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77858

Neonatal lamb behaviour and thermoregulation with special reference to thyroid hormones and phosphorous element: Effect of birth weight and litter size

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

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Tags

Veterinary basic research (Veterinary Histology, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, animal behavior, and animal nutrition).

Abstract

New-born lambs have limited energy reserves and need a rapid access to colostrum to maintain homeothermy and survive. The object of this study was to investigate the importance of neonatal lamb behaviour in the maintenance of its body temperature and survival. The time taken to stand and suck after birth and rectal temperatures were determined in 72 crossbred lambs (progeny of crossing 1/2 Rhamani and 1/2 Finnish). In addition, blood samples were collected at 1, 24 and 72 h after birth. The obtained sera were assayed for thyroid hormones (T3 and T4), known to be involved in heat production and phosphorous element (ph) which is essential for energy metabolism. The obtained results revealed that, low birth weight and triplet lambs were behaviourally less active at birth and had less T3, T4, Ph and body temperatures values over the first 3 days of life than lambs of heavy or medium birth weight and single or twin lambs. Thus, light weight and triplet lambs were highly susceptible to hypothermia and were exposed to high rate of mortality (18.75 and 16.66%) during the neonatal period than other lambs (3.84, 10.00, 4.55, and 9.38 %, respectively). Therefore, the present study concludes that neonatal lamb behaviour, specifically success in standing and obtaining colostrum are extremely important for thermoregulation and survival of the neonate.

DOI

10.21608/jvmr.2008.77858

Keywords

Neonatal, lamb, behaviour, thermoregulation, thyroid hormones, phosphorous, element, Effect, birth weight, litter size

Authors

First Name

R. A.

Last Name

Darwish

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Animal Husbandry Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University

Email

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City

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Orcid

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First Name

S. M.

Last Name

El-Bahr

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Alexandria University

Email

-

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

18

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

11635

Issue Date

2008-03-01

Receive Date

2020-03-17

Publish Date

2008-03-01

Page Start

120

Page End

127

Print ISSN

2357-0512

Online ISSN

2357-0520

Link

https://jvmr.journals.ekb.eg/article_77858.html

Detail API

https://jvmr.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=77858

Order

18

Type

Original Article

Type Code

891

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Veterinary Medical Research

Publication Link

https://jvmr.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Neonatal lamb behaviour and thermoregulation with special reference to thyroid hormones and phosphorous element: Effect of birth weight and litter size

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023