Abrupt weaning type combined to stress during late pregnancy in sheep present economic losses on carcass and low testicular development in lambs

Henrique, Fábio Luís; Titto, Cristiane Gonçalves; Titto, Evaldo Antônio Lencioni; Hooper, Henrique Barbosa; Pulido-Rodríguez, Lina Fernanda; Longo, Ana Luísa Silva; Leme-dos-Santos, Thays Mayra da Cunha; Gameiro, Augusto Hauber; Pereira, Alfredo Manuel Franco; Zanella, Adroaldo José

doi:10.26667/2318-1265jabb.v6n2p29-32

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The stress caused to the lamb at weaning can be increased if the lamb is in poor body condition (Chai et al, 2015), exposed to parasite infestation (Campbell et al, 2017), or with health problems (Destrez et al, 2017). While these changes in lamb body development have been shown to occur in the first-week post-weaning, many stressors can occur, including social, environmental, physical, and nutritional factors (Alves et al, 2016), which affect performance post-weaning (Henrique et al, 2018). However, one of the objectives of our study was to evaluate the effect of weaning method on the sexual behavior and semen quality of the 3-month-old rams.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This may be the reason that the sexual behavior and semen quality were similar for both weaning methods, suggesting that there may be other factors that affect the reproductive performance of ram lambs. For example, Henrique et al (2018) found that malnutrition of the ewe in the last third of pregnancy affected the testicular weight of the lambs, and that this effect was greater when accompanied by abrupt weaning of the lambs (Henrique et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual performance and semen quality of pubertal lambs treated with different weaning methods

et al. 2022

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Abstract. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the weaning method on lamb stress, body weight, sexual behavior, and semen quality of Saint Croix male lambs. The present study was carried out during the late spring and summer of 2018 in the northeast of Mexico. Sixty male lambs born as twins or triplets (3.2 ± 0.6 kg birth weight) and weaned at 60 d of age (19.21 ± 1.8 kg weaning weight) were divided into two weaning methods: complete separation from the dams (CS; the lambs were moved to a pen that was at 500 m of distance from the dams) and separation with contact from the dams (SCD); the lambs were physically separated by a steel mesh that prevented the lambs from having the possibility of sucking milk from their mothers, but they maintained permanent visual and auditory contact. Cortisol levels were determined 3 d before and 7 d after weaning. Lambs were evaluated as 3-month-old lambs for sexual behavior and semen quality for 9 weeks. The effects of the weaning method (M), week (W), and the interaction M × W were significant on body weight and cortisol levels (P<0.001). The SCD lambs had higher cortisol levels at 3, 5, and 7 d after weaning than CS lambs (P<0.001). The CS lambs had higher body weight during the first 4 weeks after weaning than SCD lambs (P<0.001). The weaning method had no effect on scrotal circumference, sexual behavior, and semen quality traits, except for progressive sperm motility, being better for the lambs that were completely separated (P<0.05). The results from this study show that complete separation of lambs and ewes at weaning is an effective method to reduce lamb stress and improve lamb growth after weaning, but it did not have long-term effects on sexual behavior and semen quality of Saint Croix male lambs.

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