Conception during the lactation and rearing period affects the ewe-lamb bond at birth

Ungerfeld, Rodolfo; Pérez-Clariget, Raquel; Menant, Ophélie; Freitas‐de‐Melo, Aline

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2021.105256

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…A delay in this process has negative consequences on lambs' metabolic and hormonal status (Alexander et al, 1986;Nowak et al, 1997Nowak et al, , 2021. Several conditions affect the behaviours implicated in neonatal attachment in sheep, including environmental temperature (Fonsêca et al, 2014); factors related to the ewe, like status during conception (dry or lactating) (Ungerfeld et al, 2021a), nutrition during gestation (Dwyer et al, 2003;Freitas-de-Melo et al, 2015a), breed (Lawrence and Dwyer, 1999;Pickup and Dwyer, 2011), litter size (Dwyer and Lawrence, 1998;Hernandez et al, 2009), as well as some intrinsic factors of the lamb, like sex (Hernandez et al, 2009;Freitas-de-Melo et al, 2015a;Gaudin et al, 2015), and body temperature (Menant et al, 2020). Understanding the physiological and behavioural consequences of these conditions, how they synergise with each other, and how they can be changed with management is essential to increase lambs' survival probability.…”

Section: Ewe-lamb Bond At Birth and During Lactationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do We Know and Need to Know About Weaning in Sheep? An Overview of Weaning Practises, Stress and Welfare

et al. 2022

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Artificial weaning is the separation of the mother and her lamb, involving the forced ending of suckling and milk supply by the ewes to their lambs. Artificial weaning time varies depending on the purpose of each sheep farm and the characteristics of the lambs, including age and weight of the lambs, and their ability to eat solid food. Artificial weaning is performed from 24 h postpartum until around the age of natural weaning (up to 12 mo of age). Artificial weaning results in the breaking of the ewe-lamb bond, the end of suckling and the complete replacement of milk by solid food, frequently added to changes in both the physical and social environment. It triggers behavioural, physiological and immunological changes that generate negative consequences on the health of both ewes and lambs, as well as on the growth of the lambs, rising animal welfare concerns. As artificial weaning is considered one of the most stressful situations in the life of farm mammals, it is important to consider the factors involved in those responses to develop adequate strategies and improve sheep welfare at weaning. The most frequently used method is the abrupt separation of the ewes and their lambs. However, the adaptation of the animals after weaning can be improved by alternative weaning methods (e.g., progressive, two-steps weaning and mixed regimes), hormonal treatments (e.g., administration of progesterone), and pre- and postweaning management (e.g., the use of creeping feeding, and the presence of conspecifics or humans after weaning). This review presents and summarises information on the stress response and animal welfare issues at artificial weaning in sheep and some management practises that can be used to reduce these problems. The major points included are the ewe-lamb bond at birth and during the lactation period; the stress response at weaning; the factors involved in the stress response at weaning; the different types and weaning methods and their repercussions on animal welfare; and some strategies that can be used to improve sheep welfare at weaning. Lastly, we propose directions for research needed to develop practical alternatives to minimise sheep's stress response at weaning.

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Section: Ewe-lamb Bond At Birth and During Lactationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do We Know and Need to Know About Weaning in Sheep? An Overview of Weaning Practises, Stress and Welfare

et al. 2022

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“…In this sense, at least in these conditions, proximate factors such as nutritional status could not overcome to ultimate factors consequence of evolutionary reproductive strategies. In the same breed and similar conditions, maintenance of the body condition could not ensure the display of maternal behavior as intensively in ewes that conceived while remaining nursing (Ungerfeld et al, 2021) or that that were induced to lamb outside their normal season, in autumn (Menant et al, 2022). This constraint at least creates doubt on the generally assumed concept that the management of the body condition is, per se, enough to ensure the maximum reproductive responses in ewes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does litter size affect the response of postpartum nursing ewes to hormonal estrous induction during spring?

Bottino

Pérez-Clariget

Ungerfeld

2022

Preprint

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The objective of this study was to determine if the litter size of nursing ewes affects the response to hormonal treatments to induce estrus and ovulation during the non-breeding season. For this, 124 Corriedale ewes were used, 56 ewes that had lambed during spring and remaining nursing a single lamb (GS, n = 30) or twin lambs (GT, n = 26). Another group of ewes that did not lamb was included as a control group (GC, n = 68). Estrus was induced 38 days after lambing with intravaginal sponges impregned with medroxyprogesterone acetate, that remained 7 days in situ, plus the administration of 350 IU of eCG at withdrawal. Once detected in estrus, the ewes were cervically inseminated, and 8 and 40 days later the presence of corpus luteum (CL) and pregnancy was determined by transrectal ultrasonography respectively. The percentage of ewes that came into estrus did not differ between groups. More GC than GT ewes had CL (P = 0.02), with GS not differing from the other groups. The conception and pregnancy rates were greater in GC than in GS and GT ewes (P ≤ 0.03). The litter size had no effect on the response to estrous induction; however, nursing impaired the pregnancy outcome, probably due to the failure in the ovulatory process or the early regression of the CL.

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The effects of some factors on the time to first successful stand up and sucking of native lambs after parturition

Güngör

Ünal

Özbeyaz

et al. 2022

Trop Anim Health Prod

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Conception during the lactation and rearing period affects the ewe-lamb bond at birth

Cited by 6 publications

References 34 publications

What Do We Know and Need to Know About Weaning in Sheep? An Overview of Weaning Practises, Stress and Welfare

What Do We Know and Need to Know About Weaning in Sheep? An Overview of Weaning Practises, Stress and Welfare

Does litter size affect the response of postpartum nursing ewes to hormonal estrous induction during spring?

The effects of some factors on the time to first successful stand up and sucking of native lambs after parturition

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