Effect of supplementary milk feeding on growth and survival of Santa Inês lambs

• Autor(a) principal: Mcmanus, Concepta Margaret
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Gomes, Edgard Franco, Paim, Tiago Prado, Louvandini, Helder, Dallago, Bruno, Borges, Barbara Oliveira [UNESP], Zorzan, Aline, Lima, Paulo de Mello Tavares
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1809-68912014000400010&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/127395
• topic: Cassava leaf|Legg shell; Mortality; Weight gain; Casca de ovo; Folha de mandioca; Ganho de peso; Mortalidade

The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of alternative methods of feeding on the performance and mortality rate of suckling lambs. Eighty-four Santa Inês lambs, twins and singles, half male and half female, were used. The animals were divided into three groups: A (control), B (bovine milk) and C (bovine milk plus Multi-mixture). The experiment began when lambs were three weeks old and finished at weaning at 2 months of age. Each animal from group B received 200 mL of bovine milk daily; group C received 200 mL of bovine milk plus 20g of Multi-mixture daily. Weaning Weight (WW) was 10.90, 13.20 and 13.59 kg, respectively for groups A, B and C. Daily Weight Gain (DWG) was 126, 163 and 168 g.day-1 respectively. The mortality rate was higher (p<0.05) in group A than in group B and C. Gender influenced significantly (p<0.05) the DWG and WW. DWG and WW were lower for the animals that died compared to the animals that survived: 7.94 kg against 13.51 kg (WW) and 77 g against 165 g (DWG) respectively. The twins had lower (P<0.05) WW and DWG when compared to the singles. The use of milk-replacers with or without Multi-mixture is effective and it can increase the productivity of the system.