Importance of the first hour post-partum for exclusive maternal bonding in sheep

Alexander, G.; Poindron, Pascal; Neindre, Pierre Le; Stevens, D.; Lévy, Frédéric; Bradley, LR

doi:10.1016/0168-1591(86)90122-x

Cited by 29 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…While delaying contact did not impair the display of maternal care towards their own lamb, 64% of ewes deprived of their lamb during the first hour had failed to develop maternal selectivity at 12 hr, versus 9% for ewes in contact with their lamb from birth. These results would rather indicate that the first hour postpartum is critical for the establishment of selectivity, but it cannot be excluded that they are partly due to exogenous administration of estrogens, which were used in this study (Alexander et al, 1986).…”

Section: The Sensitive Period and Maternal Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In the goat however, physical contact probably plays a more important role for the maintenance of maternal responsiveness: preventing licking and suckling for 4 hr prevents the maintenance of maternal responsiveness in a significant proportion of mothers ( Fig. 4; Bordi et al, 1994;Romeyer et al, 1993a), while no effect is observed in sheep after 12 hr in the same conditions, as long as AF is not removed from the lamb's coat (Alexander et al, 1986).…”

Section: Cues Involved In the Maintenance Of Maternal Responsivenessmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…These results would rather support the hypothesis that the rapidity of bonding may not be strongly influenced by the moment of the sensitive period at which olfactory experience is obtained. However, contradictory results have been obtained in another study investigating the consequences of delaying contact with the neonate (Alexander et al, 1986). Mothers were exposed to their lamb placed in a double wire cage either at birth or 1 hour later and tested at 12 hr postpartum.…”

Section: The Sensitive Period and Maternal Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Monozygotic twins, however, share much closer signatures, indicating some genotypic basis of olfactory identity (Romeyer et al, 1993b). Transmission of odors from the dam to the neonate, known as maternal labeling (Alexander, Stevens, & Bradley, 1989;Gubernick, 1981), is not critical for the initial establishment of maternal selectivity (Alexander et al, 1986;Poindron et al, 1988;Romeyer et al, 1993a). Nonetheless, it can contribute to the development of odor differences between neonates, for example, in young with initially very similar signatures (e.g., monozygotic twins; Romeyer et al, 1993b).…”

Section: Sensory Cues Involved In the Establishment Of Maternal Selecmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Maternal responsiveness and maternal selectivity in domestic sheep and goats: The two facets of maternal attachment

Poindron

Lévy

Keller

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

116

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Sheep and goats rapidly establish an exclusive relationship with their neonate following contact with it during a sensitive period of maternal responsiveness induced by the physiological events occurring at parturition. The data concerning the sensory, physiological, and neurobiological factors involved in the activation of both maternal responsiveness and the establishment of selective nursing indicates that these processes are activated simultaneously by the combined action of two main factors, the prepartum rise in circulating estrogen and the vaginocervical stimulation (VCS) caused by fetus expulsion. On the one hand, these two factors act on a neural network including the main olfactory system (MOB), the medial preoptic area (MPOA), and the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) to induce maternal responsiveness towards any neonate. The intracerebral release of oxytocin (OT) from the PVN, and the triggering of olfactory attraction for amniotic fluid (AF) are key elements in this process. On the other hand, VCS at birth also sets the MOB ready to memorize the individual odor of the neonate, through the release of peptides and neurotransmitters (noradrenaline and acetylcholine). In addition to the MOB, the network involved in recognition mainly includes the medial and cortical amygdala. Across consolidation processes, reorganization occurs in the network engaged in lamb recognition. Whether this memorization may be potentiated by other sensory cues is not known. The identification of the chemosensory compounds involved in the attraction for AF and in the recognition of the neonate is important for understanding the mechanisms of maternal attachment. ß 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 49: 54-70, 2007.

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Section: The Sensitive Period and Maternal Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Cues Involved In the Maintenance Of Maternal Responsivenessmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: The Sensitive Period and Maternal Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sensory Cues Involved In the Establishment Of Maternal Selecmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Maternal responsiveness and maternal selectivity in domestic sheep and goats: The two facets of maternal attachment

Poindron

Lévy

Keller

2006

Developmental Psychobiology

116

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“…We agree with Higley and Suomi (1986) that not eating the placenta is no hindrance to maternal care. Finally, identifying the infant as one's own immediately after delivery, as occurs in sheep (Alexander et al, 1986), would have no function in macaques because they constantly keep their young with them during the first weeks. Coe (1990) summarized other presumed functions of placentophagia: (1) obtaining hormones that facilitate lactation and, inhibit uterine bleeding, (2) separation of placenta and infant, which prevents bleeding of the umbilical cord, (3) preventing discovery by a predator, and (4) feeding and quenching the exhausted mother.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of repeated motherhood on periparturitional behavior in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Timmermans

Vossen

1996

Int J Primatol

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Early recognition of newborn goat kids by their mother: I. Nonolfactory discrimination

Poindron

Gilling

Hernández

et al. 2003

Developmental Psychobiology

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Mother sheep and goats develop an early bond with their neonate on the basis of olfactory recognition. We investigated whether goats were also able to show early (<24 hr postpartum) nonolfactory discrimination of their kids, as already reported in sheep. In a first experiment, we found that goats are not able to recognize their kid at 1 m away on the basis of olfactory cues alone. By contrast, they showed a significant preference for their own kid in a two-choice test as early as 4 hr postpartum, and prepartum maternal anosmia did not impede the ability of mothers to show discrimination. We conclude that goats, like sheep, are fully able to discriminate their neonate without the help of olfactory cues very early after parturition. The difference in the early spatial mother-young relationship between the two species due to the different behavior of the young (kids = hiders, lambs = followers), is not associated with marked differences in the dynamics or mechanisms controlling the development of recognition of the neonate by its mother.

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Importance of the first hour post-partum for exclusive maternal bonding in sheep

Cited by 29 publications

References 7 publications

Maternal responsiveness and maternal selectivity in domestic sheep and goats: The two facets of maternal attachment

Maternal responsiveness and maternal selectivity in domestic sheep and goats: The two facets of maternal attachment

The influence of repeated motherhood on periparturitional behavior in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

Early recognition of newborn goat kids by their mother: I. Nonolfactory discrimination

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