Effect of nutrition from mid-pregnancy to parturition on the live weight of twin-bearing hoggets and the live weight and survival of their lambs

Figures & data

Figure 1.  The effect of nutrition (medium [---] vs ad libitum [—]) from day 85 of pregnancy until parturition on hogget live weight from day 85 of pregnancy (P85) until average lamb age of 29 days (L29) (mean±SE).

Table 1 . The effect of nutrition (medium vs ad libitum) from day 85 of pregnancy until parturition on the mean (±SE) glucose (glucose, mmol/L) and β-hydroxybutyrate (OHB, mmol/L) concentrations of hoggets on day 137 of pregnancy (P137) and 24 h after birth (L1). Within columns, means with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

		Glucose	OHB
	n
P137
Medium	40	3.31±0.09	0.47±0.03
Ad libitum	40	3.49±0.08	0.47±0.03
L1
Medium	20	4.10±0.21	0.69±0.05^b
Ad libitum	20	4.60±0.20	0.48±0.05^a

Table 2 . The effect of hogget nutrition (medium vs ad libitum) from day 85 of pregnancy until parturition on the mean live weight (±SE, kg) of twin lambs at birth (L1), 7 days old (L8), L15, L22 and L29. Data within columns with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

		L1		L8	L15	L22	L29
	n		n
Medium	158	3.73±0.08^a	126	5.61±0.13	7.41±0.17	9.72±0.21	11.18±0.25
Ad libitum	168	4.04±0.08^b	131	5.86±0.13	7.60±0.18	10.07±0.22	11.31±0.26

Table 3 . The effect of treatment (medium vs ad libitum) from day 85 of pregnancy until parturition on the mean (± SE) lamb crown rump length (CRL, cm), thoracic girth (girth, cm), foreleg length (FL, cm) and rear leg length (RL, cm), glucose concentration (mmol/L) and GGT concentration (iU/L). Within columns, means with different superscripts differ significantly (P<0.05).

		CRL	Girth	FL	RL		Glucose	GGT
	n					n
Medium	158	47.87±0.30^a	36.77±0.26	34.98±0.21	35.05±0.19^a	40	6.48±0.26	2163±236
Ad libitum	168	48.75±0.26^b	37.22±0.27	35.34±0.19	35.59±0.19^b	40	6.53±0.27	1752±245