{"title":"Physical Enrichment Enhances Growth in Artificially Reared Lambs.","authors":"Sarah Cowie","doi":"10.1080/10888705.2025.2500980","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Precocious weaning is a common practise in large-scale sheep-dairy farming, despite causing distress and growth checks in lambs. We asked whether provision of physical enrichment objects would guard against growth checks during dairy lambs' first week in an artificial rearing system - arguably the most stressful period for artificially reared lambs. East Friesian Lacaune dairy ewe lambs aged approximately four to seven days were assigned to an Enrichment condition (<i>N</i> = 27) in which an object in the pen was changed daily, or a Control condition (<i>N</i> = 27) in which no object was available. Feeding and housing conditions were identical for both conditions. Lambs in the Enrichment condition experienced greater average daily weight gains (<u>m</u> = .33 kg; SD = .09) than Control-condition lambs (<u>m</u> = .21 kg; SD = .09) over the first week in the artificial rearing system (BF<sub>10</sub> = 3071.15). Thus, provision of physical enrichment may be particularly beneficial for lambs following precocious weaning.</p>","PeriodicalId":56277,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science","volume":" ","pages":"1-10"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2025.2500980","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Precocious weaning is a common practise in large-scale sheep-dairy farming, despite causing distress and growth checks in lambs. We asked whether provision of physical enrichment objects would guard against growth checks during dairy lambs' first week in an artificial rearing system - arguably the most stressful period for artificially reared lambs. East Friesian Lacaune dairy ewe lambs aged approximately four to seven days were assigned to an Enrichment condition (N = 27) in which an object in the pen was changed daily, or a Control condition (N = 27) in which no object was available. Feeding and housing conditions were identical for both conditions. Lambs in the Enrichment condition experienced greater average daily weight gains (m = .33 kg; SD = .09) than Control-condition lambs (m = .21 kg; SD = .09) over the first week in the artificial rearing system (BF10 = 3071.15). Thus, provision of physical enrichment may be particularly beneficial for lambs following precocious weaning.
期刊介绍：
Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science (JAAWS) publishes articles on methods of experimentation, husbandry, and care that demonstrably enhance the welfare of nonhuman animals in various settings. For administrative purposes, manuscripts are categorized into the following four content areas: welfare issues arising in laboratory, farm, companion animal, and wildlife/zoo settings. Manuscripts of up to 7,000 words are accepted that present new empirical data or a reevaluation of available data, conceptual or theoretical analysis, or demonstrations relating to some issue of animal welfare science. JAAWS also publishes brief research reports of up to 3,500 words that consist of (1) pilot studies, (2) descriptions of innovative practices, (3) studies of interest to a particular region, or (4) studies done by scholars who are new to the field or new to academic publishing. In addition, JAAWS publishes book reviews and literature reviews by invitation only.
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