BACKGROUND A major challenge in sheep farming during the grazing season along the coast of south-western Norway is tick-borne fever (TBF) caused by the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum that is transmitted by the tick Ixodes ricinus. METHODS A study was carried out in 2007 and 2008 to examine the prevalence of A. phagocytophilum infection and effect on weaning weight in lambs. The study incl...

Lambs were given a diet of oaten chaff-sucrose-fishmeal (48:48:4, w/w) and either 60 (diet A) or 120 (diet B) g urea/kg sucrose in the diet. All animals were defaunated and half were refaunated. Each group of lambs (faunated and defaunated) was then divided into two groups and given diet A or diet B. Feed intake, wool growth and live-weight change were monitored over a 182 d period. The level o...

A dynamic model for nematode parasites in lambs which links their adult parasite burden with liveweight gain was extended to investigate alternate grazing with cattle to provide relatively larval-free pasture for finishing lambs. Liveweight performance of weaned lambs was tracked fortnightly under rotational grazing using three cattle:sheep ratios, with three initial parasite burdens and two in...

I . In order to establish whether or not there is a change in the relative rates of anabolism and catabolism of amino acids in the livers of lambs as they mature, a study has been made in isolated perfused livers obtained from foetal, suckling and ruminating lambs. The livers were perfused in a recirculating system and a mixture of amino acids (casein hydrolysate) was infused as substrate in th...

effects of partial docking on feedlot performance and body fat characteristics were studied in a fat-tailed sheep breed. thirty-eight male lambs with an average weight of 4.44 ± 0.48 were randomly divided into two groups. the lambs in one group were partially docked at 3-4 h after birth, using rubber rings, and the lambs in another group remained intact (control). after weaning, 20 male lambs f...

Data were collected on 130 intact male lambs fed diets based on roughages supplemented with fish meal, soybean meal, or corn gluten-blood meal and slaughtered at 43 kg live weight. A nonsupplemented group served as a control. The lambs represented Romanov (R), Finnsheep (F), a new breed developed in Canada (DLS), Coopworth (C), and Suffolk (S), three first crosses of DLS with R, F, and Booroola...

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of unsaturated fatty acids supplementation on growth performance and carcass characteristics of finishing lambs. Thirty-two finishing Afshari lambs (initial weigh 58 ± 5 kg and 8 mo age) were used in a completely randomized design with 4 treatments (slaughtered in time series) and 8 lambs/treatment for the final 30 d before slaughter. The sla...

The aim of the present study was to analyze the live weight, body length, and chest perimeter in Blackhead Pleven lambs at an early age with a view to their future use as prognostic indicators of growth performance. The study was conducted with 46 lambs. It found out that at birth and weaning the singletons had higher live weight and higher average daily weight gain in comparison with the twins (P

The influence of body weight at breeding on reproductive response to one and two artificial inseminations (AI) of fresh extended semen was assessed in 195 crossbred ewe lambs selected for early breeding and compared with 159 adult ewes, all housed indoors in a controlled environment. In six trials, ewe lambs and adult ewes in progestogen-induced estrus were inseminated 55 to 57 h after sponge r...

Previous research on impedance measurements for the prediction of carcass composition was predominantly carried out on animals that varied widely in body weight, breed, or sex. The high accuracy for the estimated lean or fat mass was mainly obtained by including the body weight in the regression equations. The objective of this study was the prediction of carcass composition in lambs of similar...