A study on the link between the temperaments and the maternal experience of the dairy ewes
2009
Dimitrov, I., Agricultural Institute, Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) | Peeva, Zh., Agricultural Institute, Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) | Dzhorbineva, M., Agricultural Institute, Stara Zagora (Bulgaria)
The aim of this study was to assess the link between the fear sensitivity level the temperament and the maternal experience of the dairy ewes with double and triple maternity. The temperament was determined in advance for all the animals of the Bulgarian dairy synthetic population in the herd of the Agricultural Institute – Stara Zagora by 1. the method during machine milking in the milking parlour, 2. a system of fear inducing and learning tests and 3. assessment of the passively defending behaviour according the method of Lankin. The ewes were divided into two types according the rank assessment: calm - C – resistant to fear provoking stimulus which reacted adequately to the coping tests and nervous N – which exhibited strong fear sensitivity and inadequacy to the coping tests. Twenty-five ewes with results at their 2nd and 3rd lambing were included in the study. At the 2nd plus 3rd lambing 23 cases of lambing of type C ewes and 22 ewes with type N were observed. The ewes were analogously divided by number of lambs born delivered singles or twins during one month. All ewes delivered their first lambs at 2 years of age. Their 2nd and 3rd lambing were between 3 and 5 years of age. The test Separation of the new-born lamb from the mother was carried out with 38 ewes of equal ages at the 2nd lambing and 29 ewes at the 3rd lambing. Among them representative ewes from both temperament types, C and N, with data for the 2nd and 3rd lambing were chosen. For the assessment of the link between the temperament and maternal selectivity the test selectivity to stranger/own lamb was used. It was obtained that when the offspring was separated from the mother, the type C ewe-dams with maternal experience showed stable maternal responsiveness. The ewes of the type N temperament were non-stable in their joining to the newborn lamb, which was due to their higher fear sensitivity.
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