Climatic adaptation in recently shorn merino sheep.

Abstract

Heart rates, respiratory rates, body temperatures, ad libitum ‘day’ and ‘night’ food consumption and body weight changes have been examined in 15 mature Merino wethers shorn in moderate environmental conditions. All sheep showed a depression in food consumption for two days after shearing. Sheep that gained weight during the next three weeks then increased their food consumption at night by approximately 30% although the average daily consumption was only increased by 5%. Sheep that lost weight showed a depressed food consumption throughout the three week period after shearing. Marked increases in the temperature difference between ear skin and air as well as thermal tachypnoea during the warmest period of the day were recorded in all sheep 14–16 days after shearing. This indicated that the critical temperature for all sheep had decreased by about 10°C. These signs of acclimatisation appeared at similar times in all sheep, suggesting that increased resistance to body cooling developed at similar rates in weight gain and weight loss sheep and independent of the origin of body heat production. The results of the investigations are discussed in relation to the concept that the initial response to cold stress includes a depression in food intake and that the duration of this depression is a function of the cold stimulus and the strain it induces in the sheep.