C.E. O'Connor  and
A.B. Lawrence
C.E. O'Connor
Affiliation:
The Edinburgh School of Agriculture West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG
A.B. Lawrence
Affiliation:
The Edinburgh School of Agriculture West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG
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Extract

High perinatal mortality in sheep flocks worldwide remains a major economic and welfare issue. Maternal behaviour and lamb vigour are both considered major variables affecting lamb survival, but there is little data to describe their relative importance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between lamb vigour and maternal behaviour at parturition. With the increase in hill ewes being crossed to longwool breeds there is an interest in the relative survivability of these lambs. This study compared the behaviour of Mule [Bluefaced Leicester x Blackface] lambs with purebred Scottish Blackface lambs.

Data on 32 third parity single and twin-bearing Blackface ewes lambing indoors were collected by focal animal observations on the ewe's grooming behaviour. These observations included details of the time spent grooming specific areas of the lamb's body and also general activity and udder-seeking behaviour of the lambs. Observations lasted 10 minutes and were made at parturition and then at 30 and 90 minute intervals. The data was transformed by arcsin. for proportions, or log, for frequencies, and analysed by Analysis of Variance,

Type
Sheep production
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Production (1972) , Volume 1990 , March 1990 , pp. 36
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Production 1990

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References

O'Connor, C.E.. Lawrence, A.B. and Wood-Gush, D.G.M.. 1989. Influence of parity and litter size on maternal behaviour in sheep at parturition. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 24: 86–87.Google Scholar
Slee, J. and Springbett, A.. 1986. Early post-natal behaviour in lambs of ten breeds. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 15: 229–240.Google Scholar