REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF CHIOS EWES UNDER AN INTENSIVE BREEDING SYSTEM IN KUWAIT | ||||
| Journal of Animal and Poultry Production | ||||
| Article 13, Volume 27, Issue 7, July 2002, Page 4571-4577 PDF (855.09 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jappmu.2002.255889 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| S. M. A. EI-Nakhla,1; A. Abdel-Azeez2; S. A. S. Al-Khalaf3 | ||||
| 1Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture, Dokki, Giza, Egypt. | ||||
| 2Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafr EI.Sheik, Tanta University, Egypt | ||||
| 3Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources - State of Kuwait | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| A total of 56 imported Chios ewes were bred with Naeemi rams in three mating seasons (summer. winter. autumn). to study the reproductive performance under Kuwait s hot and arid environmental conditions. In each mating season, ewes were joined with rams in the ratio of one ram to 18-20 ewes. The number of lambs born, lambs weaned, birth weight and weaning weight were recorded for each ewe, Lambing and weaning data were used to calculate ewes lambing per ewes joined (fertility), lambs born per ewes lambed (prolificacy), lambs born per ewe joined (lambing rate) and lambs weaned per ewes lambing (weaning rate). The overall means of fertility. prolificacy, lambing rate and weaning rate were 54.76, 219.57, 120.24 and 68.57%. respectively. Autumn mating season produced the best values of reproductive performance among the three breeding seasons. Chios ewes showed the higher (p < 0.01) fertility (63.79%), lambing rate (139.66%), and weaning rate (100%) in autumn season. While in summer mating season. the ewes had higher (P<O.OI) prolificacy (225%) and multiple births (78.57%). In summer mating season, 14 ewes were examined for ovulation rate (OR) by endoscopy. Litter size (LS) was recorded and ova wastage (O'N) was calculated. The overall means of OR, LS and OW were 2.93, 1.86 and 1.07, respectively. The overall means of birth weight and weaning weight were 3.61 and 19.38 kg, respectively with no significant seasonal difference at birth weight. There was a significant (P<O.OI) effect of litter size on the birth and weaning weight. Single lambs were Significantly (P<O.OI) heavier at weaning (22.65 Kg) than twin and triplet lambs (19.15 and 16.31 kg, respectively). There was a distinct seasonal effect, with heavier weaning weights (22.61 kg) occurring in summer-born lambs and lighter weight (17.92 kg) in autumn-born lambs. In conclusion, the results of this study illustrate the potentiality of Chios as a prolific sheep breed (>2.0 lamb/ewe lambed) under intensive lamb production in Kuwait hot arid condition. The results also indicate that autumn mating season was the best in almost all traits studied. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| sheep; performance; ovulation; fertility; litter size; birth and weaning weights | ||||
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