Authors:T. Bekele , E.B. Otesile , O.B. Kasali
Int. Volume 9, Issue 3 , Pages 209-215, December 1992
Abstract
The influence of passively acquired immunity on neonatal lamb mortality was studied on-station in 628 lambs in Ethiopian highland sheep in 1989 and 1990. Mean serum immunoglobulin (Ig) and protein concentrations
were 3.96±0.77 and 8.39±0.62 g/100 ml, respectively, and significantly (< 0.05) affected by season and year of lambings, but not by litter size, lamb sex and lamb weight (P>0.05). Failure and partial failure of Ig transfer from dam to lambs were observed in 11 (1.8%) and 93 (15.3%) lambs, respectively, a total of 104 lambs (17.1%). There was no significant (P>0.05) difference between mortalities in lambs having failure and partial failure of Ig transfer on the one hand and adequate transfer on the other. However, six (54.5%) of 11 lambs with failure of Ig transfer died, indicating that their chance of survival was less than others. Major causes of mortalities during the neonatal period (i.e., from birth up to 30 days of age) were starvation-mismothering complex (45.5%), pneumonia (21.2%), enteritis (15.2%) and others (18.1%) in 33 necropsied lambs. Improvement in health management practice including careful nursing and foster mothering are suggested to reduce mortality.