Review of lamb mortality data
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The following table is a compilation for refereed publications reporting actual lamb losses in various flocks and breeds.
| Table 1. Lamb death losses reported in the literature in research flocks. |
Reference |
Breed |
Death loss of lambs born alive, % |
Lambs born alive per ewe lambing |
Hight and Jury, 1970 |
Romney, Border Leicester and crosses |
9.0 to 17.3 |
1.1a |
Dalton et al., 1980 |
9 breeds from Perendale to Merino |
9.7 to 32.2 |
1.2a,b |
Johnston et al., 1999 |
Greyface, Suffolk-Cheviot |
9.4 |
1.5 |
Wassmuth et al., 2002 |
Rhönschaf, German Blackface |
10.3 |
1.2 |
Oltenacu and Boylan, 1981 |
Finnsheep, Minnesota 100, Suffolk, Targhee |
14.9 |
1.6 |
Matos et al., 2000 |
Rambouillet, Finnsheep |
21.4a |
2.0a |
Hulet et al., 1984 |
Polypay |
22.9c |
1.4c |
Carson et al., 2002 |
Texel, Rouge de l’Ouest |
24.4 |
1.8 |
aIncludes lambs born dead. |
bCalculated assuming multiple-born lambs were twins; actual value would be somewhat higher. |
cMay include lambs born dead. |
Reference List
Carson, A. F., L. W. McClinton, and R. W. J. Steen. 2002. Effects of Texel or Rouge de l'Ouest genes in lowland ewes and rams on ewe prolificacy, lamb viability and weaned lamb output. Anim. Sci. 68:69-78.
Dalton, D. C., T. W. Knight, and D. L. Johnson. 1980. Lamb survival in sheep breeds on New Zealand hill country. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 23:167-173.
Hight, G. K., and K. E. Jury. 1970. Hill country sheep production II. Lamb moratility and birth weights in Romney and Border Leicester x Romney flocks. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 13:735-752.
Hulet, C. V., S. K. Ercanbrack, and A. D. Knight. 1984. Development of the Polypay breed of sheep. J. Anim. Sci. 581:15-24.
Johnston, S. D., R. W. J. Steen, D. J. Kilpatrick, D. E. Lowe, and D. M. B. Chestnutt. 1999. A comparison of sires of Suffolk and Dutch Texel breeds and ewes of Greyface, Suffolk Cheviot and Dutch Texel breeds in terms of food intake, prolificacy and lamb growth rates. Anim. Sci. 68:567-575.
Matos, C. A. P., D. L. Thomas, L. D. Young, and D. Gianola. 2000. Genetic analysis of lamb survival in Rambouillet and Finnsheep flocks by linera and threshold models. Animal Science 71:227-234.
Oltenacu, E. A. B., and W. J. Boylan. 1981. Productivity of purebred and crossbred Finnsheep.1. Reproductive traits of ewes and lamb survival. J. Anim. Sci. 525:989-997.
Wassmuth, R., A. Löer, and H.-J. Langholz. 2002. Vigour of lambs newly born to outdoor wintering ewes. Anim. Sci. 72:169-172.
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