The impact of environmental temperature on ewe reproduction, adaptive responses during insemination, and productive characteristics of the lambs obtained from them
Abstract
The reproductive function of ewes and the development of their offspring are largely influenced by their clinical condition and the temperature of the environment. The maximum temperature values have significantly increased over the last two decades, making climate change a pressing issue for sheep breeding worldwide, including Ukraine. The consequences of exposure to high temperatures of the outside air, above all, in the mating season, can be marked by a significant increase in the heat load on the body of the brood stock, a decrease in clinical indicators and reproductive capacity. On the other hand, the current understanding of how these components interact is insufficient, which conditions the relevance of this work. In order to determine the effective terms of insemination of sheep in the mating season of 2021, taking into account the terms of insemination and the characteristics of the outside air temperature, three technological groups of ewes were formed, which were in the same flock and were artificially inseminated with freshly obtained sperm from the same breeders in August–September: from August 15 to August 27; from August 28 to September 9 and from September 10 to September 21. It was discovered that ewes inseminated between August 28th and September 9th were less adaptable to environmental conditions, experiencing increased daily fluctuations of body temperature, pulse and breathing rates, stillborn lambs, cases of abortion, and decreased preservation of young animals, including ewe lambs, which are highly valuable in breeding – by 15.8% and 10.9% concerning the initial and final phases of the insemination period. However, the young lambs born from ewes inseminated between August 15th and August 27th had the highest survival rate until weaning due to better survival of ewe lambs compared to those inseminated during later phases of the mating season against the background of a lower percentage of output of rams until the moment of weaning against ewes that were inseminated from August 28 to September 9. It has been shown that the growth rate of lambs during early postnatal development varies depending on the timing of their mothers' insemination. Ewes inseminated between August 15th and 27th produced lambs with the highest weight at 90 days, reaching 26.81 and 24.18 kg, respectively; 20.1% and 26.8% more than rams, and 19.1% and 18.8% more than female lambs whose mothers were inseminated in the middle and at the end of the breeding season. A similar picture is characteristic of the average daily growth values. It was determined that the formation of clinical indicators, and above all, the body temperature of young animals born from mothers fertilized at the beginning and in the middle of the mating season, was the most intense. The results of this study made it possible to understand the adaptive mechanisms of the response of sheep to changes in environmental temperature, which will be useful in future investigations to determine its effect on the thermopotential and clinical condition of lambs during the first day after birth, which is the most critical.References
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Susic, V., Pavic, V., Mioc, B., Stokovic, I., & Ekert Kabalin, A. (2005). Seasonal variations in lamb birth weight and mortality. Veterinary Archives, 75(5), 375–381.
Tekin, N., Uysal, O., Akcay, O., & Yavaş, İ. (2006). Effects of different taurine doses and freezing rate on freezing of ram semen. Ankara Universitesi Veteriner Fakultesi Dergisi, 53, 179–184.
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Zapasnikiene, B. (2002). The effect of age of ewes and lambing season on litter size and weight of lambs. Veterinarija ir Zootechnika, 19(41), 112–115.
Abecia, J. A., Arrébola, F., Macías, A., Laviña, A., González-Casquet, O., Benítez, F., & Palacios, C. (2016). Temperature and rainfall are related to fertility rate after spring artificial insemination in small ruminants. International Journal of Biometeorology, 60(10), 1603–1609.
Arrébola, F., Sánchez, M., López, M. D., Rodríguez, M., Pardo, B., Palacios, C., & Abecia, J. A. (2016). Effects of weather and management factors on fertility after artificial insemination in Florida goats: A ten-year study. Small Ruminant Research, 137, 47–52.
Dixit, S. P., Dhillon, J. S., & Singh, G. (2001). Genetic and non-genetic parameter estimates for growth traits of Bharat Merino lambs. Small Ruminant Research, 42(2), 101–104.
Dixon, A. B., Knights, M., Winkler, J. L., Marsh, D. J., Pate, J. L., Wilson, M. E., & Inskeep, E. K. (2007). Patterns of late embryonic and fetal mortality and association with several factors in sheep. Journal of Animal Science, 85(5), 1274–1284.
Gharibzadeh, Z., Riasi, A., Ostadhosseini, S., Hosseini, S. M., Hajian, M., & Nasr-Esfahani, M. H. (2015). Effects of heat shock during the early stage of oocyte maturation on the meiotic progression, subsequent embryonic development and gene expression in ovine. Zygote, 23(4), 573–582.
Gibbons, A. E., Fernandez, J., Bruno-Galarraga, M. M., Spinelli, M. V., & Cueto, M. I. (2019). Technical recommendations for artificial insemination in sheep. Animal Reproduction, 16(4), 803–809.
Hansen, P. J. (2009). Effects of heat stress on mammalian reproduction. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 364(1534), 3341–3350.
Hashem, N. M., Elzarkouny, S. Z., Taha, T. F., & Abo-Elezz, Z. R. (2015). Oestrous response and characterization of the ovulatory wave following oestrous synchronization using PGF2α alone or combined with GnRH in ewes. Small Ruminant Research, 129, 84–87.
Joy, A., Dunshea, F. R., Leury, B. J., Clarke, I. J., DiGiacomo, K., & Chauhan, S. S. (2020). Resilience of small ruminants to climate change and increased environmental temperature: A review. Animals, 10(5), 867.
Kovačić, M., Đuričić, D., Sudarić Bogojević, M., Krčmar, S., Dobos, A., & Samardžija, M. (2023). Infuence of climatic elements on the reproductive traits of Romanov sheep in the Bilogora region, Croatia. Veterinarska Stanica, 54(4), 375–381.
Magawana, M., Dugmore, T. J., de Villiers, J. F., & Gcumisa, S. T. (2021). Effect of lambing season, year, sex and birth status on weaning and post-weaning growth performance of Merino lambs. Applied Animal Husbandry and Rural Development, 14(1), 61–68.
Marai, I. F. M., El-Darawany, A. A., Fadiel, A., & Abdel-Hafez, M. A. M. (2007). Physiological traits as affected by heat stress in sheep – A review. Small Ruminant Research, 71(1–3), 1–12.
Martínez-Paredes, E., Ródenas, L., Pascual, J. J., & Savietto, D. (2018). Early development and reproductive lifespan of rabbit females: Implications of growth rate, rearing diet and body condition at first mating. Animal, 12(11), 2347–2355.
Notter, D. R., Borg, R. C., & Kuehn, L. A. (2005). Adjustment of lamb birth and weaning weights for continuous effects of ewe age. Animal Science, 80(3), 241–248.
Ozawa, M., Tabayashi, D., Latief, T. A., Shimizu, T., Oshima, I., & Kanai, Y. (2005). Alterations in follicular dynamics and steroidogenic abilities induced by heat stress during follicular recruitment in goats. Reproduction, 129(5), 621–630.
Putri, C. D., Ismudiono, & Poetranto, E. D. (2021). The effect of the different artificial insemination time periods on the pregnancy rate of Sapudi ewes. World’s Veterinary Journal, 11(3), 469–473.
Rizal, M., Peternakan, J., & Pertanian, F. (2006). Fertility of frozen thawed semen from ejaculation and frozen-thawed spermatozoa from cauda epididymis of garut rams. Jurnal Sain Veteriner, 24(1), 49–57.
Santolaria, P., Yániz, J., Fantova, E., Vicente-Fiel, S., & Palacín, I. (2014). Climate factors affecting fertility after cervical insemination during the first months of the breeding season in Rasa Aragonesa ewes. International Journal of Biometeorology, 58(7), 1651–1655.
Sevi, A., & Caroprese, M. (2012). Impact of heat stress on milk production, immunity and udder health in sheep: A critical review. Small Ruminant Research, 107(1), 1–7.
Shakhova, Y. Y., Paliy, A. P., Paliy, A. P., Shkromada, O. I., Musiienko, Y. V., & Bondarenko, I. V. (2021). Influence of ways to thaw bull sperm on its quality. Problems of Cryobiology and Cryomedicine, 31(3), 277–282.
Simmonds, R. C. (2017). Chapter 4. Bioethics and animal use in programs of research, teaching, and testing. In: Weichbrod, R. H., Thompson, G. A. H., Norton, J. N. (Eds.). Management of animal care and use programs in research, education, and testing. Second edition. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton. Pp. 1–28.
Solomon, S., Qin, D., Mannin, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K. B., Tignor, M., & Miller, H. L. (2007). Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press.
Spencer, T. E., Johnson, G. A., Bazer, F. W., & Burghardt, R. C. (2004). Implantation mechanisms: Insights from the sheep. Reproduction, 128(6), 657–668.
Susic, V., Pavic, V., Mioc, B., Stokovic, I., & Ekert Kabalin, A. (2005). Seasonal variations in lamb birth weight and mortality. Veterinary Archives, 75(5), 375–381.
Tekin, N., Uysal, O., Akcay, O., & Yavaş, İ. (2006). Effects of different taurine doses and freezing rate on freezing of ram semen. Ankara Universitesi Veteriner Fakultesi Dergisi, 53, 179–184.
Van Wettere, W. H. E. J., Kind, K. L., Gatford, K. L., Swinbourne, A. M., Leu, S. T., Hayman, P. T., & Walker, S. K. (2021). Review of the impact of heat stress on reproductive performance of sheep. Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, 12, 26.
Wallace, J. M., Shepherd, P. O., Milne, J. S., & Aitken, R. P. (2021). Perinatal complications and maximising lamb survival in an adolescent paradigm characterised by premature delivery and low birthweight. PLoS One, 16(11), e0259890.
Yilmaz, O., Denk, H., & Bayram, D. (2007). Effects of lambing season, sex and birth type on growth performance in Norduz lambs. Small Ruminant Research, 68(3), 336–339.
Zapasnikiene, B. (2002). The effect of age of ewes and lambing season on litter size and weight of lambs. Veterinarija ir Zootechnika, 19(41), 112–115.
Published
2023-07-03
How to Cite
Korkh, I. V., Boiko, N. V., PomitunІ. A., Paliy, A. P., Pavlichenko, O. V., Negreba, Y. V., Rysovanyi, V. I., & Siabro, A. S. (2023). The impact of environmental temperature on ewe reproduction, adaptive responses during insemination, and productive characteristics of the lambs obtained from them . Regulatory Mechanisms in Biosystems, 14(3), 358-364. https://doi.org/10.15421/10.15421/022353
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