Mid- and late-pregnancy ewe shearing affects lamb neonatal reactivity and vigour
Poor lamb survival is an important production and welfare issue, and the lamb must express complex behaviours to successfully transition to life ex-utero. Even under best management practices, sheep husbandry events, such as shearing, yarding and transport can be stressful for animals, and when they take place during pregnancy these stressors could possibly impact the neonate as well as the dam. This study examined the effects of some of the common stressors produced by shearing during pregnancy on neonatal lamb behaviour. Pregnant ewes were either subjected to shearing/cold stress or were handled (sham treatment), during mid- or late-pregnancy (four groups, n = 15 per group). Shorn ewes were wetted using sprinklers on three occasions the week following shearing to exacerbate the effect of cold. Neonatal lamb behaviour was assessed using a separation test and observance of lamb vigour related measures: Latency-to-Bleat; Latency-to-Stand; and Return-to-Ewe times, before and after a cold challenge at 4 °C of 1 h duration. Overall, lambs born to ewes shorn during pregnancy displayed higher Latency-to-Bleat than control lambs (P = 0.04). Mid-pregnancy shearing resulted in shorter Latency-to-Bleat than mid-pregnancy control treatment (P = 0.03). When shearing treatment was applied during late-pregnancy, lamb Return-to-Ewe time was higher than for lambs from ewes treated during mid-pregnancy which was in turn shorter than for control lambs (P = 0.006 & P = 0.04). Regardless of treatment groups, single lambs exhibited higher Latency-to-stand than twin lambs (P = 0.02). Lambs reacted faster and had shorter latencies to display behaviour after a cold challenge than before (P = 0.004). It seems that prenatal stress due to shearing of ewes during pregnancy adversely impacted neonatal behaviours but improved the behavioural responses of lambs after a cold stress challenge. Overall, shearing of ewes during pregnancy affected neonatal lamb behaviour and responses to cold challenge; however, the effects varied depending on litter size and timing of shearing. Differences between treatment groups and particularly between different timing of the stress treatment suggest there may be different mechanisms impacting on neonatal behaviour. Exposure to physiological stressors during pregnancy may improve resilience to these specific stressors. Further work is required to understand the underlying mechanisms leading to the observed changes in lamb behaviour.
The effects of mild prenatal stress during mid- and late-pregnancy, on lamb vigour traits
The datasets include data gathered on both pregnant ewes and newborn lambs. In pregnant ewes we collected, health checks and blood samples which were analysed for glucose and lactate before and after the stress treatments. In newborn lambs we collected data relating to vigour traits such as body dimensions, reactivity during a behaviour test and body surface temperature using IRT during a cold challenge.
The effects of mild prenatal stress during mid- and late-pregnancy, on lamb vigour traits
Shearing during pregnancy has been shown to increase lamb birthweight but the underlying mechanisms remain unknown.
This thesis aims to examine the effects of prenatal husbandry-like and cold stressors during mid- (pregnancy day 85–95) and late-pregnancy (pregnancy day 120–130) on lamb vigour traits. The long-term effects of prenatal mild stress on lamb vigour traits were assessed using lamb growth and body dimensions, neonatal behaviour and reactivity after a cold challenge and the lamb’s thermoregulatory abilities when exposed to cold. Maternal glucose response to the stressors and lamb metabolic responses were also examined.
It was hypothesized that increased birthweights were a result of a maternal stress response to the husbandry-like stressors involved with shearing, particularly handling, and/or the subsequent cold exposure of shearing. It was also hypothesized that this maternal stress response would impact on lamb vigour traits such as behaviour and thermoregulation. This thesis examined the effects of a range of mild stressors commonly experienced by ewes during husbandry procedures during mid-pregnancy (pregnancy day 85–95) or during late-pregnancy (pregnancy day 120–130) such as yarding, handling, shearing, transport as well as cold exposure. The effects of these stressors on lamb vigour traits were assessed using a separation test for reactivity, before and after a 1 hr separation and cold challenge and thermal imaging during the cold challenge to determine the ability of the lamb to maintain body surface temperature.
Shearing during mid-pregnancy increased lamb body dimensions and weight at birth while other stressors did not, which suggests that the causal mechanisms are something other than psychological and cold stress. Cold exposure during both mid- and late-pregnancy (cold exposure and/or cold exposure resulting from shearing) negatively impacted the reactivity levels of newborn lambs by increasing their latency to bleat, stand and return to ewe during a separation test. Cold exposure combined with acute stressors in keeping with husbandry procedures resulted in improved body surface temperature maintenance in newborn lambs when exposed to cold. The presence of effects of mild stressors for both stages of pregnancy on all three lamb vigour traits tested, suggests a number of alternate mechanisms are triggered by maternal-pregnancy stress impacting foetal development. Understanding how to modulate these effects could allow flock management to be modified to improve lamb survival.
Infrared thermal imaging as a method to evaluate heat loss in newborn lambs
Thermal imaging technology has been identified as a potential method for non-invasive study of thermogenesis in the neonatal lamb. In comparison to measurement of the core body temperature, infrared thermography may observe thermal loss and thermogenesis linked to subcutaneous brown fat depots. This study aimed to identify a suitable method to measure heat loss in the neonatal lamb under a cold challenge. During late pregnancy (day 125), ewes were subjected to either shearing (n = 15) or mock handling (sham-shorn for 2 min mimicking the shearing movements) (n = 15). Previous studies have shown an increase in brown adipose tissue deposition in lambs born to ewes shorn during pregnancy and we hypothesized that the shearing treatment would impact thermoregulatory capacities in newborn lambs. Lambs born to control ewes (n = 14; CONTROL) and shorn ewes (n = 13; SHORN) were subjected to a cold challenge of 1 h duration at 4 h after birth. During the cold challenge, thermography images were taken every 10 min, from above, at a fixed distance from the dorsal midline. On each image, four fixed-size areas were identified (shoulder, mid loin, hips and rump) and the average and maximum temperatures of each recorded. In all lambs, body surface temperature decreased over time. Overall the SHORN lambs appeared to maintain body surface temperature better than CONTROL lambs, while CONTROL lambs appeared to have higher core temperature. At 30 min post cold challenge SHORN lambs tended to have higher body surface temperatures than lambs (P = 0.0474). Both average and maximum temperatures were highest at the hips. Average temperature was lowest at the shoulder (P < 0.05), while maximum temperatures were lowest at both shoulder and rump (P < 0.005). These results indicate that lambs born to shorn ewes maintained their radiated body surface temperature better than CONTROL lambs. In conjunction with core temperature changes under cold challenge, this insight will allow us to understand whether increased body surface temperature contributes to increased overall heat loss or whether increased body surface temperature is indeed a mechanism contributing to maintenance of core body temperature under cold challenge conditions. This study has confirmed the utility of infrared thermography images to capture and identify different levels of thermoregulatory capacity in newborn lambs.