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Breed differences in the expression of maternal care at parturition persist throughout the lactation period in sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2017

H E Pickup  and
C M Dwyer
H E Pickup
Affiliation:
Animal Biology Division, SAC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
C M Dwyer
Affiliation:
Animal Biology Division, SAC, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
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Extract

In the ewe maternal care begins at parturition with grooming of the neonate and cooperation with early sucking attempts (e.g. Shillito-Walser 1978). Subsequently maternal care is expressed through sucking interactions, a close ewe-lamb association and a tendency to seek absent lambs (e.g. Hinch et al 1987). The ewe increasingly controls sucking interactions using a ‘head-up’ posture to signal when the lamb may approach and suck (Lawrence 1984).

Two breeds of sheep, Suffolk and Scottish Blackface, are known to differ in their initial maternal behaviour. Blackface ewes spend longer grooming their lambs, show more cooperation with sucking attempts and less negative behaviour such as aggression and rejection, when compared to Suffolk ewes (Dwyer & Lawrence 1998). The aim of this study was to examine whether these breed differences in the expression of maternal care persist throughout the lactation period.

Type
Theatre Presentations
Information
Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science , Volume 2002 , 2002 , pp. 70
Copyright
Copyright © The British Society of Animal Science 2002

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References

Dwyer, C.M. and Lawrence, A.B., 1998. Variability in the expression of maternal behaviour in primiparous sheep: effect of genotype and litter size. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 58: 311–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinch, G.N., Lecrivain, E., Lynch, J.J., Elwin, R.L., 1987. Changes in maternal-young associations with increasing age in lambs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 17: 305–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, A.B., 1984. The social organisation of Scottish Blackface sheep. Ph.D thesis, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shillito-Walser, E.E., 1978. The development of the maternal-offspring bond in sheep. Applied Animal Ethology 4: 293–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar