Abstract

1. Maternal Behavior of Najdi Sheep in Saudi Arabia Riyadh S. Aljumaah1,2 and Mohammad A. Alshaikh1 1Department of Animal Production, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, P. O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451. 2Center of Excellence in Biotechnology Research, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451. Abstract Najdi sheep comprise one of the most important local sheep breeds in Saudi Arabia, and is known as its ability to tolerate the harsh environmental conditions. However, disorder in maternal behavior of Najdi ewes was reported by many breeders. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the Najdi ewes’ maternal and lambs’ behaviors. The study was conducted on Shyhanah farm in September 2008 to May 2009. A total of 269 ewes, were utilized in this experiment. Ewes were monitored daily and date, time and type of birth were recorded. Time required to birth and status of ewes during parturition was registered. The behavior of ewes and lambs after birth, mortality and udder status were also characterized. The percentages of twins and triplets were 28.25 and 1.49% respectively and a wide variation of the parturition length was observed (2-90 min), but almost half of all births did not exceeded 10 minutes. Only 11 ewes (4.17%) were faced birth difficulties, and the majority of ewes give birth at sitting position (82.97%). High proportion of refusing kids was observed in this breed (20.85%). However, the majority of ewes (82%) were accepted their neonates and started licking them within one minute or less after gestation. The average duration of licking was 22 minutes. On the other hand, the mortality rate was 8.58%. However, more than 90% of the newborns were able to stand during the first 40 min and 25% of them were able to search and suckle during the first 15 min post partum. Most of the lambs were also suckled one time only (67.08%) in the first few hours post partum. Results of this study, suggested that Najdi ewes have a good maternal ability. Therefore, improving the environment of breeding systems and enhancing health care can improve Najdi production. Keywords: Najdi sheep, Maternal Behavior, Post Partum, Neonate Survival. Table (4): Factors affecting the lamb mortality rate Results Table (1):Factors affecting the neonates acceptance Table (5): Means ±se of fat, protein, lactose, solid non fat(SNF) and somatic cell count (SCC) in healthy and mastitic udders1 Introduction Sheep play an important part of livestock in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nowadays, more than 7 million heads of sheep of different breeds are reared in the kingdom under different production systems (Agriculture year book 2009). Najdi sheep considered to be one of the most popular sheep in the central provinces and was adapted to the desert extremely hot wither and scares of feed and water. In spite of some good characteristics of Najdi sheep, such as high milk production, considerable growth and twining rates, disorders in maternal behavior and high neonatal mortality rate were observed (Abouheif, 1995). However, maternal behavior had a significant influences on birth weight and survival of newborn lambs (Hrdy 2000; Sztych and Chudzicka-Popek, 2005; Gardner et al., 2007). Therefore, rapid seeking, locating and suckling the udder, are essential to survive and early interactions between mother and her newborn are important to create their strong bond (Nowak and Poindron, 2006). This bond is always formed within hours of lambing and continues until the weaning time (Poindron et al. 1993). Thus, mortality rate over 20% could be attributed to different aspects of ewe's influences on lambs (Cloete et al., 1998; Dwyer and Lawrence, 1999). In general, age, parity, litter size, birth weight, body condition score, previous maternal experience, nutrition status during pregnancy, breed, behavior of lamb, production system as well as environmental conditions are considered to be the main factors affecting maternal ability of ewes (Gama et al., 1991; Asante et al., 1999; Gardner et al., 2007; Dwyer 2008). Many studies have demonstrated the importance of both vision and audition in lamb recognition by mother and usually, acoustic, visual and olfactory recognition are achievable as early as 24 h post partum (Terrazas et al., 1999; Ferreira et al. 2000; Searby and Jouventin, 2003). Typically, ewes at birth show specific behavioral patterns such as licking, grooming, and bleats, to form an exclusive olfactory memory for the lamb. The lamb also performs some sequences of behaviors directed toward standing, locating the udder, and sucking. Ewe and lamb differences in behavior could help in developing selection programs to improve the survival of neonates (Dwyer 2008). Specific and reliable measures of ewe maternal behavior have been thoroughly characterized (Dwyer and Lawrence, 2000; Everett-Hincks et al., 2005; Leedy and Alexander, 2007). Recently, a significant decline in Najdi sheep population have been observed, In addition, maternal characteristics and lamb survivability has not been studied in this native sheep. Therefore, the evaluation of maternal characteristics is an essential step towards conservation and improvement of this breed. 1: Colostrum Conclusion Results of this study, suggested that Najdi ewes have a good maternal ability. Therefore, improving the environmental conditions, production systems, and enhancing health care could improve the maternal ability and lamb survival rate of Najdi sheep. Acknowledgments The authors would like to express their appreciation to King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology for funding this work through the research project No GP-25-49. Table (2): Factors affecting the Length of parturition References Abouheif, M.A. 1995. Sheep Management and Production. Dar-Almarikh. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 100-101. Cloete S.W.P., Scholtz A.J., Hoope J.M.P., 1998: A note on separation from one or more lambs in Merino lines divergently selected for ewe multiple rearing ability. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 58, 1-2, 189-195 Dwyer, C. M., Lawrence A. B. 1999. Does the Behaviour of The Neonate Influence on the Expression of Maternal Behaviour in Sheep?. Behaviour 136, 3, 367-389 Dwyer,C.M. & Lawrence,A.B. 2000. Maternal behaviour in domestic sheep (ovisaries): constancy and change with maternal experience. Behaviour, 137, 1391-1413. Dwyer, C. 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Mother-Lamb Acoustic Recognition in Sheep: a Frequency Coding. Proc.R.Soc.Lond.B (2003) 270, 1765–1771 Sztych, D., M. Chudzicka-Popek,. 2005. Behavioural Observations of Different Breeds of Ewes in Post-Natal Period. ISAH 2005 - Warsaw, Poland. Vol (1) 196-199 Terrazas, A., Ferreira, G., Le ´ vy, F., Nowak, R., Serafin, N., Orgeur, P., Soto, R. and Poindron, P. 1999. Do ewes recognize their lambs within the first day postpartum without the help of olfactory cues? Behav.Proc.47,19–29. Table (3): Factors affecting the incidence of Birth difficulties Objectives The main objective of this study was to investigate the behavioral characteristics of Najdi ewes and lambs during and after parturition. Ewes and lambs interaction, survival of neonates, and udder status during the first hours after birth were also evaluated. Materials and Methods The study was conducted on Shyhanah farm (70 km west of Riyadh city) during the period of September 2008 to May 2009. A total of 269 ewes were utilized in this experiment. Age and parity of ewes were ranged from 2 to 8 years and from 1st to 6th parities. Ewes and lambs were monitored daily from 6:00 am to 6:00pm. Date, time and type of birth were also recorded. Time required to birth and status of ewes during parturition was registered. The interaction between ewes and lambs after birth, mortality and udder status were also characterized. Independency test (χ2) was used to study the relationships between the different factors.