Resilience of Lambs to Limited Water Availability without Compromising Their Production Performance

Abstract

Water scarcity is a common phenomenon in arid and semi-arid regions, which could have tremendous effects on livestock production. This study aimed to determine the level of water restriction that lambs fed on a pelleted diet can tolerate without compromising their production performance. A total of 24 male Najdi lambs were housed individually and randomly allocated into three equal groups, namely ad libitum water intake, 33% water-intake restriction, and 67% water-intake restriction. Dry-matter intake, feed conversion ratio, and average daily gain were decreased (p < 0.05) with the increasing level of water restriction. Water restriction had also reduced (p < 0.05) nutrient digestibility. The water-conserving ability of the water-restricted lambs was manifested by the production of concentrated and lower (p < 0.05) quantities of urine and feces. Meanwhile, serum osmolality and concentrations of albumin, total protein, urea-N, glucose, and non-esterified fatty acids were increased (p < 0.05) with the increasing levels of water restriction. It is surprising that lambs subjected to 67% water restriction retained more (p < 0.05) nitrogen relative to intake and had better (p < 0.05) efficiency of nitrogen utilization. It was strongly evident that lambs could tolerate water-intake restriction of up to 33% without compromising their production performance.

Diminishing Water-Intake may have Pragmatic Aspects in Lambs Fed on Pelleted Complete Diet and Reared under Thermo-Neutral Condition

“…Furthermore, it was clearly evident that water restriction had increased TP, GLU, NEFA, B-UN, B-OSMO, and U-OSMO concentrations in both 67-WI and 33-WI lambs. The observed increase in TP, GLU, and NEFA levels could be attributed to the reduction in FI and ADG, which has been previously discussed by our team (Adeniji et al, 2020). In fact, this was consistent with several reports (Igbokwe, 1993;Jaber et al, 2004;Kaliber et al, 2016;Kumar et al, 2016), and in contrast with few (Silanikove & Tadmor, 1989;De et al, 2015).…”

“…It is noteworthy that both water and feed were given once at 08:00 hr daily, and lambs' body weight was taken weekly. Feed intake (FI), average daily gain (ADG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated as previously mentioned (Adeniji et al, 2020). In brief, the weights of the provided and refused feed were taken daily to calculate the daily FI using a sensitivescale measure to the nearest 10 g. Meanwhile, lambs were weighed prior to the morning feeding with an electronic-scale measure to the nearest 0.10 kg, at the beginning of the experiment and then weekly throughout the experimental phase to calculate ADG.…”

“…However, the increased usage of high-energy pelleted complete diet (PCD) in the livestock industry (with its low moisture characteristic and prevailing water scarcity ravaging the arid regions) deserves some attention. In a previous study (Adeniji et al, 2020), we evaluated the production performance of lambs subjected to different water restriction levels and fed on PCD. It was strongly evident that lambs could tolerate water restrictions of up to 33% of their daily requirement without compromising their production performance.…”

An Update on South African Indigenous Sheep Breeds’ Extinction Status and Difficulties during Conservation Attempts: A Review

“…Water scarcity is a major problem associated with the decrease in sheep performance [63]. Prolonged drought as a result of climate change results in limited water availability for livestock [57].…”