MOTHER'S AGE AND LAMBING TYPE AS INFLUENCIAL FACTORS ON BODY GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF YOUTH SHEEP

C.A. Sava, C. Pascal, N. Zaharia, Roxana Zaharia, T.S. Atanasiu

Abstract
Through this paper the authors have proposed to reveal if and how maternal age and type of birth influences the growth and development of the offspring in sheep. To do this, have been studied a total of 130 sheep of different ages (between 3 and 6 years) together with their lambs, sheep breed belonging to Tigaia (Tzigai) breed, rusty variety. Working methods are commonly used for this type of research, namely: body measurements, weighing and statistical calculations. Following the evaluation of body weight, it was found that at birth, lambs had an average weight of 3.69 kg, at 28 days about 10 kg, and 90 days old lambs had a maximum weight of 16.21 kg, differences by gender and age of mothers. Average daily gain between 0-90 days was 200 g with an average consumption of 4 kg of milk/kg gain and an growth intensity of approximately 170% increase. After conducting statistical analysis, it was found that, in sheep population studied, lambs weight is not significantly affected (p>0.05) by maternal age or type of birth. The factor that influenced significantly (p<0.01) weight of lambs at birth (but not in other age), is lambs gender. In the case of Tigaia sheep, maternal age and type of birth has no significant influence on body development of offspring.

Key words: sheep, body development, factors of influence