Abstract
Perinatal lamb mortality remains a major welfare and economic concern for the sheep farming industry. The vitality and teat-seeking abilities of the newborn lamb are fundamental to its survival and are likely to be greatly influenced by its physical characteristics and ease of birth. The following experiment used embryo-transfer techniques to distinguish between maternal and foetal genotype and environmental factors affecting gestation length, lambing ease and postnatal growth in two breeds of sheep with differing ewe and lamb liveweights.Thirty-eight Scottish Blackface (BF; mean liveweight (±s.e.m.) at lambing=54.25 kg ±1.03) and 41 Suffolk ewes (S; 80.33 kg ± 1.52) were given single purebred embryos obtained from 17 donor ewes and 10 sires. Embryos were transferred between ewes in a balanced design such that the following combinations were obtained: 18 BF ewes with BF lambs; 20 BF ewes with S lambs; 20 S ewes with BF lambs; 21 S ewes with S lambs.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
