EFFECTS OF USING ARTIFICIAL OR NATURAL SUCKLING ON NEWBORN ASSAF LAMBS GENERAL PERFORMANCE AND MORTALITY
Date
2022-01-12
Authors
Halawa, Wael
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
جامعة النجاح الوطنية
Abstract
Raising sheep in Palestine is not only an economic or income generation activity, but also a distinctive trait, cultural and tradition of Palestinian people. Livestock production is an integral part of Palestine’s agricultural sector, which contributes up to 46% of total agricultural income.
The objective of this experiment was to study the effect of different suckling method on lamb’s growth performance and mortality rate.
A total of 97 lambs were used in the study with lambing periods started from October 2020 to January 2021. Ewes’ parities were 1, 2 and 3. Directly after lambing, lambs were randomly distributed according to suckling method into three groups. First group, natural suckling where lambs suckle their mothers (G1, 39 lambs), second group lambs fed completely with milk replacer (G2, 29 lambs), and the third group fed milk replacer at rate of 4 times per day (G3, 29 lambs). Single lambs of G1 were (59%) and 41% twins. Lambs from first, second and third parity were 8, 21 and 28%, respectively.
Single lambs of G2 were 62% while twin lambs were 38%. Lambs from first, second and third parties were 14, 48 and 38%, respectively. However, 69% of G3 were singles. Most of the singles (44%) and twins (21%) lambs were from the second parity. Same trend was for lambs of G2 and G3. After half an hour of lambing, lambs were isolated from their dams and placed in small wooden boxes provided by heaters and given colostrum twice daily. The natural suckling lambs (G1) were kept with their dams for free suckling until weaning at 60 days of age. However, the artificial suckling groups (G2) were isolated from dams and fed milk replacer adlibitum until weaning at 40 days of age. Lambs of the) G3(were isolated from mothers and took their milk replacer through automatic suckling machine 4 times a day half hour each time until weaning at 40 days. Results of this study showed that suckling method had no effect (P>0.05) on weaning weight at age at 40 and 60 days of single lambs. Weaning weights at 40 d were 13.7, 12.83 and 13 kg for lambs in G1, G2 and G3, respectively. The rate of mortality was affected (P<0.05) by suckling method. Mortality rate decreased from 18% in G1 to 7 and 3.5% in G2 and G3, respectively. Most of dead lambs were in single lambs. Liter size and suckling method had no effects (P>0.05) on total weight gain and average daily gain of lambs. Also, mortalities were not affected by these parameters. Sex of lambs and suckling method had no effect (P>0.05) on total weight gain and the average daily gain. Lambs total gain and average daily gain were not affected (P>0.05) by numbers of ewe’s parity. Significant cost effect (P<0.05) were observed by feeding milk replacer to suckling lambs. Cost of milk per lamb was reduced from 120 to 40 USD. It was concluded that significant reduction will be achieved through feeding milk replacers to suckling lambs. However, these reductions are expected from the saving in milk expenses and the significant decrease of lamb’s mortality rate. We recommend to use milk replacer in manage of newborn lambs.
Description
Keywords
Cross bred, Suckling method, lamb’s performance, Growth rate, Mortality rate. Milk replacer