Farming Systems for Sheep Production and Their Effect on Welfare

Kilgour, R.; Waterhouse, A.; Dwyer, Cathy; Ivanov, I.D.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8553-6_6

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 109 publications

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“…Examples of breeds used in different management systems and production purposes are presented in Appendix B. Within different countries, financial, cultural and climatic differences affect such management factors as the numbers of animals supervised by one person and whether the sheep are kept outdoors all year round or spend some time indoors (Kilgour et al, 2008).…”

Section: Purposes Of Sheep Production (For Meat Milk and Wool) Breementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three major management systems are used for sheep production: extensive systems for wool and meat production, intensive for dairy production and traditional pastoralism or shepherding (Kilgour et al, 2008) for meat and milk production (dual purpose). Among these farming systems, there are a wide range of mixed systems such as summer pasture/winter indoors or alternatively indoors/outdoors subject to climatic circumstances.…”

Section: Characterization Of the Management Systems (Definition Of Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Scientific Opinion on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production

2014

EFS2

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This scientific opinion is the outcome of a scoping exercise aimed to identify the main welfare consequences and associated risk factors for sheep across, and within, categories of management systems and production types. The exercise included the construction of a risk (conceptual) model, a literature review and an expert knowledge elicitation, involving an online survey and a technical hearing, in order to rank the welfare consequences on the basis of the amount of suffering and prevalence. Sheep farmed for wool, meat and milk production were the target population, focusing on ewes and lambs. Based on the degree of human contact, use of housing, nature of pasture management and provision of supplementary feeding, sheep management systems were characterised as: shepherding, intensive, semi-intensive, semi-extensive, extensive, very extensive and mixed. The conceptual model proposed seventeen welfare consequences. In ewes, the importance of the welfare consequences was rated differently in different management systems; however, across all systems, the most important welfare consequences were: thermal stress, lameness and mastitis. Prolonged hunger was rated to be more frequent in extensive and very extensive management systems, and mastitis in ewes reared for milk production. For lambs, there were few differences among management systems with thermal stress, pain due to management procedures, gastro-enteric disorders and neonatal disorders rated as main welfare consequences. Respiratory disorders were more frequent in intensive management systems. The technical hearing of experts facilitated consensus on the major risk factors for ewes and lambs. Animal-based measures exist for most welfare consequences in ewes and lambs, but many require further validation. The identified currently available validated ABMs for assessing the main welfare consequences in ewes are: body condition score, locomotion score, udder consistency and somatic cell count in milk; and in lambs: shivering, evidence of painful husbandry procedures and dag score (score of breech soiling). for the support provided to this scientific opinion. The welfare of sheep EFSA Journal 2014;12(12):3933 2 SUMMARYFollowing a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW) Panel was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the main welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production. The request consisted of the identification of the main welfare consequences and risk factors for which a risk assessment should be performed, as well as on the identification of the animal-based measures (ABMs) to evaluate the welfare consequences. Consequences and factors should be identified for sheep (ewes and lambs) farmed for the three production purposes (meat, wool and milk) and depending on the management systems used and the sheep breed typologies.This scientific opinion on sheep welfare is the outcome of a scoping exercise for the identification of the main welfare consequences and associated risk factors acro...

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Section: Purposes Of Sheep Production (For Meat Milk and Wool) Breementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Characterization Of the Management Systems (Definition Of Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific Opinion on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production

2014

EFS2

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“…This indicates that one of the methods for increasing the milk yield is the early weaning (Duzgunes et al, 1961). The stress at early weaning contradicts the human attitude toward animals (Kilgour et al, 2008). When stressed, the lambs showed an increase of blood cortisol levels (Rhind et al, 1998;Napolitano et al, 2008), and a reduction of the feed consumption and the weight gain (Cañeque et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Growth, rumen development and meat quality in lambs of Blackhead Pleven breed, weaned at 25 and 70 days of age

Simeonov

Todorov

Nedelkov

et al. 2015

Emir. J. Food Agric

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The objective of this study was to compare the growth rate, rumen development and some quality parameters of carcass and meat in lambs weaned at 25 and 70 days of age. The average live weight gain during experimental period was 268 g per day for suckling lambs and 233 g per day for lambs on dry feed. The difference of 13.1% in daily gain was not significant at P<0.05. The lambs weaned at 25 days of age showed tendency for higher dressing percentage and carcass weight, more separable internal fat, and better carcass fattiness (P>0.05), compared to those weaned at 70 days of age. Therefore it is possible to obtain approximately the same growth in live weight and carcass in lambs weaned at 25 and 70 days of age. The lambs weaned at 25 kg live weight had higher weight of internal organs than the lambs weaned at 70 days, but the difference was significant (P<0.05) only for lung liver, small intestine, thick intestine and rumen. The length and thickness of rumen papillae were higher in lambs weaned at 25 days of age compared to the lambs weaned at 70 days of age (P<0.05). Significantly thicker was the rumen wall in the lambs weaned at 25 days of age compared to the weaned at 70 days (P<0.05).

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“…Under the extensive systems, sheep have the capacity to express the full range of their natural behaviours, although some aspects of their normal social organization are disrupted. These disruptions include weaning earlier than would occur naturally, segregation of sheep on the basis of age and sex and various husbandry operations, which can cause pain or stress (Kilgour et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small ruminant production and constraints in Misha Woreda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Etalema¹,

Anja²

2018

Int. J. Livest. Prod.

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The study was conducted in Misha Woreda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia with aim of assessing the production and challenges of small ruminant animals. Data was collected via questionnaire, interview and group discussion. For the study, 4 Kebeles were taken randomly and from each kebele, 20 households were selected purposively based on the experience and involvement of small ruminant production. The result indicated that about 80% of the interviewed respondents were male headed while the remaining 20% were female headed. Among the sample respondents, about 12.5% of the respondents were illiterate and the rest 87.5% were learned at different stages of literacy ranging from elementary to high school grade levels. The prevailing sheep and goat production system common in the study area was mainly extensive (90%) with slight semi-intensive characteristics (10%). The main purposes of rearing sheep and goats in the study area were for home cash income (75%), for security (17.5%) and for slaughter during holidays (7.5%). The results further showed that the main feed source (42.5%) is communal grazing land, 22.5% house leftover and 20% crop residues in the study area. The extensive production system along with feed shortage needs improvement of husbandry practices. Shortage of feed and grazing land and lack of capital are the main problems that hamper the potential of sheep and goat production in the study area. It was concluded that different organizations like government and non-governmental should take these under consideration to improve the production of sheep and goats.

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Farming Systems for Sheep Production and Their Effect on Welfare

Cited by 15 publications

References 109 publications

Scientific Opinion on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production

Scientific Opinion on the welfare risks related to the farming of sheep for wool, meat and milk production

Growth, rumen development and meat quality in lambs of Blackhead Pleven breed, weaned at 25 and 70 days of age

Small ruminant production and constraints in Misha Woreda, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

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