Abstract
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of coat characteristics on physiological traits and heat tolerance of dwarf sheep in southern Nigeria. A total number of twenty West African dwarf male sheep with an average weight of 9.00 ± 0.52 kg and aged 10 months old were used for the experiment. The dwarf sheep were assigned to four treatment groups in a completely randomized design with five sheep per treatment group. The compared treatment groups were TA (black coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length), TB (black coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length), TC (light brown coat colour sheep with low coat depth and short hair length) and TD (light brown coat colour sheep with high coat depth and long hair length). The results obtained in the study showed that midday was significantly (P 0.05) affected by morning, midday and evening. Rectal temperature (40.09℃), respiratory rate (21.01 breaths/min), pulse rate (87.49 beats/min), heat tolerance coefficient (97.10%), haemoglobin (9.04 g/l), blood cell (10.84 × 106/μl), white blood cell (12.06 × 106/μl) and glucose (50.10 mg/dl) were significantly (P 0.05) did not occur in total protein, albumin and globulin among treatment groups. It is concluded that coat characteristics have significant effects on physiological indices and heat tolerance in Nigeria.
Highlights
Small ruminants in Nigeria are integral component of the rural household, where they contribute to the food, and cultural and socio-economic life of the people
Al-Haidary [6] reported that physiological responses and heat tolerance superiority of animals to environmental stress showed that heat stress had profound effects on blood profile
The obtained climactic data during this study indicated that studied dwarf sheep were under comfortable environmental conditions in the morning and evening but were exposed to heat stress during the midday
Summary
Small ruminants in Nigeria are integral component of the rural household, where they contribute to the food, and cultural and socio-economic life of the people. Numerous scientific reports [1] [2] indicate that sheep and goats are the principle domesticated small ruminants in terms of total numbers and food productivity in Nigeria. These attributes of sheep and goats may partly be due to their small body size and easy management system when compared with cattle. Blood system is sensitive to changes in environmental temperature, being another important indicator of physiological response to stressing agent in animals. Al-Haidary [6] reported that physiological responses and heat tolerance superiority of animals to environmental stress showed that heat stress had profound effects on blood profile. The maintenance of body temperature within the physiological limits is necessary for sheep to remain healthy, survive and maintain its productivity
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