Relationship of body condition score and live weight with body composition in mature Churra ewes

Abstract

Thirty-five mature Churra ewes, ranging in live weight from 30-3 to 52-6 kg and in body condition score from 1-25 to 4-00 were used to study the relationship between body condition score (BCS), live weight (LW) and body composition and fat distribution in ewes of this breed, which is one of the major sheep breeds of northern Spain. The procedure at slaughter and at subsequent dissection was designed to partition each body into two components, carcass and 'non-carcass'. Right side carcasses and 'non-carcass' components were used to analyse the chemical composition. From the left side of the lumbar region a joint was cut and dissected into muscle, bone, subcutaneous and intermuscular fat. According to the results obtained, omental fat represented the highest proportion of total internal fat regardless of the level of fatness. Distribution of internal fat was similar to that observed in other milk production breeds. Regressions on LW explained more of the variation than those on BCS for individual internal fat depots and chemically determined 'non-carcass' fat. The prediction of total body fat afforded by LW was better than that provided by BCS. The subcutaneous and intermuscular fat depots in the lumbar joint were well correlated with BCS, carcass fat and total fat in the body, validating the use of this region for assessing BCS in Churra ewes.Nevertheless, the correlation coefficient with the omental depot was not statistically significant. The results of this study suggest that BCS was not as accurate for estimating body composition and fat depots in mature Churra ewes as has been shown previously in other breeds. The single most effective prediction index was LW. However, the utilization of both BCS and LW together provided more accurate estimations.

Feed supplementation of grazing Merino ewes during mid-pregnancy: effect on changes in body composition and on the <i>conceptus</i>

“…For that reason, relationships of LW and BCS with maternal fat and protein changes during the first half of pregnancy were examined to find estimators of maternal ability to mobilize body reserves. Contrary to the results of Wright and Russel (1984) and Frutos et al (1997) neither BCS nor LW were significantly correlated with protein changes. Body condition score on day 30 accounted for most of the fat mobilization from days 30 to 90 (r 2 = 0.81; PO.05).…”

“…Blood and wool collected were not analysed but were assumed to have the chemical composition described by the ARC (1980). The procedure at slaughter followed the schedule described by Frutos et al (1997). It was designed to partition each body into two components, carcass and "non-carcass".…”

Index selection in terminal sires improves lamb performance at finishing1

“…It has been found to be correlated with subcutaneous and intermuscular fat in the lumbar region (phenotypic correlation of 0.76; Frutos et al, 1997) but is an inaccurate predictor of body composition generally (Frutos et al, 1997;Lambe et al, 2008). Mekkawy et al (2009) estimated a moderate heritability (0.24; 95% confi dence region of 0.12 to 0.37) for condition score premating for the dams of lambs in this study.…”

A mechanistic model for predicting the nutrient requirements and feed biological values for sheep1

“…[35]) was developed based on 10 publications (Russel et al, 1969;Guerra et al, 1972;Teixeira et al, 1989;Sanson et al, 1993;Susmel et al, 1995;Treacher and Filo, 1995;Frutos et al, 1997;Oregui et al, 1997;Zygoyiannis et al, 1997;Molina Casanova et al, 1998) in which this relationship was studied in mature ewes of 12 breeds (seven dairy breeds and five meat or wool breeds). From these data, FBW could be predicted by BCS with simple linear regressions, in which the intercept indicated the FBW at BCS 0 and the slope predicted the variations of FBW for each unit of BCS variation.…”