Effects of sire breed on ewe dystocia, lamb survival and weaned lamb output in hill sheep systems

Speijers, M.H.M.; Carson, A. F.; Dawson, L. E. R.; Irwin, D.; Gordon, Alan

doi:10.1017/s1751731109991236

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The greater lambing difficulty observed in the present study for ewe terminal breeds, especially the Texel and Suffolk breeds, is in agreement with previous studies (Dwyer and Lawrence, 2005;Speijers et al, 2010;Dwyer and Bünger, 2012). The breed differences in ewe lambing difficulty score observed herein could not, however, be attributed to litter size or birth weight alone, since the difference between the breeds remained even after adjustment for differences in litter size and birth weight.…”

Section: Breedsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Malpresentation of the lamb at birth may explain some of the observed lambing difficulty and lamb mortality differences between litter sizes (Speijers et al, 2010;Dwyer and Bünger, 2012). Larger lambs (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other factors such as the shape (e.g. conformation) of the lamb (Speijers et al, 2010) and the length of gestation and birthing labour (Dwyer et al, 1996;Matheson et al, 2011) may partly explain the differences observed between the breeds.…”

Section: Breedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk factors associated with lambing traits

McHugh

Berry

Pabiou³

2016

Animal

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The objective of this study was to establish the risk factors associated with both lambing difficulty and lamb mortality in the Irish sheep multibreed population. A total of 135 470 lambing events from 42 675 ewes in 839 Irish crossbred and purebred flocks were available. Risk factors associated with producer-scored ewe lambing difficulty score (scale of one (no difficulty) to four (severe difficulty)) were determined using linear mixed models. Risk factors associated with the logit of the probability of lamb mortality at birth (i.e. binary trait) were determined using generalised estimating equations. For each dependent variable, a series of simple regression models were developed as well as a multiple regression model. In the simple regression models, greater lambing difficulty was associated with quadruplet bearing, younger ewes, of terminal breed origin, lambing in February; for example, first parity ewes experienced greater (P < 0.001) lambing difficulty (1.56 ± 0.02) than older ewes. The association between lambing difficulty and all factors persisted in the multiple regression model, and the trend in fixed effects level solutions did not differ from the trend observed in the simple regression models. In the simple regression analyses, a greater odds of lamb mortality was associated with male lambs (1.31 times more likely of death than females), lambs of very light (2 to 3 kg) and very heavy (>7.0 kg) birth weights, quadruplet born lambs and lambs that experienced a more difficult lambing (predicted probability of death for lambs that required severe and veterinary assistance of 0.15 and 0.32, respectively); lambs from dual-purpose breeds and born to younger ewes were also at greater risk of mortality. In the multiple regression model, the association between ewe parity, age at first lambing, year of lambing and lamb mortality no longer persisted. The trend in solutions of the levels of each fixed effect that remained associated with lamb mortality in the multiple regression model, did not differ from the trends observed in the simple regression models although the differential in relative risk between the different lambing difficulty scores was greater in the multiple regression model. Results from this study show that many common flock-and animal-level factors are associated with both lambing difficulty and lamb mortality and management of different risk category groups (e.g. scanned litter sizes, ewe age groups) can be used to appropriately manage the flock at lambing to reduce their incidence.

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Section: Breedsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Risk factors associated with lambing traits

McHugh

Berry

Pabiou³

2016

Animal

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“…However, higher growth rates of the cross-breds could not be ignored since half of the F 1 progeny are male lambs that will be slaughtered. Weight at birth is an important trait when two breeds of different weights are crossed in order to avoid dystocia (Speijers et al 2010;Dwyer & Bunger 2012). Although there were significant (p 5 0.001) differences between the two genotypes, especially within the semi-intensive production system, crossbreds had birth weights that did not lead to dystocia or other problems related to the birth weight of the lamb, possible due because only mature, multiparous ewes were used for crossing with the BL rams.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving performance of Zackel sheep through cross-breeding with prolific Bluefaced Leicester under semi-intensive and extensive production systems

Gavojdian

Cziszter

Sossidou

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Animal Research

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The aim of the current research was to evaluate the effects of cross-breeding Romanian indigenous Turcana (TA) ewes belonging to the Zackel breed group with prolific Bluefaced Leicester (BL) rams on the performance and reproduction rates of F 1 cross-bred descendants under semi-intensive and extensive production systems. The UK stratified sheep production system was applied for the development of the cross-breeding scheme. F 1 Bluefaced Leicester )Turcana (F 1 BL )TA) cross-bred ewes proved to be highly precocious and registered an average fertility rate of 94.7% when mated as ewe lambs, compared with 9.52% (p 50.001) of the pure-bred TA. F 1 BL) TA cross females registered an average prolificacy of 159 and 202% when mated at the ages of 8 and 18 months, respectively, while the TA ewes produced on average 112 and 127% (p 5 0.01 and p 5 0.001, respectively). 3 W: Dorper )(F 1 BL )TA) cross-breds had different (p 5 0.001) weaning weights at the age of 90 days when reared semi-intensively (31.0 kg) and extensively (27.6 kg). Introducing the stratified sheep production system into Central, Eastern and Southern Europe could prove valuable for improving meat performance on farms that keep Zackel sheep under semi-intensive and extensive production systems.

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“…However, this system is not practical for on-farm data collection requiring detailed recording and did not take into account the speed of labour. Other systems have used scales ranging from 1 to 4; in which a score of 1 represents no assistance given, a score of 2 represents slight assistance, a score of 3 represents a difficult birth with manual delivery and a score of 4 represents a difficult delivery or veterinary assistance (Speijers et al, 2010). The birth assistance scoring system developed in this study was similar.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and validation of on-farm behavioural scoring systems to assess birth assistance and lamb vigour

Matheson

Rooke

McIlvaney

et al. 2011

Animal

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Lamb mortality remains a significant welfare and economic issue for sheep production. Lamb survival is to a degree dependent upon an easy delivery and the expression of appropriate behaviours from both mother and offspring, such as rapid standing, udder seeking and sucking by the lamb. Genetic solutions have the potential to improve birth assistance and lamb behaviour but large amounts of data are needed. Therefore, to achieve this objective, simple, proxy methods (scoring systems) were developed to quantify the level of birth difficulties and lamb vigour on farm. In the first study, detailed historical behavioural data from 1156 lambs (Scottish Blackface and Suffolk (S)) were analysed to develop criteria for 3 scores: birth assistance, lamb vigour and sucking assistance. The birth assistance score was developed by analysing the relationships between birth presentation and intervention levels, and intervention level and labour length. Lambs with abnormal birth positions required more assistance than normally presented lambs and lambs with long labours required more and greater assistance than those with short labours. Lamb vigour score was developed by analysing the latencies for the lamb to first perform specific behaviours; more vigorous lambs reach landmark behaviours faster than low vigour lambs. The sucking assistance score was developed from the relationship between the latency to suck successfully and assistance level, where lambs that were slow to suck required more assistance than lambs that were quick to suck. In the second study, the behaviour scoring systems (5-point categorical scales) were validated using a commercial flock of 80 twin-bearing crossbred ewes mated with either Texel (T) or S sires by simultaneously recording scores and the latency to perform specific landmark behaviours (i.e. to stand, seek the udder and suck). The vigour scores (recorded at 5 min of age) were compared with the latency from birth to standing and showed that lambs with lower (better) vigour scores were faster to stand after birth than those with higher scores. The sucking assistance scores were compared with the latency from birth to sucking, and showed that lambs with lower sucking assistance scores are quicker to suck than those with high scores. These results showed that the scoring systems could provide a practical and reliable assessment of birth assistance and lamb behaviour on farm and were sufficiently sensitive to discriminate vigour levels between lambs sired by either S or T rams.

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Effects of sire breed on ewe dystocia, lamb survival and weaned lamb output in hill sheep systems

Cited by 20 publications

References 32 publications

Risk factors associated with lambing traits

Risk factors associated with lambing traits

Improving performance of Zackel sheep through cross-breeding with prolific Bluefaced Leicester under semi-intensive and extensive production systems

Development and validation of on-farm behavioural scoring systems to assess birth assistance and lamb vigour

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