Studies of the activity of disaccharides in growing sheep. 2. The influence of the feeding regime on the activity of disaccharidases in lambs up to the age of 4 weeks under various rearing conditions

Abstract

In two groups of 16 animals each lambs were fed restrictively resp. ad libitum withour ewes with a milk replacer up to the age of four weeks. Maltase activity in the contents of the duodenum and the pancreas homogenate increased with the increasing age of the lambs. The maltase activity of the restrictively fed lambs was higher. The maltase activity in the duodenal mucosa was not influenced by the age. Lactase activity in the duodenal mucosa showed a decreasing tendency up to the end of the four week of life; an increase of lactase activity in the contents of the duodenum could be ascertained up to the fourth week. In comparison with the suckling lambs reared by ewes (cf. 1.) the maltase activity in the duodenal mucosa of the lambs reared without ewes was lower and that in the contents of the duodenum was higher. Concerning lactase activity, there were not significant differences between the rearing and feeding regimens up to the age of three weeks. At the end of their fourth week of life the lactase activity in the suckling lambs was significantly lower than that in the lambs reared without ewes. The total maltase activity (= sum of the activities in the duodenal mucosa, the contents of the duodenum and in the pancreas) showed the highest values for the lambs reared without ewes and fed restrictively in the first three weeks of life. Saccharase activities in the duodenal mucosa or the contents of the duodenum could not be detected in any case.