Abstract
Abstract
Highlights
The population of hair breed sheep has been increasing gradually in the last decade across the American continent, and their distribution is not limited to tropical regions as before
The TFT and LFT did not vary among ewes with body condition score (BCS)>3.0 units
Simple linear regression equations showed a positive association (P < 0.0001) between BCS and ultrasound measurements, but the determination coefficients were low with TFT (r2= 0.21; Eq 1) and LFT as independent variables (r2= 0.36; Eq 4)
Summary
The population of hair breed sheep has been increasing gradually in the last decade across the American continent, and their distribution is not limited to tropical regions as before. Hair breed sheep are dispersed both in tropical regions as template and arid, and they have shown good adaptation to these environmental conditions (McManus et al, 2010). The evaluation of the nutritional status of animals from its body structure has great importance into the farm management to maintain adequate productive and reproductive efficiency (McManus et al, 2010). A continuous assessment of the body status in the sheep is required to establish nutritional management strategies in flocks. The body condition score (BCS) has been used as an index of available body energy reserves in domestic and farm animals and is widely used in ewes (Russel et al, 1969; Chay-Canul et al, 2011; Kenyon et al, 2014). The BCS is a method easy to perform and does not require any particular equipment for its measurement (Mendizabal et al, 2011, Kenyon et al, 2014); this measurement is considered to be subjective to some extent (Chay-Canul et al, 2016), and its reliability and validity have
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