Parâmetros produtivos e comportamentais de ovelhas e cordeiros submetidos à restrição energética

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of feeding energy levels during the last third of gestation and lactation on productive and behavioral parameters of ewes and its lambs. The experiment was carried out in the sheep raising sector at the Farm School of UEL from August to September of 2007. It was used 32 adult ewes with 105 days of gestation, average live weight of 57.55 kg and average body condition scores of 3.42 at the beginning of the experiment. The animals were confined in collective corrals, distributed randomly in three treatments: 2.4; 2.2 and 2.0 Mcal of ME/kg of DM. There was an ad libitum supply of the rations during the last third of gestation and lactation. Weaning occurred at 70 days. It was analyzed body weight, score of body condition and milk production of ewes and body weight of the lambs. In the behavioral analysis, maternal events considered were vocalization (VOC), the act of smell and lick the lamb (SLL) and the position of the ewe standing up (ESU). In the analysis of the newborns it was observed latency to stand up (SUL) and to suck for the first time (SFT), total suckling time (TST) and the position of the lamb standing up (LSU). There were no significant differences (P>0.05) for body weight and body condition of ewes at lambing, however, the treatment of 2.4 Mcal enabled better (P<0.05) results for those characteristics at weaning and enable higher gain in weight and body condition scores during the experiment. Severe energetic restriction (2.0 Mcal ME/kg DM) determined lower (P<0.05) average daily milk production. Lambs from treatments 2.4 and 2.2 presented similar weights in all measurements and superior from those in treatment 2.0. Lambs from treatment 2.4 presented higher (P<0.05) average weight gain from birth to weaning. In the behavioral analysis, no significant diet effect (P>0.05) was observed on the evaluated variables. The average occurrences of the maternal events were 71.29%, 84.26%, 94.14% for VOC, SLL and ESU, respectively. The average values of SUL, SFT and TST, in minutes, were 16, 40 and 6, respectively. The average frequency for LSU was 70.25%. It was concluded that energetic restriction upon ewes at the end of gestation and during lactation limits ewes and lambs performance up to weaning. More studies and research must be accomplished in order to evaluate the quality of ewe-lamb relationship.

ASSUNTO(S)

ovino - criação nutrição animal animais - comportamento sheep creation animal nutrition animal behavior

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

Documentos Relacionados